Administration

Comey says Trump seems ‘off’ compared to 2017

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by Sophie Brams - 05/14/26 5:53 PM ET

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by Sophie Brams - 05/14/26 5:53 PM ET

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Former FBI Director James Comey said on Thursday that “something’s off” with President Trump, arguing the president’s behavior has become more erratic and self-obsessed since his first term.

“I mean, I’ve always thought Donald Trump was a little bit off, but whoa, compared to even to six years ago, something’s off,” Comey told CNN’s Kasie Hunt during an interview.

Comey, who said he has not spoken to the president since his firing in 2017, recalled feeling like Trump was focused on a wider variety of issues during his first term in the White House.

“He seemed by Trumpian standards, more serious, more even-keeled,” Comey said. “Less focused entirely on himself and his projects and his obsessions, the people he wants to get, the things he wants to build.”

“All of that seems to me a little bit off, and I don’t remember feeling that in 2017,” he added.

Trump will turn 80 years old in June, and questions about his mental fitness have intensified in recent months, marked by a series of extreme threats against Iran and instances where he has appeared to doze off or close his eyes during meetings and events.

A Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll released earlier this month found that more than half of Americans believe Trump lacks the mental sharpness it takes to lead the country.

Senior administration officials have dismissed concerns about the president’s health and mental acuity, insisting he is as sharp as ever. Trump himself bragged during a recent small business summit at the White House that he has taken three cognitive tests while in office and “aced” each one.

But Comey argued that the country had become “numb” to Trump’s “tidal wave of nuttiness,” pointing to the president’s fondness for late-night social media musings and AI-generated images.

“The president wakes up at, I don’t know, two o’clock in the morning, tweeting crazy — not tweeting, but truthing, whatever they call it — craziness, and we all kind of shrug and go to work and go on to look at other things,” he said.

Comey has been a frequent target of Trump’s over the years, with the Justice Department pursuing charges against the former FBI director twice since last January.

The DOJ indicted him last September for allegedly making false statements and obstruction charges stemming from 2020 congressional testimony over FBI leaks, but the case was later dismissed after a judge found the federal prosecutor who secured the charges was unlawfully appointed.

A federal grand jury indicted Comey again last month on two charges for allegedly threatening Trump’s life in connection with a since-deleted social media post of seashells arranged to read “86 47” — an apparent allusion to a restaurant term for taking an item off the menu.

Comey has said he won’t hold back from criticizing the president despite facing two charges before a North Carolina district court.

“I’ve been targeted by the president repeatedly, obsessively,” Comey said on Thursday. “It’s really important that we not become numb to this, and that people who have something to add in the public forum about things like the rule of law, not be intimidated and be silent.”

“I won’t talk about a case that’s pending, but I will not stop talking about the threats that this administration poses to the rule of law,” he added.

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