“I needed somebody good, and this guy walks through the door. I said, look at this beautiful guy.”
-- Trump, on Edward Gallrein, MAGOP candidate for the House
“I never did that with a man before. I examined his ass, and then I looked at his shoulders. I looked at his feet. I looked at his hand. I looked at his jawline. Studied him. He’s got a jawline.”
-- Trump, on MAGOP Ohio Sen. Jon Husted
“I’ve never studied the body of a man before. It’s not my thing. Nothing wrong with it, of course. But I looked at his ass, and then I looked at his legs, and I said, ‘His ass is like a pile of muscle.’ Then I looked at his legs, and I said, ‘Man, his feet are big.’ Then I looked at his shoulders, and I tapped him on the shoulder, and it actually hurt my hand. It was like a piece of steel.”
-- Trump, speaking later about Jon Husted
“Somebody said he’s a good-looking man. I don’t think he’s a good-looking man. I actually think Mike Collins is a good-looking man — and he’s all man. He’s all man. I’m not sure about Ossoff.”
-- Trump, on Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and MAGOP Senate candidate Mike Collins
“I actually think that Rick Jackson’s a very handsome, distinguished, beautiful-looking guy. He’s a good-looking man. And he’s all man.”
-- Trump, on MAGOP candidate for Georgia governor Rick Jackson
“We’re allowed to have big, strong, handsome soldiers now. You couldn’t hire guys that look this good."
-- Trump, on the U.S. military
Howard Lutnick “looks good, looks handsome — reasonably...He doesn’t look like Jaxson. I’d rather look like Jaxson. I’ll take Jaxson any day.
-- Trump, on New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart who had introduced him
”Jaxson Dart, who’s a great talent, a handsome guy, very handsome guy, and he loved Trump, and he wanted to introduce me."
-- Trump, several months later, on Jaxson Dart
"I want to see this guy...I hate good-looking men.”
-- Trump, at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy commencement, noticing the top academic achiever.
“Wow, this guy must be something. I think we’ll have to invite him up.” He went on, “Get up here, please. I want to see. I want to check him out...Look at the muscles on this guy."
-- Trump, at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy commencement, noticing the top fitness achiever.
Okay, that should suffice. You get the point.
Look, honestly, I don't think Trump is gay. Nor am I even hinting that he is. Though, as they famously said on an episode of Seinfeld, "Not that there's anything wrong with it." But there are two valid points for bringing this up.
The first is, Trump gets cut a lot of slack because -- on his best day -- he says crazy, often inexplicable, rude, crass, mean-spirited things. And if you said, "What if so-and-so said this?" every time, it would eventually become overwhelming, just white noise. But sometimes, Trump goes into territories where it should be said. And this is one of them. MAGOPs are fine with Trump saying all of this above, on and on, (or at least, they're silent about it). But what if President Obama had said all of that? Over and over and over -- and over. Just imagine how MAGOPs would respond. Or even more specific and current: what if James Talarico said this, as he campaigns for the Senate in Texas. The vice president of the United States, a heartbeat from the Oval Office, "JD Vance" is actually on the record hinting that, gee, maybe that Talarico guy is actually, wink-wink, well, y'know...(gay). Tee-hee. MAGOPs officials across the country have repeatedly been saying how Talaracio is "Low Testosterone." Texas MAGOP Sen. Ted Cruz has been perhaps the most smearing in his party (standard for Cruz), even suggesting that Talarico might even be transgender, a woman pretending to be a man. So -- seriously -- what if James Talarico had said any of what Trump has said, let alone all of it. And then, one day, it turned out that MAGOPs found footage of him dancing time after time to the unofficial gay anthem.
Does anyone honestly think that MAGOPs would have been silent about it, like they're silent about their party leader? If (after saying all of that above) there relentless footage of James Talarico dancing at political and campaign events to his favorite song by the Village People? Do you think MAGOPs would be silent? You wouldn't be able to shut them up. It transcends even the concept of hypocrisy.
But secondly, and far more importantly, is that Trump has been obsessive about this all, and it's an obsession that has been growing the past few months. And the thing is, it doesn't matter what it is he's enthusing over so glowingly and obsessively. If it was about women's bodies (which, in fairness, he's long done -- though not in this focused and obsessive detail on body parts) or even about just chocolate chip ice cream...or anything, over and over, relentlessly. In the middle of a political event. "Look at that bowl of incredible ice cream, all those chunks of chocolate chips, huge, mixed in that luscious white creamy, cold goodness. I call it 'ice cream.' I don't usually say this about food, but that is really some gorgeous chocolate chip ice cream. We should have it at Mar-a-Lago. And on Air Force One. I can't take my eyes off it. What beautiful, delicious ice cream. Look at the chocolate chips in that bowl. I want to put it between my lips. I'll take chocolate chip ice cream cream any day." At political and campaign events, over and over, obsessively. ("Gas prices will come down one day. They always do. It's because of Ukraine, you know. By the way, I see someone over there eating ice cream. I love ice cream, chocolate chip. Huge chunks. They say, 'Sir! You shouldn't always talk about chocolate chip ice cream. But they're okay with me talking about ICE. But this is better, because it's creamy and has chocolate chips." Any obsession. It would leap out and be concerning.
And it should be concerning, whatever the topic, not just men's looks, because Trump's obsession at political events is not normal. So much so that I wouldn't be surprised if it's related to his dementia, which is degenerative, which might explain why it's increasing. Focusing on one issue and continuing to repeat it endlessly. In discussing Trump, expert psychologists have referenced "confabulation," a symptom of dementia where the sufferer keeps obsessively repeating a story despite it being refuted by others. This with Trump and his obsession with men's looks is not that. But it seems a cousin. Especially when combined with "disinhibition," which the Alzheimer's Society writes, "Sometimes a person with dementia can lose their inhibitions and may behave in ways that others find embarrassing." They go on to write, "Loss of inhibitions is more common in certain types of dementia, such as frontotemporal dementia" -- whichis specifically the form of dementia many psychologists have suggested Trump has.
"Not that there’s anything wrong” with Trump relentlessly admiring the bodies of men. Just that it's not normal at political events for any politician, especially for a U.S. president – most especially one who once talked at length about golf legend Arnold Palmer’s penis size.
Yes, this is Trump being Trump. The problem for MAGOPs, who seem to be okay with this, is that "Trump being Trump" is someone who is a racist, pathological lying, anti-Semitic. malignant narcissist with dementia, which is degenerative.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Unless you're the most powerful man in the world. And aren't under psychology care.
No matter how much you like Jon Husted's ass.
