The topic, fortunately, is baseball, not the economy, foreign policy, or making America great again. Still, it is not a good sign when the leader of the free world spouts off like an ignorant fool professing absolute certainty without any genuine expertise whatsoever. If he does this about baseball…well, you can complete that sentence.

President Trump now demands that Roger Clemens be admitted to the Baseball Hall of Fame despite enough evidence that he used banned steroids late in his career to put him in the Barry Bonds, Manny Ramirez, Sammy Sosa et al. Rogues Gallery of cheaters with great stats who fail the Hall’s character requirements. In a post on Truth Social today, Trump said that he had just played golf with the 11-time All-Star pitcher, and apparently this makes him an authority on The Rocket’s dubious past.

“He should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame, NOW!” Trump wrote. “People think he took drugs, but nothing was proven. He never tested positive, and Roger, from the very beginning, totally denies it. He was just as great before those erroneous charges were leveled at him. That rumor has gone on for years, and there has been no evidence whatsoever that he was a ‘druggie.’”

Well, Trump is correct that Clemens did indeed deny under oath to Congress that he used performance enhancing drugs. Then he was charged with lying to Congress, but acquitted in 2012 because the proof didn’t reach the “beyond a reasonable doubt” level. Still, Clemens’s ex-personal trainer, Brian McNamee, testified under oath that he injected Clemens with steroids numerous times from 1998 to 2001. That’s not a “rumor,” and there was no discernible motive for McNamee to lie. Clemens was not “just as great” before he is believed to have started juicing. He had been declining in effectiveness for several years, then suddenly, in his mid-thirties, kicked into a whole new gear…you know, like the Fountain of Youth. That is also evidence. It’s not proof, but Trump, like a lot of non-Presidents, uses the terms “evidence” and “proof” interchangeably.

Then Trump made the ridiculous comparison of Clemens’ situation to that of Pete Rose — who, shortly after his death in September, was made eligible for the Hall of Fame by Commissioner Rob Manfred, who made the reasonable decision that a lifetime ban of a player ends when the player no longer has a lifetime. It had nothing to do with Trump, but the President took credit for Pete’s post mortum reprieve,

“After over 4,000 Hits, they wouldn’t put him in the Hall of Fame until I spoke to the Commissioner, and he promised to do so, but it was essentially a promise not kept because he only ‘opened it up’ when Pete died and, even then, he said that Pete Rose only got into the mix because of DEATH,” Trump wrote. Baloney. The Commissioner of Baseball can’t promise to put a player in the Hall of Fame because the decision has nothing to do with him. The Hall makes its own standards and has its own process. All Rose’s changed status—dying— did was make him eligible for the Hall. Clemens has always been eligible. The voters just don’t think he’s worthy because there is substantial, if not decisive evidence that he was, in Trump-speak, “a druggie.”

Yes, Barack Obama was a regrettable turning point in the Presidency, shooting off his mouth about all sorts of things a President has no business opining on. Trump, however, is much, much worse. And most of the time—except for when he was talking about Trayvon Martin—-Obama didn’t embarrass himself. Trump is beyond embarrassing, but this kind of random pronouncement just gives ammunition to the Trump Deranged.

It doesn’t make me feel particularly secure either.