I’ve seen here and there various writers expressing there anxiety about Donald Trump misstatments, his mixing up one opponent with another, one war with another, one dictator with another, etc. As a member of the geriatric club myself, I can feel some degree of understanding, even compassion for another elder who gets his words mixed up. But Trump, and his garbleings and confusions are repulsive. He makes much of President Biden’s senior failings. This is only a variant of his usual attribution to an opponent of his own signature frailties and vices, lying, stealing, selective realities, dementia, incontinence, etc. 

I must wonder though about Trump’s now famous “vermin” pledge made to the mob in New Hampshire: “We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.” 

This list of vermin combines apples and oranges. Yes, communists, Marxists, and radical left thugs might, I suppose, be grouped together. But fascists is a community quite different from the other three, one that includes Trump himself and his cultists. He is thoughtlessly promising to root out those he had in mind when he said after the Charlottesville riot that there were good people on both sides.