President Donald Trump is seemingly losing whatever little impulse control he had before, behaving in childish ways behind closed doors.
Axios reports that Trump has taken to mimicking the mannerisms of some top lawmakers he has been at odds with in recent weeks, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. John McCain.
The president apparently slumps his shoulders and purposely looks lethargic while mocking McConnell. And with McCain, Trump derisively imitates the Arizona Republican’s “thumbs-down” move that he did during a vote on repealing the Affordable Care Act earlier this summer.
.@mikeallen reports that @POTUS has been "physically mocking" @SenJohnMcCain, imitating how he did thumbs-down..1/ https://t.co/lZTodK2ypr
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) September 27, 2017
Trump placed most of the blame for the Senate’s failure to pass repeal-and-replace legislation for Obamacare squarely on McCain. In a radio interview on Monday, Trump said, “You can call it what you want, but that’s the only reason we don’t have it, because of John McCain.”
This is not unfamiliar ground for Trump, who has also used public settings and social media to ridicule those who criticize him.
Earlier this summer, for example, Trump tweeted about Mika Brzezinski, making fun of her appearance and calling her crazy.
I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017
…to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017
The president has also taken to calling North Korea dictator Kim Jong-Un “Rocket Man,” which is precisely what you shouldn’t do to a foreign leader when you’re trying to de-escalate tensions between nuclear powers:
I spoke with President Moon of South Korea last night. Asked him how Rocket Man is doing. Long gas lines forming in North Korea. Too bad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 17, 2017
Most notably, Trump continues to mock his Democratic opponent from last fall Hillary Clinton, whom he still derisively calls “crooked” more than 10 months after the election.
The greatest influence over our election was the Fake News Media "screaming" for Crooked Hillary Clinton. Next, she was a bad candidate!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 22, 2017
And we cannot forget the time that Trump, during his presidential campaign, mocked a disabled reporter who cast doubt on Trump’s claims that thousands of Muslims were celebrating when the Twin Towers fell on 9/11:
Donald Trump MOCKS disabled New York Times reporter https://t.co/8fmUwBHgP0 via @YouTube making fun disable
— sandi wetzel Collins (@CollinsWetzel) July 4, 2017
Trump’s temperament is more suitable for a kindergarten classroom than in the office that he currently resides within. The latest reports of him mocking Republican leaders in Congress only confirms what we already know about him: that Trump is incapable of having a mature attitude about those who disagree with him.
Featured image via Gage Skidmore/Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0