The Madness of King Donald. The 25th Amendment Watch List, Seventh Edition. Night of Camp David

From Amazon:

Night of Camp David Kindle Edition

by Fletcher Knebel (Author)  Format: Kindle Edition

4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars   (863)

---

 “What would happen if the president of the U.S.A. went stark-raving mad?” Back by popular demand, The New York Times calls the 1965 bestselling political thriller by the author of Seven Days in May, “A little too plausible for comfort.”
 
How can one man convince the highest powers in Washington that the President of the United States is dangerously unstable—before it’s too late?
 
Senator Jim MacVeagh is proud to serve his country—and his president, Mark Hollenbach, who has a near-spotless reputation as the vibrant, charismatic leader of MacVeagh’s party and the nation. When Hollenbach begins taking MacVeagh into his confidence, the young senator knows that his star is on the rise.

But then Hollenbach starts summoning MacVeagh in the middle of the night to Camp David. There, the president sits in the dark and rants about his enemies, unfurling insane theories about all the people he says are conspiring against him. They would do anything, President Hollenbach tells the stunned senator, to stop him from setting in motion the grand, unprecedented plans he has to make America a great world power once again.

MacVeagh comes away from these meetings increasingly convinced that the man he once admired has lost his mind. But what can he do? Who can he tell?

Sound sort of familiar?

December 12, 2025

I'm reminded that as the Third Reich crumbled around him, Hitler concluded that the German people just weren't worthy of him.

And then there's this:

Q: Can you explain what's going on with the bandages on Trump's hand?

LEAVITT: We've given you an explanation. The president is literally constantly shaking hands.

Machinegun Lips Leavitt's statement is a dog that doesn't hunt.  At this point, it's clear that there's something going on.  The constant bruising on the hand suggest pretty strongly that Trump is frequently getting a picc line to his hand.  He's getting IVs, probably, but for what? 

He also recently had an MRI, and speaks of getting cognitive tests.  Somebody is monitoring him pretty closely medically, and Trump himself doesn't seem to know fully why.

Cont:

A blog entry on the same topic:

The Alarming Signs of a President in Decline

December 15, 2025

Trump's a complete a**hole.

cont:

Q: A number of Republicans have denounced your statement on Rob Reiner. Do you stand by it?

TRUMP: Well, I wasn't a fan of his at all. He was a deranged person as far as Trump is concerned.

December 17, 2025

The National Review: 

The president of the United States is a hateful raging lunatic with all the empathy of Jeffrey Dahmer.

A prediction:

I stated here before that Trump would only last 18 months in office.  He hasn't even made 12 yet, and his mind is complete mush.  He has a television address tonight I'm unlikely to watch, but my first prediction, not the one I created the subtitle for, is that it'll be full of rambling praise for himself and blame upon Joe Biden.

It'll also be jam packed with lies.

The bigger prediction, however, is this.  I'm going to restate the 18 month prediction as an outer date.  He's really declining rapidly.  He'll make it to 2026, probably, but my guess right now is not past the end of March.  Part of this will depend upon how close he gets us to war with Venezuela and how utterly unhinged he becomes regarding his domestic opposition.

My next prediction is that this will completely shatter the GOP.  The GOP is going to get pounded in the 2026 election and become utterly unglued.  It won't go away, but it'll take it three or four years to rebuilt itself into something.  

December 21, 2025

Trump: I took cognitive tests. By the way, not easy. The first question is like what is this and they show a lion, giraffe, fish and a hippopotamus. And they say which is the giraffe.

Hmmmm. . . 

I don't follow Rod Dreher because I think he slipped off the rails some time ago, but there's no real denying he's one of the real intellects of the National Conservatives/Christian Nationalist whom I think largely have the levers of power in the Trump Administration right now.  So I was surprised when I ran across something he posted on Twitter.

Dreher hasn't changed his views on things, and he defends Trump on some thing I think Trump is actually completely wrong on, such as the recently released National Security Strategy (which makes sense form Dreher's point of view, because of his beliefs), but regarding Trump himself, after his comments on Rob Reiner:

Something is very, very wrong with this man. A father and mother were murdered by their son, most likely, and Trump makes it about himself.

Its been obvious for years that something is deeply wrong with Trump.  Indeed, given his overall character, something has been wrong with Trump for decades, but his earlier character flaws are now being overtaken by his dementia.  

I note Dreher here as I think what we can begin to see pretty clearly is the move to replace Trump with Vance.  We predicted that Trump would be out within 18 months, and its starting to happen right now.

Dreher, who was one of the first Christian Nationalist and National Conservatives, is outright stating that Trump is mentally ill.  He's also attacking the MAGA public figures like Fuentes.  Erika Kirk is endorsing Vance for President in 2028.  Mitt Romney, whom conservatives regard as the last real conservative Republican candidate for the White House, is writing op eds urging taxation.

Now, not all those things are related, but some of them are.  It's clear that Republicans are beginning to maneuver for the 2028 election and they're leaving Trump behind.  Romney is old at 78, but he's not demented and he's younger than Biden was when he ran for reelection and he's younger than Trump, whose most radical MAGA base is urging to unconstitutionally run again in 2028.

Related to that, Vance is only in the administration as he wants to run in 2028.  He's tainted with his association with Trump and the stench that creates is getting worse and he knows it.  He's also the only real National Conservative who stands a chance of being elected in 2028.  Indeed, there were never any others who stood a chance.  Marco Rubio is a conservative, but not a National Conservative.  Elise Marie Stefanik is a conservative, not a National Conservative, as well.  Marjorie Taylor Greene, who doesn't stand a chance, is a far right wing populist.  Kevin Roberts, who is behind the scenes and somethat close to Vance, is definitely a National Conservative but he has no chance.  Stephen Miller is loathsome.

So now we're seeing the jockeying for position, but we're seeing more than that.  Some Republicans are finally outright condemning Trump over things he says.  Massie and Rand Paul are outright defying him with no real consequences.  Republicans who don't want to be part of a 2026 and 2028 bloodbath are bailing out of Congress.

Behind the scenes, there has to be a raging debate about how much longer the GOP lets Trump carry on.  He's been the functional equivalent of World War One naval dazzle camouflage which has served their interests well. . .up until now.  Now he's drawing fire.  He falls asleep in public.  He rambles on and sounds rough, while making statements that are often downright weird.  He insults vast numbers of people for petty reasons.  He's causing inflation in many areas of the economy through his beliefs on taxes, while destroying the economy for those who supported him in other areas.  

And he's on the verge of getting us into war.

While all that's going on, of course, his administration has now gone so far in trying to keep the government's files on perverted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein secret its reached the absurd level. Everyone knows that Trump and Epstein were friends.  The lingering news story has served to remind people that Trump has a sexual track record which necessarily raises questions, given his association with Epstein, as well as John Casablancas.  Old information that was re-released from the Epstein files serves to remind that one of Epstein's teenage victims ended up as a contestant in one of Trump's pageants.  Trump sent Epstein, although he denies it a hand drawn birthday card featuring what appears to be the immature body of a teenage girl, with his signature drawn across where the reproduction organs are, and with a poem emphasizing enigma and shared secrets.

MAGA victims of TDS of course still desperately want to believe that there's no there, there, but something is there, if only the names of people who may have participated in the abuse of up to 1,000 girls and who are significant figures.  Maybe Trump isn't listed amongst them, but there's some reason his administration is trying to desperately to keep this stuff secret.

My guess would be that Vance has no idea what it is.  But Vance, Kirk, Roberts and Dreher all know that if Trump rides things out to 2028 his increasing dementia combined with the risk of scandal is just too high.  If this blows up, and its starting to, it'll wreck the GOP so completely there won't be one in 2028.

Kirk and Dreher are preparing the groundwork now.  Mentioning that what Trump is doing is vile is part of that.  Mentioning that Vance should run in 2028 is as well.

Vance will be sworn in as the President before June.

December 22, 2025

These things are just  nuts:

cont:

We need Greenland for national protection. They have a very small population…They say that Denmark was there 300 years ago with a boat. Well, we were there with boats too I’m sure.

Donald Trump. 

The United States isn't 300 years old. . . 

And that small population comment is just the sort of thing a New Yorker would say . . . 

And then there's this gem. Trump wants a fleet of twenty five battleships built.  Battleships have been obsolete for decades.

Everyone knows they're nuts, and yet they allow him to just charge on with this lunacy.

The man is not well, and they know it.

cont:

It appears the battleships will not be battleships.

Still, Trump's absolute megalomania in which everything must be named for him is clearly a sign of mental illness.

December 23, 2025

We’re bringing down drug price by 1000%, 1200%, 1300%, 1400%. A drug that sells for $10 in London is costing $130 in New York. We are bringing it down to $20. You can do your own math. But it’s 2000%, 3000%

Donald Trump. 

December 26, 2025

A Christmas rant from somebody who is clearly mentally unhinged:

By this point, it's clear that Trump, if not full blown insane, goes into fits of raving insanity.  We should all be scared as there may come a day when he goes from ranting into action.  

The real question at this point is why the cabinet has not removed him.  His unfitness for office, or anything else, is completely apparent, so there's a reason behind that.

The reason might be J. D. Vance.

In spite of Trump's propagandized reputation, Trump isn't a lot of the things he's claimed to be.  He's not smart, he's not an economic genius, he's not a conservative, and he's not a recognizable Christian.  He is a good salesman, or was, who has made his name into a brand. He's also a self serving narcissists. As part of his branding, he's managed to convince a fair number of people that he is what he clearly isn't.

But he is useful for certain elements that back him.  Once he's gone, the NAM, the NatCons, and the Dixiecrats really don't have everything in common by a long shot.  Vance is a NatCon, not a Dixiecrat, and people like Miller might fear Vance coming in.

The mass defection from the Heritage Society suggests, however, that Vance may have lost his shot.  If Trump is going to be retired people have to support Vance.  The NatCons are falling apart.  

December 31, 2025

Trump announced today that his dumbass triumphal arch will start construction in two months.

This likely needs to go up quicker than planned as the terminal limits of Trump's sanity/end of office/natural life are beginning to roar up into his view.  This will add to the pile of rubble that will need to be hauled off and dumped in the Potomac when he's gone.

Related threads:

Our Petty, Hollow, Squalid Ogre in Chief

 

Our Petty, Hollow, Squalid Ogre in Chief

2028 Election, Part I. The Preview of Coming Attractions Editions.

Last edition:

The Madness of King Donald. The 25th Amendment Watch List, Sixth Edition. The demented panicked Octogenarian edition.

Labels: 2020s, 2025, 25th Amendment Watch List, Donald Trump, Epstein Scandal, Marriage, Mental Health, National Conservatism, Old Age, The Madness of King Donald, The relationship between men and women, Thomas Massie

Friday, November 30, 1945. Executing Germans for ordering the killing of civilian sailors and for directly killing downed airmen.

German U-boat commander Heinz-Wilhelm Eck, age 29, German U-boat , was executed as a war criminal for ordering his crew to shoot the survivors of the Greek merchant ship Peleus in March 1944.

Seems like I've heard of that happening recently . . . 

Rudolf Hess declared he really didn't have amnesia and was prepared to stand trial.

German civilians were executed for killing downed airmen.

The news was full of the return of long absent servicemen.

"Atomic" was already being used as a synonym for powerful.

Even the cartoons dealt with the return of servicemen.

     

Last edition:

Tuesday, November 27, 1945. Slinky first sold.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, China, George C. Marshall, Norway, Personalities, The Cold War, toys, United Nations

Waste Deep in the Big Muddy.

George Washington:   “[I}t is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliance with any portion of the foreign world.”

Lyndon Johnson:  "But we are not about to send American boys 9 or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves."

Donald Trump: "Tonight, I'm pleased to announce that we're taking our military cooperation to even greater heights by formally designating Saudi Arabia as a major non-NATO ally."

What was that, MAGA, about forever wars? 

And why on earth would we want to designate a monarchy that will have a regime changing revolution within the next fifteen years as an formal "ally".

Friend of convenience, that's in the ICU, yes. Ally?

The 2025 Midterms. For the GOP it's June, 1944 and the choices couldn't be more clear.

Yesterday's' election made it clear.

Yesterday, November 4,2025, was metaphorically D-Day, June 6, 1944.  The forces that will destroy you are now present on all flanks. They're on the ground to your south, to your east, and now to your west, and you cannot stop them.

Those who are not besotted by Der Führer know this.  Indeed, they know that the leader is mentally unstable and in irreversible physical decline.  He is, quite frankly, mad and getting worse.  He's surrounded, of course, by seemingly loyal lieutenants. . . not all of whom are really loyal . . . or seem to be.

You can read the situation.  He never had the majority of force, only temporary advantage brought on by shock.  You went along as it seemed that he'd bring along constative values with him.  Because he seemed to do that, even while leading an immoral life and surrounding himself with immoral men, you tolerated deep immoralities, including extra judicial killings and racist round ups.  This seemed to be the price you had to pay, temporarily, in order to restore true conservatism to the country.

But it went too far, and it got too weird, and you were in too deep to do anything about it.  You know that.  You watched him decline into illegality and insanity, and stood by as it got worse and worse.

But you can still save yourself, and your movement.

He had sworn an oath.  He was a Roman Catholic.  He knew the leader was immoral.  He knew the country was committing deeply immoral acts.  He served his country's efforts anyway until the raving madness of Der Führer reached the point where he could not ignore it.  The situation isn't the same, except perhaps metaphorically, in that there is a Roman Catholic, who has taken an oath, who is serving his country, and knows that what is occuring deeply wrong and that the Leader is mad.  He could use, with help, the 25th Amendment.

That will involve deploying something that you never thought you'd see used, and you have to do it.  Some of you on the inside, who are not members of the MAGA SA, have to deploy the 25th Amendment before it's too late.  You can't wait until the Red Army is in Berlin . . . or the mushroom cloud is over the Korean Peninsula, or protestors are shot dead in Portland, or mayor and governors arrested simply for being opponents.

If you do it soon, you have a chance, but by this point only a chance, of making peace with the overwhelming force of the electorate.  If you do that now, or very soon, you can keep on with a conservative government, but not one that is outright insane.  You might be regarded as heroes.  You might save many of your members from November 2026.  You can still make an impact on the country.  

And you might, just might, avoid bloodshed in American streets, or foreign dead from an illegally provoked war, perhaps a nuclear one.

Or, you can decide that Loyalty is Your Honor and go down in complete and utter defeat in November 2026 while your increasingly demented leader rants and decides that you failed, as you weren't sufficiently loyal to him.

Indeed, that's already started, hasn't it? The wild party with barely clad young women, the sycophantic adoration sessions, the purges of the less than loyal.

And, too, the wise are leaving, aren't they?

The 25th Amendment was for the rare and extraordinary.  You know the leader is mad.  You know that this is going to take conservatism down.  You know is madness is resulting in death.  You know that you can act.

His madness is unfortunately not out of the ordinarily for the elderly, which he is.  But to have somebody in such a state of mental decline in power, and grasping for absolute power, is.  He's sick, getting sicker, and seeks complete control.

Will you, to your difficult credit, act to uphold your sworn oaths to the country, and save the nation from a demented autocrat whose decline gets worse every day, or will you abstain and simply try to take the last plane out of Berlin?

Wednesday, November 4, 1925. Now or then?

 A headline we'll be likely to see later today again, about New York and New Jersey.

Last edition:

Tuesday, November 3, 1925. Mitchell's Witness Demands Upheld, New Jersey Ballot, and the evolution of word meaning.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, 1925 Election, Billy Mitchell, Cartoons, Court, English Language, Ku Klux Klan, law, Marriage, New Jersey, Prohibition, The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell, The relationship between men and women

They were careless people.

 

Donald Trump at Mar A Logo's Halloween 1920s themed party.  Seated to Trump's left was an unhappy looking Marco Rubio with Jeanine Pirro looking back.  The event featured scantily clad dancing women, complete with the timeless barely clad woman in a giant champagne glass.

They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.

Donald Trump ought to read a little.  History would be a good start, but also Fitzgerald's great novel.

A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home.

A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.

James Madison, June 27, 1787. 

Monday. October 6, 1975. Ignoring Ford and slides into totalitarian terror.

Only ABC carried a speech by President Ford, the other networks determining not to interrupt programming.

Italo Luder, Acting President of Argentina during a leave of absence by President Isabel Perón, signed Decree 2772, giving the Argentine armed forces authority to "annihilate subversion" by any means necessary against guerilla insurgents.

Sound a bit like Trump?

The Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional of Chile, attempted to assassinate former Interior Minister Bernardo Leighton and his wife Anita, who were in exile in Italy. 

Last edition:

Wednesday, October 1, 1975. Thrilla in Manila.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, boxing, Manila Philippines, Philippines, Safeguard Program, Sports, The Cold War, U.S. Air Force

DoD reauthorizes border service medal.

Hegseth announces establishment of Mexican Border Defense Medal

This story has been a bit inaccurately portrayed, even by the Army.  What's actually occurred is that the Mexican Border Defense Medal that was established on July 9, 1918 for service on the U.S.-Mexico border which did not qualify for the Mexican Service Medal has been reauthorzed.

The original medal included the service periods of May 9, 1916 to March 24, 1917.  The new authorization runs forward from January 20, 2025.

I'm not sure what I think about the old award being brought back for a new mission.

Some surprising news. Popular Wyoming Baby Names for 2024.

Some of these sound downright old timey:

Theodore, Charlotte Lead Wyoming’s Popular Baby Names 05/13/2025 09:04 AM MDT Among Wyoming’s newborns, Theodore was the most popular male name in 2024 with Charlotte as the top female choice, according to the Wyoming Department of Health (WDH). For boys, Theodore was followed by Oliver, Hudson, James, William, Henry, Grayson, Liam, Noah and Waylon. For girls, Charlotte was followed by Eleanor, Emma, Ember, Evelyn, Harper, Amelia, […] The post Theodore, Charlotte Lead Wyoming’s Popular Baby Names appeared first on Wyoming Department of Health.

Wednesday, February 9, 1825. John Quincy Adams chosen as President.

The 1824 Presidential election, which ran from October 26 to December 2, 1824, saw Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and William Crawford run for the oval office.

John C. Calhoun was elected with a comfortable majority of the vote for Vice President. 

However, none of the main contestants for the Presidency held a an electoral vote majority.  On this day in 1825 the House of Representatives voted,with each state delegation casting one voted,  elected John Quincy Adams as President, giving the election to him.

Andrew Jackson was a bufador, so Adams was the right choice.  Unfortunately Jackson (a Democrat, I might add) would revive, and, and come back, Trump like. Indeed Trump, who is also a bufador, admires Jackson, or claims to.

For years, the local Democratic Party here had Jefferson Jackson Days, honoring the supposed founder of the party (who wasn't) and its early populist leader.  Populism was a main element of the Democratic Party, like it currently is of the Republican Party, from Jackson's election through the 1980s, when Reagan's Southern Strategy co opted the Southern Democrats and Rust Belt Democrats, unfortunately.  Now, the GOP is what the Southern Democratic Party had been.

One of the comforting things about knowing history, I might add, is to know that there were prior eras when we acted darned near as stupidly as we currently are.

Last edition:

Thursday, January 27, 1825. Origin of the Trail of Tears.

Labels: 1820s, 1825, James Monroe, Native Americans

Thursday, February 9, 1775. Privileged shortsightedness, then and now.

A joint resolution of Parliament declared:

We find, that a part of your Majesty's subjects in the province of the Massachusetts Bay have proceeded so far to resist the authority of the supreme legislature, that a rebellion at this time actually exists within the said province; and we see, with the utmost concern, that they have been countenanced and encouraged by unlawful combinations and engagements, entered into by your Majesty's subjects in several of the other colonies, to the injury and oppression of many of their innocent fellow-subjects resident within the kingdom of Great Britain, and the rest of your Majesty's dominions

February must be the month for deliberative bodies declaring dumbass things. Goodness knows that the Wyoming Legislature's SJ 2 does. Ironically, those making aristocratic decisions either believe themselves, or in some cases pretend themselves, to be heirs to the American Revolutionaries, when in fact, in some instances at least, they're heirs to the British landed aristocracy. But, in reality, at least some of those voting for SJ2 are much like the House of Lords.  Landed gentry benefiting from the good fortune of their forbearers believing in their own superiority, or that they somehow worked for their position. 

Up the Revolution!

La tierra es de quien la trabaja.  Some of you ought to remember that. . . 

Related threads:

Wyoming Senate demands Congress hand over federal land, including Grand Teton

Saturday, February 4, 1775. Logan's Lament published by the Virginia Gazette.

Last edition:

Saturday, February 4, 1775. Logan's Lament published by the Virginia Gazette.

Friday, July 31, 1942. More Case Blue confusion. Canada establishes the Wrens. Marines depart to invade Guadalcanal.

From Sarah Sundin's blog

Today in World War II History—July 31, 1942: Germans cross River Don in Ukraine. Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service is established; 7000 will serve in the WRCNS as Wrens.

Canada had been reluctant to bring women into naval service.

FWIW, a relative of mine served in the Wrens during the war, even though it had already taken women into the army and the RCAF. For that reason, the Wrens were actually established slightly after the WAVES.

As a perhaps slightly salacious side note, starting in 1943 the Wrens started publishing their own newspaper, the Tiddly Times.  The name came from a British seams nickname for something extra to decorate uniforms, but that was an odd choice of titles for more than one reason.

As a note, it's interesting the extent to which we're reading of the Germans as aggressors trying to conquer the same lands that the Russians are now attempting to conquer 80 years later.

Regarding Case Blue, Hitler reversed his recent order which had taken the 4th Panzer Army away from the attack on Stalingrad and reassigned it, reversing its direction, and creating additional confusion.

The 1st Marine Divisions embarked on US and Australian ships for the invasion of Guadalcanal.    US aircraft bombed Japanese airfields on the island.

Sunday, February 13, 1910. Protesting an oligarchy.

Largescale working class protests occurred in Berlin over the Prussian three class franchise which gave the wealthiest 1/5th of German voters 2/3s of the seats in the German parliament.  Bayonets were used on protestors, but nobody was killed.

This was part of the system which lead to the German revolution of 1918 which brought down the monarchy and lead to the end of World War One, something that our current political overlords may wish to remember, given the current oligarchic nature of the United States.

The name of San Pedro Bay was changed to Los Angeles Harbor.

I hate these geographic name changes.

Last edition:

Tuesday, February 8, 1910. Boy Scouts of America founded.

Labels: 1900s, 1910, 1960s, Boy Scouts, children, Christianity, Muscular Christianity, Protestant, Sic transit Gloria Mundi, Strauss, Teenagers, Youth Organizations