NEW: Trump says it is "seditious, perhaps even treasonous" to question his health🤔

[LetMyPeopleVote]

49. MaddowBlog-Trump sees reporting about his age and stamina as 'seditious, perhaps even treasonous'

Two weeks ago, The New York Times published a report on the president showing his age. It may have hit a nerve.

Link to tweet

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-sees-reporting-about-his-age-and-stamina-as-seditious-perhaps-even-treasonous

But when it comes to Trump’s media enemies list, The New York Times continues to hold the top slot — as evidenced by his decision in October to sue the newspaper for $15 billion, claiming that it defamed him and tried to ruin his reputation.

This week, the president took this ongoing offensive in an unsettling direction. As Time magazine summarized:

Donald Trump will be the oldest U.S. President in history by the time he leaves office if he serves out his full second term, and while he nicknamed his predecessor Joe Biden as ‘Sleepy’ and amplified questions about his declining fitness for office, Trump now says that reports about his own aging are ‘seditious, perhaps even treasonous.’

That might sound like a wild exaggeration, but it’s entirely accurate.

On Tuesday night, after delivering an economic speech in which the president encouraged Americans to settle for less, Trump published a hysterical 487-word rant to his social media platform that was disturbing, even for him......

But I’m also struck by the broader context: Two weeks ago, the Times published a report on the Republican’s effort to “project round-the-clock energy, virility and physical stamina,” which is starting to give way to an awkward new reality. From the article:

Mr. Trump, 79, is the oldest person to be elected to the presidency, and he is aging. … Nearly a year into his second term, Americans see Mr. Trump less than they used to, according to a New York Times analysis of his schedule. Mr. Trump has fewer public events on his schedule and is traveling domestically much less than he did by this point during his first year in office, in 2017, although he is taking more foreign trips. He also keeps a shorter public schedule than he used to. Most of his public appearances fall between noon and 5 p.m., on average.

In the days that followed, the president appeared to fall asleep in a variety of official settings.

This is, to put it lightly, an unusually sensitive subject for Trump, and given his online harangue, it seems the Times touched a nerve.