Wanna-Be Thug Trump Is Actually Candy-Assed Punk

Why Trump Can't Handle the Cost of War

The president relishes bellicose language and performative violence, but seldom acknowledges its human toll.

At his campaign rallies, Trump tried to make this cartoon violence real. He often expressed a yearning to beat up protesters and congratulated his supporters when they did so on his behalf. Far from expressing concern that such violence might cause pain or even death, he described such concern as symptomatic of the cultural weakness he was running for president to overcome. “I’d like to punch him in the face,” Trump exclaimed as a protester was being escorted out of a rally in Las Vegas. “In the old days,” he added, such people were “carried out on stretchers” but unfortunately, “we’re not allowed to push back anymore.” Near Ferguson, Missouri, while bemoaning the time it was taking to eject a demonstrator, Trump declared that “part of the problem and part of the reason it takes so long is nobody wants to hurt each other anymore.” As guards removed protesters in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Trump said “They used to treat them very, very rough, and when they protested once, they would not do it again so easily.” As a society, he added, “we’ve become weak.” Since becoming president, Trump has tried to rectify this by urging police to “please don’t be too nice” with suspects. In August he said “tough police tactics” would stop the violence in Chicago “in a week.”

Another striking example of Trump’s refusal to face the human consequences of the violence he glorifies comes from his discussion of the NFL. The press has been filled in recent years with stories of former football players driven to suicide by the brain injuries they suffered on the field. But to Trump, they knew what they signed up for. In fact, he’s mocked the NFL for trying to minimize their suffering. Last year, when a woman at a Florida campaign rally passed out and then regained consciousness, Trump declared that, “That woman was out cold, and now she’s coming back. We don’t go by these new, and very much softer, NFL rules. Concussions. ‘Oh, oh! Got a little ding on the head. No, no, you can’t play for the rest of the season.’” In Iowa he said, “Football’s become soft like our country has become soft.”

Give this reporter one minute (30 secs., even) alone in a room w/ Trump & w/o his S.S. goons & thugs; we'll damn well see exactly who the fuck is "soft"!

[The Atlantic]