Donald Trump officially “out of his mind” after unhinged speech praising Capitol rioters

Donald Trump held a rally in Dayton, Ohio, this weekend, and many believe his speech solidified that the presumed GOP presidential nominee has continued to descend further into madness.

Trump has been slammed for opening his speech by referring to the January 6th Capitol rioters as “hostages” of the U.S. prison system.

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The former lieutenant governor of Georgia said he’d be disappointed if Nikki Haley chooses to endorse Donald Trump.

“You see the spirit from the hostages, and that’s what they are, is hostages,” Trump said after the rally opened with a song by The J6 Prison Choir, with whom Trump collaborated.

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“They’ve been treated terribly and very unfairly, and you know that, and everybody knows that,” Trump continued. He then called them “unbelievable patriots” as he promised to begin helping them on his first day in office.

Trump: Well thank you very much, and you see the spirit from the hostages, and that's what they are. Hostages. We’re going to work with the people to treat those unbelievable patriots, and they were unbelievable patriots pic.twitter.com/zMAjknv3xc

— Acyn (@Acyn) March 16, 2024

Robert Reich, a Berkeley professor and the secretary of labor under Bill Clinton, called Trump “out of his mind” for these statements, among others, such as when he referred to migrants as “animals” and “not people.”

“Trump is clearly desperate,” Reich wrote. “He knows that his future freedom and his fortune both depend on winning in November. He has no qualms about turning Americans against Americans to achieve this goal. Apparently he is even willing to fuel violence, a second civil war.”

Reich called Trump a “monster” and also praised his former Vice President Mike Pence for showing “enough integrity to refuse to endorse” him. “If other current and former Republican officials had an ounce of integrity, they would do the same,” Reich said.

In response to Trump’s Ohio speech, Pence called it “unacceptable” to refer to the Capitol rioters as hostages.

“I think it’s very unfortunate at a time that there are American hostages being held in Gaza,” Pence told Margaret Brennan while appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation, “that the president or any other leaders would refer to people that are moving through our justice system as hostages.”

“I was there on January 6th,” Pence continued. “I’ve no doubt in my mind, Margaret, that some people were caught up in the moment and that entered the Capitol, and they’re certainly entitled to due process of law for any non-violent activities that day, but the assaults on police officers, ultimately an environment that claimed lives is something that I think was tragic that day, and I’ll never diminish it.”

David Corn, DC bureau chief of Mother Jones and an MSNBC analyst, wrote on X of Trump’s praise of the rioters: “That this doesn’t disqualify him within the GOP or among the tens of millions of voters who have voted for him shows how deep the rot goes.”

This guy calls the rioters who beat up cops in an attempt to overturn a legitimate election “unbelievable patriots.” That this doesn’t disqualify him within the GOP or among the tens of millions of voters who have voted for him shows how deep the rot goes. https://t.co/rDOWqxZYzc

— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) March 16, 2024

Popular X account “Spiro’s Ghost” made similar points, writing that “In a sane America not overrun by millions of lunatic cult members who worship a completely deranged conman, this single insane utterance would be TOTALLY disqualifying.”

In a sane America not overrun by millions of lunatic cult members who worship a completely deranged conman, this single insane utterance would be TOTALLY disqualifying. https://t.co/HFq6a5f1Ob

— Spiro’s Ghost (@AntiToxicPeople) March 16, 2024

Trump has also been called out for continuing his pattern of jumbling and mispronouncing his words, leaving many to question his mental fitness for office.

Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann said Trump is “hallucinating and on the verge of complete cognitive collapse.”

Btw not only is Trump hallucinating and on the verge of complete cognitive collapse but if you can bear to listen to it, the second time, he says "OBABA" https://t.co/KEJ0e1e75W

— Keith Olbermann⌚️ (@KeithOlbermann) March 16, 2024

Phenomic paraphasia – when you stop saying actual words or syllables and instead say things that SOUND like them https://t.co/6mqiaSFXeT

— Keith Olbermann⌚️ (@KeithOlbermann) March 16, 2024