Trump's Weirdest Obsession Is Other Men
Julie Roginsky
Donald Trumps defenders would like us to believe that his long public record of comments about bodies, beauty, dominance and sex is just Trump being Trump. Spoiler alert: that is exactly the problem. After nearly a decade of watching him in national politics, one thing is clear: Trumps politics cannot be separated from his bizarre performance of masculinity.
This is not a story about Trumps sexual orientation, although there is an argument to be made that his self-loathing is based on a lifetime of being unable to live openly as he might wish. It is not about who Trump is really attracted to. It is about something far more public and far more politically relevant: his compulsive need to evaluate men and women through the language of bodies, attractiveness, virility and domination.
The pattern is not subtle. At the White House in 2019, Trump said of Clemsons quarterback: Look at that quarterback. Oh, I want to be the agent of that tall, handsome quarterback. Six-foot-seven.
During a rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania in 2024, Trump spent part of his closing presidential campaign message talking about the late golf legend Arnold Palmer, including a riff implying Palmer was unusually well-endowed. This man was strong and tough, and
when he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there they said, Oh my God. Thats unbelievable, Trump told the crowd.
https://saltypolitics.substack.com/p/trumps-weirdest-obsession-is-other
I've showered at a few public locker rooms over the years. There was no time that I spent checking other guys' equipment out. Just wanted to get cleaned up and out of there.
CTyankee
(68,542 posts)mwmisses4289
(4,847 posts)He is the standard they must live up to, because he is the most perfect specimen of human beauty ever born. Anyone who comes close to his ideal, is someone he sees as his to dominate and control.
no_hypocrisy
(55,521 posts)IOW, if Trump references another man as handsome or well hung, hes talking about himself.
It must kill him to look in the mirror and not see the 30 year old he used to be. But that fact hasnt stopped him from advertising.
Ocelot II
(131,464 posts)He evaluates everyone, both men and women, by their physical characteristics, and where men are concerned he wants to surround himself with men who look strong, fit, and conventionally handsome because they reflect on him (or he thinks they do). So he will often introduce or discuss a man (maybe another politician, or a show business or sports personality) with respect to his looks rather than his qualifications. "Central casting" is really a thing for him.
Easterncedar
(6,525 posts)There is a lot of twisty stuff in that misogynistic mess.
snot
(11,871 posts)people find meaning and value in different kinds of things. Most of us find value and meaning in things like work, loving relationships with our family and friends, education and wisdom, and/or trying to help make the world a better place; but oligarchs focus more on power, money, and appearances of various kinds regardless of intrinsic merit.
Many oligarchs are genuinely talented, of course, or at least are very smart about figuring out ways to fleece the rest of us; but I think many of them are unable for one reason or another to take much satisfaction from substantive human relationships, genuine inspiration and quality in their work product, wisdom that goes beyond mere cunning, or charity for its own sake rather than to facilitate their networking or whitewash their crimes.
kimbutgar
(27,614 posts)Since he cant get it up anymore !