To those of you who have been avid followers of Donald Trump, you will notice that his public appearances follow a typical direction. He has a speech in mind that he intends to deliver with the help of a teleprompter, but instead of successfully completing his initial or intended thoughts, he eventually resorts to rambling and discussing odd, bizarre thoughts about all sorts of topics. To put it bluntly, the former president has increasingly spouted rhetoric that is nonsensical and incoherent.

MSNBC columnist Zeeshan Aleem convincingly stated that, “Trump has been embedded in the public consciousness as a rule-breaker for so long that it can be easy to forget how far he is from fulfilling the basic requirement of a politician to speak clearly. Trump’s speeches seem to be growing more discursive and difficult to comprehend by the day.” New York Times op-ed writer Jamelle Bouie similarly stated that Trump is unable “not just to speak truthfully about a topic, but speak coherently about any topic. . . Trump hasn’t just deteriorated, he’s clearly cognitively impaired, and it is bizarre to me that this isn’t just a major story.” Just recently, as MSNBC’s anchor Chris Hayes commented, “It is a little weird that ‘age concerns’ have disappeared as a constant focus of campaign reporting and discussion even though the GOP nominee would be the oldest man ever sworn in to the office and is very obviously sharply declining before our eyes.”

Indeed, as Hayes noted, for much of the campaign season, there was considerable spirited public conversation, fueled by rabid media interest, about whether President Joe Biden was too old and harried to perform his presidential duties. In fact, such discussions largely dominated news coverage. Interestingly, over the past few months, discourse surrounding such concerns has all but gone silent. One could argue that now is a ripe moment to revive such conversations about the ongoing antics of President Biden’s possible successor and his returning to the White House for a second time as president.

Most of us can remember when President Biden, after responding incoherently with his replies during a debate in June with Trump, eventually ended his bid for a second term a few weeks later. Many Democratic politicians and pundits passionately raised concerns about Biden’s cognitive fitness, and the mainstream media fiercely covered the controversy with a  severe degree of ruthlessness for weeks. In fact, numerous editorial boards urged Biden to step aside.

Meanwhile, Trump’s documented rambling, repetitive, and winding public addresses - punctuated with strange comments about his “beautiful” body, the male genitalia of a famous athlete, staged ploys at fast food restaurants, sadistic praising of Adolf Hitler and other odious dictators and a disturbing obsession with the past going back before the 1980s - have included bland cultural references to the fictional character Hannibal Lecter from the 1991 Academy Award-winning film Silence of the Lambs, Johnny Carson, Michael Jackson, Cary Grant, and Charles Lindbergh, among others. Trump danced to his personally curated Spotify playlist while interacting with attendees during the final 30 minutes of his town hall in Oaks, Pennsylvania. Understandably, such comparisons have both dated him and raised more than a few psychologists’ and psychiatrists’ eyebrows.

Indeed, the medical community’s concerns about Trump’s mental fitness are far from new. In mid-September, a coalition of physicians and mental health experts convened at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, for a conference on Trump and the specific danger they believe he represents to the nation and the world. Recently, more than 230 doctors, nurses, and health-care professionals, many of whom back Vice President Harris over Donald Trump, issued a public letter calling on the former president to release his medical records - as Harris has done and Trump has promised but failed to do. These medical professionals argued that without such records, they were left to decipher Trump’s mental acuity based solely on his public appearances - and that “on that front, Trump is falling concerningly short of any standard of fitness for office and displaying alarming characteristics of declining acuity.” Amen to such sentiments!

Ever increasing alarming antics aside, neither the Republican Party nor much of the media has shown that same level of concern in demanding that Trump step down. As I see it, such double standards are grossly unfair and irresponsible. Moreover, such laxity does not bode well for the nation if such a mentally unhinged individual is once again reelected president in November.