Has Trump gone round the bend?

Take two things President Trump said in the past 48 hours:

1.  In talking about the state of our economy and whether we need to worry about a recession, he says contradictory things.   First, he declares that our economy is strong.   But then he rants about what a big mistake it was for Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to raise interest rates -- it's all his fault.

So how can the economy be both good -- and there is a villain who is responsible for f--king things up?   But that's not the "round the bend" thing.

In talking to the media about this, Trump painted himself as the savior.    It should have been fixed before by previous presidents -- but in fact, Trump said, looking up at the heavens with a magnanimous gesture -- "I was the chosen one" to come in a fix this.

Now, one can argue that he was joking.   But, underneath turning it into a joke, I have little doubt that Donald J. Trump really does believe that he is The Chosen One.

2.  This one is more serious because it involves international relations with an ally -- and it has far-ranging diplomatic and trust issues for our standing in the world.   President Trump had accepted the formal invitation from the Danish government to come for a state visit, and it was scheduled to take place on September 2nd and 3rd, less than two weeks away.   And, according to one source, Trump himself had requested the state visit.

Who knows what motivated the idea, but a couple of days ago, Trump floated the idea that we -- the United States -- should buy the island nation of Greenland, which is a territory of Denmark.   It is a massive island, mostly covered by ice, occupying a strategic space between the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans, with a population of about 50,000 concentrated along the lower coastal areas.    As the arctic ice melts and these waters become navigable, there could be important benefits to having control of it;  and we already have a military station there.

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen rejected the idea and, according to Trump, called it "absurd."   Now we don't know what they said in private -- only what has been reported by the media.    But it seems that Trump can't stand the humiliation of having a woman call his idea absurd.  So he has cancelled his state visit and called the Prime Minister's response "nasty" -- his favorite word for denouncing women who stand up to him.

Here's why this is perhaps the most disturbing example of Trump's erratic behavior.   Here he has caused an international incident based on his petulant response to his own whim.    No case has been made for trying to buy Greenland.  As Chris Hayes put it:   "It's like a guy in a bar leaned over and said to Trump, out of the blue, 'Hey, why don't you guys buy Greenland?"    And the president of the U.S. thought:   "Yeah, why don't we buy Greenland?"    Then, without further discussion with aides and experts, he tells the Danish P.M.   "We want to talk to you about buying Greenland."

Is there any constituency that is champing at the bit to own Greenland?   If so, it's a well-concealed secret.   Perhaps one of Trump's wealthy friends convinced him that there are valuable resources to be mined when the ice melts.    Or maybe some faction in the military thinks we need to own the real estate that we now lease from them for our airbase.    Nobody has given any reasons.   So it sounds like a whim.

And besides, the Danish Prime Minister may have, in private, called it an absurd idea.  But her public response was very measured, ending with this sobering thought:  "Thankfully, the time where you buy and sell other countries and populations is over.  Let's leave it at that."

We know which one was the adult in this incident.   Fortunately the consequences are not catastrophic -- only further erosion of the U.S.'s status as a trustworthy partner in the free world and in NATO.   But suppose it had been a showdown with Russia or North Korea or Iran involving nuclear weapons?

This kind of childish behavior from Trump is only getting worse as he seems to be coming unhinged.   I get the feeling that the forces are marshaling among a growing number of Republicans to address this.

Of course, Anthony Scaramucci began last week.   Then Michael Steele, the former Chairman of the Republican National Committee, began speaking out a few days ago.

Stay tuned.

Ralph