Who is the latest target in the long, wearying mudbath of President Trump’s insults? He’s back to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who turned out to be not enough of a lackey for the president’s taste. Trump describes him as “mixed up and confused” during the confirmation process and his job performance as “sad.” “He was giving very confusing answers, answers that should have been easily answered,” Trump said. “And that was a rough time for him, and he won by one vote, I believe. You know, he won by just one vote.”
Some might suggest that since the one thing Trump may excel at is insulting people, it is a shame that we will never get to hear him deploy that skill against himself, the one person who probably deserves it most of all. Ah, but we CAN in fact hear it. It happens nearly daily. When he insults someone, as often as not he could be talking about himself.
This might be projection on his part. It might be lack of self-awareness. It might be sheer stupidity. My own guess is that the man is so riddled with profound insecurity (yes, a charge that he has leveled at others) that he compensates by trying to transfer his own failings elsewhere.
So what insults would Trump hurl at himself, if there were two of him? Easy. All we need to do is comb through the things he has said about others. You could start with the things he said about Sessions above. And continue on from there. A sampler:
“Angry.” “Heavily conflicted.” “Unrevealed conflicts of interest.” “Rapidly losing credibility.” “Most conflicted of all.”
“Crazy.” “Psycho.” “A mess.” “Crooked.” “Terrible.” “Failing for 30 years.” “Unfit to serve as POTUS.” “There’s never been anything like your lies.”
“Just gave a disastrous news conference.” “Got caught pushing … phony Russia stories.”
“The enemy of the American people.” “Out of control.” “How the hell did he ever get elected?” “Wrong again.” “Made up a story.” “Such dishonesty.”
“Slippery.” “Terrible and corrupt leader.” “Either very sick or very dumb.” “Lied all over the place.” “Not smart.” “Stupid.” “Total hypocrite.” “Dumb as a rock.” “Crazy and very dumb.” “Very insecure.” “Off the wall.” “Has gone wild with hate.” “No honor.” “At the bottom of the barrel.”
Had enough yet? Either with the insults or with Trump himself? Unfortunately, this series hasn’t been canceled yet, so the formula will be repeated until failure. The one common Trump insult I left out of this litany is that of the reliable attitude of the bully. And I left it till last because it maybe fits best of all.
“Weak.”
