Trump is often seen with his fist in the air, shouting for us to “fight!”
What Trump Means When He Tells Us to ‘Fight’ —
In Trump books and speeches, “fight” is a constant byword, but it has meant radically different things in different contexts. In scripted moments meant to convey suitably presidential sensibilities, Trump is fighting for others — whether the American people or those the nation has forgotten. In moments of political or legal crisis, when Trump feels besieged, his call to “fight” becomes personal. It is not a fight for others, but a battle for himself, one in which the people are enlisted in Trump’s wars, persuaded that his causes are their own. Eventually, the causes fall away, and the leader becomes all there is to fight for.
Trump’s fighting words are an encompassing worldview, not a means of politics but its end, not the last resort for a party but the default posture of a man and his movement.
Even those that don’t know him or like him know he’s a fighter. No one has the fightingness that Donald Trump has.
Larry Kudlow, Fox News commentator and former Director of the National Economic Council
According to Politico, Donald Trump has always perfumed his personal word cloud with sulfurous vitriol and dank insults. At an early point in the mid-1970s, as the on-the-make developer from Queens crashed the Manhattan scene, he learned that if he directed enough volume at his opponents, he could intimidate, embarrass and shock them into collapse.
Trump’s fountain of bile — calling people
- disgusting
- moron
- dummies
- disgraceful
- horseface
- lowlife
- dogs
- low I.Q.
- or branding them with degrading nicknames
— flowed then and flows now like an impure stream. In recent weeks, he’s topped even himself by calling obliquely for the execution of Gen. Mark A. Milley, urging shoplifters to be “shot,” accusing NBC News of “treason,” which is punishable with prison or death, and repeatedly calling the special counsel putting him on trial a “thug.”
While some measure of calculation guides Trump’s language — he knows which words punish and stress his foes — evidence has mounted that he just can’t help himself from talking that way. Like a 3-year-old or a riled German Shepherd, he lacks impulse control. When feeling threatened, his first instinct is to aim low and hit hard with maximum cruelty. Paraphrasing beat poet Allen Ginsberg’s “first thought, best thought” maxim, Trump believes that the most vile utterance equals the best utterance. Like a drunk in his tanks, Trump is always looking for a fight and reliably finds one.
In response to the Republican convention, David French writes in the New York Times that Hulk Hogan Is Not the Only Way to Be a Man: Trumpist masculinity is rooted in grievance and anger…There’s a seductive quality to Trump’s masculinity. Grievance is a form of counterfeit purpose, and anger is a form of counterfeit courage. For a time, your grievance can give you a mission — fighting the hated foe. And when you’re in the midst of an online temper tantrum, taking on all comers in your social media feed, you can feel a little bit brave, even if all you’re doing is tapping out vitriolic posts from the safety and comfort of your couch.
But Trump’s masculinity contrasts sharply with Admiral William McRaven, whose message centers on honor and courage.
A Navy SEAL, a former commander of U.S. Special Operations Command and one of the key architects of Operation Neptune Spear, the mission to kill Osama bin Laden, McRaven gave a powerful commencement speech to the graduates of the University of Texas, Austin, excerpt below.
You must have compassion. You must ache for the poor and disenfranchised. You must fear for the vulnerable. You must weep for the ill and infirm. You must pray for those who are without hope. You must be kind to the less fortunate.
Admiral William McRaven, former commander of U.S. Special Operations Command
New York Times columnist French goes on to write, “That’s the message American men need to hear. That’s a message the American people need to hear.
This might sound strange, but I wonder if Democrats should answer the Republican men’s night with a men’s night of their own — a night that features heroes instead of bullies and showmen, a night that answers the Republican appeal to men’s basest instincts with an appeal to their highest ideals.”