White House Calls Trump Flip Off an ‘Appropriate’ Response |
While vulgarity is central to Donald Trump’s political identity, it’s actually rare to hear him drop an F-bomb. He’ll pretend to fellate a microphone, allude to penis size during a debate, and say all kinds of disgusting things about women, but traditional profane words and gestures aren’t his preferred medium. He’s only said the “F-word” in public on a handful of occasions, and one was just an “Oh, fuck” when he noticed a pen mark on his shirt.
But Trump did get increasingly profane during his third presidential run, as the New York Times observed. And the second Trump administration’s communications team is astonishingly combative. So perhaps it’s no surprise that we’ve devolved to the point that the White House is classifying the middle finger as an “appropriate” presidential response.
On Tuesday afternoon, TMZ published video that appeared to show the president raising his middle finger to a heckler who called him a “pedophile protector” as he toured a Ford factory in Dearborn, Michigan. The interaction happened while Trump was out of sight of reporters, according to the Times, and the video seemed to be shot on a phone.
While it’s hard to make out the full exchange, the video begins with a man on the lower level of the factory shouting “pedophile protector,” an obvious reference to Trump’s relationship with deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. From the upper floor, Trump points a finger and appears to say “Fuck you,” twice. Then he raises his middle finger as he walks away.
Am I crazy or did Trump just flip off some hecklers? 😂 pic.twitter.com/Zm3cRdD31O
The video is grainy enough that the White House could have claimed that Trump was brandishing a different finger and didn’t actually make a vulgar gesture. But hours later, White House communications director Steven Cheung told TMZ, “A lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage, and the president gave an appropriate and unambiguous response.”
Obviously, Trump flipping off a heckler isn’t even the most offensive thing he’s done lately. But the White House endorsing Trump’s gesture does seem like a milestone in the decline of presidential rhetoric. If flipping the bird is now the “appropriate” response to “lunatics” — one of Trump’s preferred terms for Democrats — this year’s State of the Union could be something to see.
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