Trump’s crass remark
You always know when Republicans are getting desperate. Barack Obama’s tan suit comes to mind. I seem to recall it was Bill O’Reilly (remember him?) who first feigned outrage at Obama’s tawny sartorial splendour, motivated no doubt by equal parts racism, O’Reilly’s personal inadequacy and extreme jealousy. (Think of how many more women O’Reilly could have sexually harassed had he looked half as good). It was also the best O’Reilly could do to bring a great man down.
Two minutes on the internet produced multiple photos of Ronald Reagan wearing a nearly identical tan suit. That was one of the more satisfying instances of a Republican shutdown — of the kind not created by a failure to pass an appropriations bill.
These days it’s Kamala’s laugh. Now, I think Kamala Harris has a perfectly entrancing laugh. But that’s beside the real point. At least she CAN laugh. I cannot think of what Donald Trump’s laugh sounds like, for the immediate reason that I don’t think he has one. I know he never tells an actual joke or a funny story, unless you count his “humorous” anecdotes involving cruelty. I don’t.
Having a normal sense of humour is a criterion for mental health. Its lack is a common trait among sociopaths. You may not even notice its absence right away until the sociopath tries to make a joke. Sociopaths sometimes try to mimic other ordinary human feelings, like compassion, with varying degrees of success. Even the smarter ones sometimes get it wrong. The dumb ones fall flat on their faces.
So it’s no accident that when Donald Trump tried to make a joke in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Wednesday night, it was inappropriate, disgusting and crass. He tried to make an offhand joke about the wife of the fire chief who was killed by one of the bullets intended for Trump. This is the same woman who President Biden tried to call and offer condolences to while Trump played golf.
Trump claimed during the speech that a friend of his had presented Helen Comperatore, Corey’s wife, with a check for a million dollars. “But you know what?” Trump asked supporters, “Corey’s wife said, ‘I’d rather have my husband.’”
“Isn’t that good?” Trump continued. “I know a lot of wives that would not say that, I’m sorry. They would not say that.” Trump was obviously projecting here. In any case, the crowd of glassy-eyed, drooling Trump-lickers thought it was all hilarious.
It was actually in horrendously poor taste. To make a stupid, offhand remark involving greed and money about a recently slain man isn’t just stupid, it’s vulgar. That the man died because Trump’s rhetoric is full of hate, and is often violent, makes it doubly so.
I won’t bore you with the details, but I’ve been on the receiving end of such a joke at the hands of a sociopath, and I know how it feels. It feels like someone is using your tragedy to make an unnecessary public point. It feels like a violation. You immediately want to forget about it but you can’t.
It was also revealingly about money, one of the few things Trump understands. Had Matthew Thomas Crooks been a better shot, and Melania had been the recipient of a sizeable insurance policy as a result, I wonder if she would prefer having the money than her grotesque husband. Trump probably suspects she would. If so, for once, I must agree with him.
There are eight million stories in the naked city of Donald Trump’s staggering insensitivities. This has been one of them. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.