Donald Trump Unleashes Another Insult That His Supporters Most Likely Won’t Care About
Donald Trump is back to hurling insults at his opponents, but it's unlikely his supporters are going to care.
Donald Trump is once again under fire for making insulting comments about a woman, this time about one of his fellow candidates for the Republican nomination:
Donald J. Trump is not letting political correctness get in the way of saying what he really thinks about Carly Fiorina’s looks.
The billionaire tycoon offered a free-wheeling critique of some of his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination in an interview with Rolling Stonemagazine. His impression of Ms. Fiorina’s appearance was less than flattering.
“Look at that face!” he said at a conference table with his staff as Ms. Fiorina took a question about him on television. “Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?!”
Mr. Trump’s has faced criticism over the years for saying sexist things about women, referring them as pigs or worse. That history was highlighted after his public feud with Fox News’s Megyn Kelly, which culminated with him suggesting that the journalist had blood coming out of her eyes and “blood coming out of here wherever.”
Mr. Trump seemed to realize that he was going to far in his assessment of Ms. Fiorina, but he opted not to restrain himself.
“I mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not s’posedta say bad things, but really, folks, come on,” he said, according to the report. “Are we serious?”
Responding to the controversy that erupted overnight after the interview was released, this morning Trump tried downplay his comments, claiming that he was talking about Fiorina’s persona rather than her physical appearance:
In an interview with FOX News on Thursday morning, Trump did not dispute the quote but said that he made the comment in a “jocular manner” and that he was referring to Fiorina’s “persona.”
“Probably I did say something like that about Carly,” Trump said. “I’m talking about persona. I’m not talking about look.”
(…)
Trump also implied Thursday morning that the media reaction to his comments about Fiorina betrays a double standard.
“When I get criticized constantly about my hair, nobody does a story about ‘Oh isn’t that terrible, they criticized Donald Trump’s hair,'” he said.
Fiorina responded to the remarks on Kelly’s FOX News show late Wednesday night.
“Maybe, just maybe, I’m getting under his skin a little bit because I am climbing in the polls,” she said.
Inevitably, of course, there is speculation about whether or not this will hurt Trump’s chances in the race and his standing in the polls. Given the fact that they will both on the stage together, it’s likely that this issue will come up in some way at next week’s CNN debate, much like Megyn Kelly brought up his previous derogatory comments about women and herself became the focus of Trump’s ire after the debate. The argument this time seems to be that because he’s attacking a women, and because he’s attacking a fellow candidate, this is likely to be something that will turn off Republicans who have been giving him a pass so far. Ed Morrissey, for example, wonders if Trump’s attacks on Fiorina will have a different impact on the race than his previous attacks:
Thus far, Trump has aimed his combative personality at the kind of establishment figures for which the grassroots already has considerable anger — GOP leadership, the donor class, CNN, and even well-known conservative media figures who may be surprised to find themselves lumped in with the “establishment.” Fiorina is an outsider, not tied to the “establishment” as such in any way except through big business and finance, exactly as Trump himself is. If he starts aiming his middle-school antics at Fiorina, will the anti-establishment forces keep cheering, or start to wonder whether Trump’s temperament is a bigger problem than they want to admit?
The point is well-taken, but I’m not sure that the people who have been rallying around Trump are going to be any more offended by an attack on Carly Fiorina than they were when Trump implied that Mexicans are rapists, when he attacked John McCain, or when he went after Megyn Kelly for daring to ask him a few tough questions. If the past two months have shown us anything, it is that the more outrageous and offensive Trump’s attacks become, the better he seems to do in the polls. Today, a new CNN/ORC poll shows Trump leading the field nationally with 32% of the vote, Ben Carson far behind at 19%, and nobody else in double digits. In the polling average, Trump now leads the field at 29.8%, with Carson at 16,8%, and Jeb Bush at 8.3%. this is all from polling that has been taken in the wake of all of Trump’s offensive, outrageous, over the top remarks. Given that history, there’s simply no reason to believe that the people who are supporting him, a number that seems to be growing by the day, would be any more offended by his comments about Carly Fiorina.
The answer, of course, is that they aren’t. Much to the chagrin of the Republican elite and political analysts who can see plain as day that putting Trump on the ticket would be an electoral disaster for the Republican Party, the base of the GOP seems to continue to be rallying around Trump notwithstanding the fact that he has absolutely no substance and that his campaign basically revolves around making vague promises about the future and insulting people. Perhaps it’s a reflection of the reality television culture that Trump himself became such a big part of at one point, but more likely it’s a reflection of what’s happened to the Republican Party. As I’ve said before, Donald Trump is succeeding in the polls right now in large part because he is saying things that a lot of Republicans agree with. Moreover, he is succeeding notwithstanding the fact that he is appealing to the worst aspects of American politics, a fact that has led many leading Republicans to wonder just how much he might damage the party going forward. This has led to talk about efforts to “stop Trump,” along with speculation about what it might be that Trump will do that will bring about his downfall. Perhaps that day will come, but it certainly doesn’t seem likely to come any time in the near future. Donald Trump has tapped into the misguided populism of the Tea Party that the GOP itself used to ride to victory in 2010 and 2014. They like him precisely because he is insulting and vulgar and absurdly self-centered. Unless they start changing their minds about that, it’s hard to see when the Trump “Bubble” is going to burst, and that no doubt has a lot of Republicans very concerned.
I shudder to think of how he’d deal with Angela Merkel or other world leaders. What an a$s.
This has gone far enough.
Um, say what? She’s not tied to establishment EXCEPT through big business and finance? All that the Establishment IS is a servant for big business and finance. That’s like writing something like, oh, she’s not tied to the military except through her service as a general in the army.
This may damage him. I just took a look at Lucianne.com, where his most fervent acolytes hang out, and the comments about him are about 80% negative.
Like I give a fwck what that horse’s ass in the worlds worst comb-over thinks of me?
Give me a break.
If he didn’t have money he couldn’t get laid in a woman’s prison with a pardon to give away.
Wow, Carly…it’s kinda hot when you talk dirty….
@C. Fiorina:
I swear, this was the thought bubble over her head when she was interviewed this morning.
That’s what they said about Martin Van Buren, the ugliest president we’ve ever had. So yes, people can vote for that.
Yeah, this is all out of the playbook versus Van Buren. The present is such a unique flower.
My girlfriend has what she says is called Resting Bitch Face. Given that she has the accoutrements of the standard young professional woman–shoes, bag and outfit by unknown entities who have recognizable names–and is attractive, she gets a ton of unwanted commentary. Trump is rolling on the same male drug. His supporters won’t care about it because few men care about it. People call Hillary Clinton a ‘bitch’ in a variety of ways. Almost all are simply more ‘subtle’ than Trump’s crack about Fiorina.
He should have remained civil, and stuck to longstanding liberal norms. You know, like Republicans want to starve children, make old people go without medicine, poison the water and are all racists. Sensible stuff.
Like I wrote right after the first debate. “Trump is a classless pig”. He always will be.
@Guarneri:
Yes…exactly…stick to the facts. Demonstrable facts.
I think whenever people ask “Has he finally gone too far?” they are missing the point. Part of his appeal, I’m convinced, is outrage for outrage’s sake, and the target barely matters. It’s like when Ann Coulter says women shouldn’t have the right to vote–a position that borders on self-contradictory and which you might think would outrage conservative women, but I’ve met quite a few female Coulter fans who don’t seem much bothered when she says things like that, not because they seriously agree with that position but because what they really love is that she had the temerity to “go there.” It’s all one big FU to anyone with the gumption to care, and that’s the appeal of professional trolls like Coulter or Trump.
Being insulted by Trump should be considered a compliment. It means that you’ve got under his skin somehow (not very hard, it seems.)
Carly should take this and run with it as far as she can: “Why are you supporting a candidate for POTUS who’s so thin-skinned he’ll declare war on Russia because they served him tea with the spoon on the wrong side of the cup?”
@grumpy realist: This is going to be fun. Not enough fun to actually watch the debate, but fun. As far as I’m aware Fiorina has largely refrained from saying anything bad about Trump. She’s running for veep, and he’s the front runner. Now Trump’s put her in a position where she has to react or look insufficiently macho. Good times. Until one of these clowns accidentally gets elected.
@Guarneri:
I can’t argue with most of the stuff in your list, however you left out, “the self-proclaimed most victimized people in America today.”
@C. Fiorina: I wish I could give this a thousand upvotes!
I don’t know how much it hurts him but his “I was talking about her persona and not her looks” excuse rings about as hollow as a drum. It’s clear he either didn’t expect the comment to show up in the fjnished interview or he lacks the ability to think the things he says through. I think he’s used to being able to run his mouth as a celebrity without any real consequence and he forgets that a presidential candidate needs to refrain from such verbal diarrhea.
I this kind of shoot before he things is going to ebentually hurt him but he likely survives this round.
Every time he says something dumb like this, he comes out with a bullshit, transparent excuse. And his adherents just eat it up.
These people don’t want a President, they want a damn emperor, and they will praise his new clothes to the heavens.
Trump’s supporters will just eat this up. In their minds this is just Trump not being PC. Somehow they equate being a nasty pig with being not PC. I don’t get it, and I suspect almost all of the people who post here don’t get it, but there is not much use arguing with a Trump supporter about it. My stepson loves Trump, and I’ve already asked him about the constant insulting women on the basis of their looks, and how he would feel if someone said those things about his girlfriend or mother or sister. He simply says its not the same thing.
Stuff like this will never hurt Trump with his supporters but it has to limit his potential base, at least among Democrats and Independents.
tee hee hee.
The collapse of the Trump campaign is akin to the Iranian development of nuclear weapons.
Always weeks away from happening.
And yet polling shows a third of Republican voters support him despite being in a field of 69 candidates!
@gVOR08: Oh it’s all a lot of fun and games till somebody gets elected.
petulant
/ˈpɛtjʊlənt/
adjective
1. irritable, impatient, or sullen in a peevish or capricious way
See also: trump