Intimate White House leaks continued over the weekend and, as it turns out, the federal government cannot leverage itself into bankruptcy in the same manner as Donald Trump has.
The New York Times produced a brief profile of Trump's interactions with former Goldman CEO Gary Cohn including one occasion shortly after the election in which Trump was reportedly surprised to learn that rebuilding our nation's infrastructure will cost a lot of money.
When Cohn told Trump his plans would cost hundreds of billions of dollars, Trump recoiled.
The president-elect turned to the other people in the room — his son-in-law, Jared Kushner; his chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon; his chief of staff, Reince Priebus; and Steven T. Mnuchin, his campaign’s chief fund-raiser and Mr. Trump’s nominee to be Treasury secretary — surprised that his infrastructure ideas had such a potential downside.
“Is this true?” Mr. Trump asked the group, according to those people. Heads nodded. “Why did I have to wait to have this guy tell me?” he demanded.
There are other disturbing details in the Times report, such as Trump's apparent deference to Cohn on virtually everything related to the economy, but this part struck me more than any other detail.
During that sit-down, on Nov. 29, Mr. Cohn briefed Mr. Trump on what he regarded as the chief hurdle to expanding the economy, according to people who were briefed on the discussion: a stronger dollar, which would undermine efforts to create jobs.
If Trump and Cohn discussed currency value several months ago, why did Trump just recently call up Michael Flynn at 3 a.m. to ask him (the wrong person to ask) if a stronger or weaker dollar is "better?"
Is Trump having trouble remembering things? Does he panic in the middle of the night when he can't remember?
It's these small details, which are adding up quickly, that lead me to question Trump's mental capacity. Another major concern is Trump being an empty vessel surrounded by terrible people who he defers to for virtually every decision of any consequence because he personally has no idea what to do.