Disrespect Trump voters at your peril. This is a cardinal rule for politicians and commentators after Hillary Clinton called Donald Trump’s supporters a “basket of deplorables” and lost the 2016 election for being snooty and elitist. So I’m plunging into this debate with some trepidation. But extreme Make America Great Again types are happy to behave disrespectfully towards their fellow Americans. Their conduct is crude, sleazy and deplorable. There, I’ve said it.
A few days ago a Maga supporter was kicked off a plane in Florida for wearing a T-shirt depicting Trump in American flag sunglasses giving the middle finger with both hands and bearing the message: “Hawk Tuah…Spit on that Thang.” It is hard to explain what this onomatopoeic phrase means in a family publication. Let’s just say a young woman from Nashville has become famous for 15 minutes as the “Hawk Tuah girl” after she was filmed in the street by some YouTubers and asked what drives men “crazy every time” in bed.
An observant passenger videoed the plane incident and posted it on Reddit. The wearer had apparently agreed to wear his T-shirt inside out during the flight after a passenger complained, but then flipped it back and was asked to disembark. “Stupid a** Wendy,” he smirked at the flight attendant as he was escorted off the plane. He didn’t think he’d done anything wrong.
I’ve seen dozens of people wearing the same lewd T-shirt at Trump rallies, as well as others like “Joe and the Hoe Gotta Go”, a vulgar reference to Kamala Harris. You can find them on sale for around $20 at the numerous Trump pop-up stores that have emerged during this election and on Amazon for next-day delivery. Nice.
A neighbour of mine has another choice example of Trump merchandise on display. He lives near a church and school where children pass by and flies a flag from his porch that says: “Trump 2024. F*** Your Feelings” (without the asterisks). Until Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race, he flew two giant flags with the message, “F*** Biden”. I am convinced this is why there are far fewer Trump flags and lawn signs in my neighbourhood today than there were in 2020.
Normal people, who may or may not be Trump voters, don’t want to be associated with such in-your-face coarseness. The shock value that made people laugh has long worn off. There is no filter anymore. Then there are the disgusting images that incite violence. When I went to a Trump rally in Pennsylvania the other week, I met the owner of a pick-up who went viral on social media for the decal on the back of his truck showing Biden “hog-tied”, i.e. bound and gagged.
Some bright spark then went one step further and put the same image of Harris bound and gagged on the back of his pick-up. It was always offensive but seems particularly vile as an incitement to violence against the first black and female vice-president, as if she were on her way to being lynched.
Am I wrong to denounce this coarseness? Nicholas Kristof, a well-known New York Times columnist, warned readers last weekend not to demean Trump voters. “Since 2016, the liberal impulse has been to demonise anyone at all sympathetic to Donald Trump as a racist and a bigot. This has been politically foolish, for it’s difficult to win votes from people you are disparaging,” he tutted.
“It has also seemed to me morally offensive, particularly when well-educated and successful elites are scorning disadvantaged, working-class Americans who have been left behind economically and socially and in many cases are dying young. They deserve empathy not insults.”
If Trump supporters want to flip the bird at passers-by and flaunt the F-word at children, I think we should call them out for being rude
Sorry, I think it is Kristof who is dripping with condescension here. If Trump supporters want to flip the bird at passers-by and flaunt the F-word at their neighbours and children, I think we should call them out for being rude and disrespectful. You wouldn’t want to employ somebody who acted this way, would you? Admittedly I’m talking about Maga fanatics but I haven’t noticed any attempt by the Trump campaign or his more mild-mannered supporters to distance themselves from this despicable behaviour.
What makes Trump supporters feel entitled to shove their views in our faces? Some, of course, are taking their cue from the maestro. Trump recently reposted a crude remark by one of his supporters on X which showed pictures of Harris and Hillary Clinton side by side with the comment: “Funny how b*** jobs impacted both their careers differently” (again without the asterisks). This was a crude reference to Bill Clinton’s past behaviour and Harris’s relationship 30 years ago with Willie Brown, the mayor of San Francisco. Trump has been married three times, is known to have cheated on all his wives and used to hang out with Jeffrey Epstein — yet he is the one chiding Harris for her conduct.
I may be wearing rose-tinted spectacles but I don’t recall the memes and slogans being this vulgar in the last two elections. Certainly Trump was rude and offensive towards Clinton in 2016, but I remember the shock waves that rippled through his campaign when the Access Hollywood tape about his fondness for grabbing women by the “p****” emerged.
This prompted a panicked Trump to pay hush money to Stormy Daniels in order to suppress news of his alleged sex with a porn star — a decision that led directly to his conviction in New York last May on 34 counts for falsifying business records.
Really, he needn’t have bothered. Nowadays you can buy a T-shirt with “I’m Voting for the Felon” and nobody at Trump rallies seems to bat an eyelid at the example this is setting for their children.
Outside the Maga bubble, however, I think people are noticing. According to the latest ABCNews-Ipsos poll, Harris is leading Trump by 53 per cent to 46 per cent among likely voters and by 54 per cent to 41 per cent among women. Only 33 per cent of voters view Trump favourably, compared to 58 per cent who view him unfavourably
The latest polling average on the 538 website shows Harris with a narrower lead of 3.2 per cent, not enough to be confident of winning, but holding the advantage in the final 60-day sprint towards election day on November 5.
Next Tuesday, we will see Trump and Harris face off in an ABC News debate. The Harris campaign has been arguing (so far unsuccessfully) in favour of keeping Trump’s microphone open in the hope that he will say something crude and off-putting to voters. In contrast, Trump aides want his mic to be muted when he is not speaking, as formerly agreed with Biden. They are scared to let Trump be Trump. That’s a clear sign his dirty war isn’t working.
