The New York Times reported this week, for example, 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. … [N]early 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.

The same report noted a recent Oval Office event when Trump appeared to fall asleep. There’s also the unusual fact that the president recently had an MRI, and when asked about the reason for the scan, he wouldn’t say......

But even if we put all of these details aside, let’s not brush past that Trump, while using Stalin-like rhetoric to attack The New York Times, proceeded to argue that the reporter who wrote the article “is ugly, both inside and out.”

So, on the heels of the Republican’s “piggy” incident and overwhelming evidence of Trump’s routine and casual misogyny, especially toward women who work in media, the president didn’t think twice about attacking a newspaper article by complaining that he doesn’t find the journalist who wrote it to be attractive.

If the goal of the pushback was to prove to the public that the incumbent president is up to the job, Trump failed in humiliating fashion.