On Wednesday, MS NOW’s The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell once again leapt at the opportunity to comment on President Trump’s age and alleged cognitive decline.
O'Donnell proclaimed: "If the President of the United States’ mind is crumbling before our very eyes, that is the most important story of the day, because everything else follows from that. Everything."
The host reiterated his age-old claims, this time adding hallucinations to the list.
In an effort to frame Trump’s age as evidence of cognitive decline, O’Donnell began his biased remarks by calling him “a lifelong pathological liar” who “finds himself in what appears to be a slide down a dementia slope.”
“That pathological liar would not be able to shuffle the verbal cards the same way that he used to, to give a structure of sorts to his lying that might, to some listeners, make some sense. Might not be able to do that anymore,” stated O’Donnell.
After having puffed himself up in reference to Trump's past TV appearances and interviews, in which O’Donnell lingered on the Obama birth certificate conversation that he had “immediately declared” to be a lie, O’Donnell cut to video of a Trump rally where he claimed the President used the word “sir” whenever he is lying (Click “expand”):
I was in New York. I met a great police officer, New York finest. And he said, sir, I want to thank you. I said, for what? He said, my wife didn't think much of me very much. We were having marital difficulty, actually. She thought I was nothing. I'm a police officer. I'm a tough guy. I looked at him. The muscles were all over the place. He didn't suffer from that. But she thought maybe that muscle [points to head] wasn't so good because he was always losing money in the stock market. And he said, sir, in the last year and a half, my 401(k) is up 74 percent, sir. And she thinks I'm Warren Buffett. She thinks I'm a super genius. I said, how are you getting along with her? He said, well, I'm not so sure I like her anymore.
In complete disregard to the topic of conversation that was the police officer’s financial success, O’Donnell instead focused on Trump’s use of “sir,” in which he claimed: “everything after that word will be Donald Trump's hallucination of a conversation that never happened.”
Rather than verify whether the police officer’s story could be true or a paraphrase, O’Donnell then went after Trump’s banter-filled conversation, in which the police officer claimed “I’m not so sure I like her anymore” when asked by the President about his wives and marriages.
Instead of establishing whether the story was fabricated or embellished for the rally, O’Donnell imagined that Trump’s multiple marriages were due to his increasing income and misogynistic values:
In Donald Trump's world, the richer the guy gets, the more he dislikes his current wife. That's the way it has worked for Donald Trump. Guys like Donald Trump believe that if they get richer, they can afford a better wife and they go get one. And so Donald Trump assigns that perversity to his imagined New York City police officer who, now that he feels rich from his retirement account, says, I'm not so sure I like her anymore. A sick hallucination dripping with Trumpian poison and misogyny. The sheer structure to these hallucinations is almost always in service of portraying Donald Trump to be brilliant.
The MS NOW host didn’t have this hyper focus on a president’s cognitive state during the Biden years, when he scolded his fellow Democrats for being worried about how the president delivered speeches. He literally argued that speech-making ability didn’t matter at all: “The notion that Joe Biden is too old is based on a complete and utter misunderstanding of the work of the presidency. The job is to make decisions, not speeches.”
O’Donnell may be convinced that Trump’s stories are “hallucinations,” but his decision to label it as so only reinforced how quickly he jumped to this conclusion. All this segment showed was how O'Donnell can turn interpretations into more speculations, rather than proof.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
MS NOW’s The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell
October 7, 2026
10:01:55 p.m. EasternLAWRENCE O’DONNELL: No matter what the news of the day is, if the President of the United States is insane, that is the biggest news of the day or any day. That is what will live in history. That is what historians will devote their attention to, if the President of the United States is insane. If the President of the United States’ mind is crumbling before our very eyes, that is the most important story of the day, because everything else follows from that. Everything.
If a lifelong pathological liar turns 80 and finds himself in what appears to be a slide down a dementia slope, then that pathological liar would probably lose the very ability to tell his lies. That pathological liar would not be able to shuffle the verbal cards the same way that he used to, to give a structure of sorts to his lying that might, to some listeners, make some sense. Might not be able to do that anymore.
If you look at Donald Trump's first political lying 15 years ago about President Obama's birth certificate, you will see that he was better at lying then. I mean, he was terrible at it, but better than now. He talked fast and he ran over the gullible TV interviewers at the time, none of whom came close to challenging him significantly on his lies about President Obama's birth and his birth certificate.
I immediately declared everything Donald Trump was saying on TV then about the Obama birth certificate to be a lie, said that right here on this program. But every interviewer treated it as if it may be, maybe could be true because they didn't know how to deal with a pathological liar. And Donald Trump was better, then, at the delivery of his lies. He has developed some trademarks in his lies.
Since he won the Electoral College, he has developed a category of lie that involves imagined conversations with him, the President of the United States. The people who speak to him in these imagined conversations always begin with the word sir. Sometimes the word president. But usually, sir. That is the tell that he is lying. The word sir. Here is a classic example of the genre.
[CUT TO VIDEO]
DONALD TRUMP: I was in New York. I met a great police officer, New York finest. And he said, sir, I want to thank you. I said, for what? He said, my wife didn't think much of me very much. We were having marital difficulty, actually. She thought I was nothing. I'm a police officer. I'm a tough guy. I looked at him. The muscles were all over the place. He didn't suffer from that. But she thought maybe that muscle [points to head] wasn't so good because he was always losing money in the stock market. And he said, sir, in the last year and a half, my 401k is up 74 percent, sir. And she thinks I'm Warren Buffett. She thinks I'm a super genius. I said, how are you getting along with her? He said, well, I'm not so sure I like her anymore.
[END OF VIDEO]
O’DONNELL: That never happened. We all know by now when we hear the word sir, everything after that word will be Donald Trump's hallucination of a conversation that never happened. No New York City police officer met Donald Trump and started discussing his marital difficulties with Donald Trump. But notice the purely Trumpian tagline of the story. After the police officer gets so rich in his retirement account, Donald Trump says to him, how are you getting along with your wife now? To which the police officer says, I'm not so sure I like her anymore.
In Donald Trump's world, the richer the guy gets, the more he dislikes his current wife. That's the way it has worked for Donald Trump. Guys like Donald Trump believe that if they get richer, they can afford a better wife and they go get one. And so Donald Trump assigns that perversity to his imagined New York City police officer who, now that he feels rich from his retirement account, says, I'm not so sure I like her anymore.
A sick hallucination dripping with Trumpian poison and misogyny. The sheer structure to these hallucinations is almost always in service of portraying Donald Trump to be brilliant.
