A ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine announced by President Donald Trump over the weekend never actually existed, and the episode is fueling renewed warnings that the president's mental and emotional decline is beginning to cause international incidents.

Journalist Mark Jacob, who writes the "Stop the Presses" newsletter on Substack, discussed the matter on Wednesday's edition of the "Daily Blast," hosted by The New Republic's Greg Sargent. Their conversation focused in part on how the right wing has figured out how to exploit weaknesses in the media.

While much of the online discussion has centered on the widely mocked first press briefing from press secretary Katie Zacharia, Kimberly Guilfoyle's firing and the upcoming election, the two men dug into the startling fake ceasefire Trump announced over the weekend. It has since become clear that although Trump declared a ceasefire, there wasn't one.

"He's just getting weirder. And he was weird to start with," Jacob said. "I mean, he announced the other day that there was an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. And of course, unfortunately—you know, my job partly is to criticize the news media, and a lot of them came out with their 'Trump says' headlines, which they should know better than to do," Jacob explained. The "Trump says" construction—headlines that relay a claim on the president's word alone, before it has been independently confirmed—is a long-standing target of media critics, who argue it can lend unverified statements the appearance of confirmed news.

When reporters finally reached Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he made clear that he had heard nothing about any such agreement, and Russian forces were not pausing their attacks on Ukraine, where Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

"And then they asked Trump and said, hey, nobody seems to be following this ceasefire, why did you say you had an agreement? And he responded that he told them that they needed to come to an agreement, and that was enough," Jacob said. "So, he has these bizarre delusions of grandeur, where he thinks he can just kind of magically transform reality into what he thinks it should be."

Jacob argued that the episode stems from Republicans who "set him up" to feel like he was the king of the world and could control anything with the power of his voice.

"His idea of making a deal was just this thought that everyone had a price. And it is gratifying to see that some people don't have a price. And also just to see that the lies aren't working anymore," Jacob added.

He warned that the pattern is likely to set off a cycle in which Trump becomes more dangerous. "Trump's weakening power is really good for America. But this is when authoritarians are dangerous," Jacob said. "When they see their powers ebbing and they don't know why, and all these sycophants who were on their side suddenly disappear on them—this is when they're really dangerous."

Indeed, just in the past five days, Trump has weaponized the Justice Department to go after Cassidy Hutchinson—the former White House aide who became a key witness before the House January 6 committee—and stage a raid on the Washington, D.C., home of Rep Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) over conspiracy theories involving invented crimes they cannot prove and that are long past the statute of limitations, even if they could charge them.

"They may take—and they've got ICE showing up near polling places. I mean, we have to really be vigilant about what's going on here, and insist on a fair election, and not let them do all the crazy stuff they've been doing," Jacob continued.