Fat chance
There are countless valid reasons not to vote for Donald Trump or Chris Christie in next year’s presidential election, and the candidates’ weight is not one of them. However, Trump continues to remind us that he disagrees. As a lifelong bully, Trump can’t resist mocking opponents for their appearance, and his long history of body-shaming makes him one of the most loathsome human beings on the planet.
While campaigning in New Hampshire on Tuesday, Trump revealed that Christie’s recent legitimate attacks on Trump’s character was irking him. “Christie,” the disgraced monster began. “He’s eating right now. He can’t be bothered.” Adding fuel to the hatred, the crowd laughed and, reportedly, one person yelled that Christie is a “fat pig.”
Trump could have spoken up sincerely against that utterance or, given the fact Trump inspired it, he at least could have ignored it. Instead, Trump took things an ugly step further by mocking people who would admonish such cheap debasement. “Sir, please do not call him a ‘fat pig.’ That’s very disrespectful,” Trump jested, feigning sternness. “Don’t call him—see, I’m trying to be nice!” he added, as if looking for sympathy for having to endure a struggle to show respect for anyone or anything.
Trump continued bashing Christie through his perverse sarcasm-wrapped body-shaming: “Don’t call him a fat pig. You can’t do it. You can’t do that. So now, because you’re not allowed to do that, and, therefore, we’re not going to do it, okay?” Chuckling with the audience, Trump concluded, “We want to be very civil, right?” Later, Trump promoted that bit of verbal excrement on Truth Social, boasting about how he was “extremely respectful” of Christie while referring to him as “Sloppy Chris Christie.”
Last September, after the FBI seized classified documents from Mar-a-Lago and Christie criticized Trump, he responded with body-shaming, posting a photo of a large unidentified man at a buffet with the caption: “Chris Christie at a Roy Rogers at 11PM in the evening trying to console himself.” Trump has body-shamed many others, including Jerry Nadler, Tex Alles, and Alicia Machado, always appearing to delight in doing so.
After Trump’s filth, Christie pushed back in an interview on Fox News’ MediaBuzz. “Oh, like he’s some Adonis?” Christie asked rhetorically, then likened Trump to “a bully on the schoolyard who teases you and makes fun of you.” Christie also pointed out the lousy politics behind it all, given that “there are tens of millions of Americans out in your audience watching right now who, like me, have struggled with their weight.”
In other words, Trump may enjoy sharing laughs about Christie’s weight with some audience members, but each such episode is another advertisement to voters about Trump’s moral depravity and lack of fitness for the presidency—or any other office on the planet, for that matter. As Trump circles the drain, he continues to cement his legacy as the nation’s most brazenly repulsive politician. Once again, decency is on the ballot in 2024.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month