Four Signs Donald Trump's Campaign Became Unhinged in Florida This Week

The Donald's campaign has cracked. Watch one of his rallies. Most of what he says are off-the-cuff paranoid rants. Neither he nor his campaign seems to have much of a grasp on reality, and his followers, even in big groups, act like folks in a frenzy.

This became clear this past week in a tour through Florida. During a speech in Lakeland, Trump was backed by a Blacks for Trump sign that, it turns out, was held by Michael the Black Man, a former member of a murderous cult. He had no idea what was going on. From New Times managing editor Tim Elfrink's story on the controversy: 

So why is Michael supporting Trump? Reached on his cell phone in Lakeland, he said he likes Trump's plan to lower taxes, but also offered a complicated answer tying Hillary Clinton to a range of racist activities.

"One reason is because Hillary's last name is Rodham, and their family members are Rothchilds, who enslaved 13,000 slaves as collateral," he says. "She's also on camera kissing the head of the Ku Klux Klan and saying, 'That's my mentor.' That's all on my website.

Then there was his Panama City rally, where he drew 18 to 20,000 people and trashed his Republican backers, saying he wouldn't want to "be in a foxhole" with the man who would likely be most important to getting anything done in Washington if, say, he were elected president. Of House Speaker Paul Ryan's comment that he would no longer defend Trump, the candidate said:

“I don’t want his support, I don’t care about his support,” Trump said. “I wouldn’t want to be in a foxhole with a lot of these people, that I can tell you, including Ryan. By the way, including Ryan, especially Ryan.”

Then there was this beauty about Lake Okeechobee, the biggest and most intractable environmental threat in the state. The Donald said water shouldn't be let out of the lake. He clearly didn't understand that keeping too much water there would likely cause a repeat of the collapse of the levy that killed dozens a century or so ago. He said:

"It's amazing. You know, Lake Okeechobee, they're always letting the water out. Do you ever notice we always have droughts? They're always letting the water out. Keep it in! We won't have any droughts."

That is amazingly ridiculous. Finally, there was the event in West Palm Beach, where Trump's people reacted to a New Times reporter holding a "Grab em by the Pussy" sign this way: 

“There are some girls who are just literally whores,” a frat-bro type said. “Just whoring their pussies out around rich guys to make money.”

We can't wait till next week.