Trump still uses “comedy” to mask the dangers of his worst ideas

A few years ago I wrote a look back at Trump’s presidency by describing how Donald Trump used humor as a weapon. He won the Republican presidential primary because he used insult comedy to attack his political rivals and put down racial minorities, women and people with disabilities. He entertained his supporters by wandering around the stage and ranting about current events like a stand-up comic. He put forward extreme and offensive ideas to present himself as a rabble-rouser against the establishment – ​​but could dismiss them as a mix of exaggerations and jokes if they received too many reactions.

Well, he just did it again. And the fact that many of his supporters dismiss his most extreme rhetoric as unserious helps pave the way for the erosion of multicultural democracy.

Trump’s third presidential campaign was his most extreme, hostile and bizarre campaign yet. He used textbook fascist rhetoric to describe migrants as “Poisoning the blood of our country.” He used classic dictatorial tropes to identify links as “vermin” And “the enemy within” and promised cruel repression. He unleashed a series of lies, repeating his claims that the 2020 election was rigged, that migrants ate pets and that schools secretly performing transgender surgeries on children.

Trump also advanced ridiculous ideas that undermined his own argument against Democrats. In the midst of lowering prices, Trump also floated the idea of ​​replacing income taxes with general tariff revenues — an inflationary proposal that some economists say is essentially a 130% sales tax on all imported goods.

But again he placed most of his rhetoric in a comedic register, blurring the line between seriousness and irony, treating gatherings as stand-up performances, and constantly using jokes to connect with his followers (often with the help of some quite strange bits).

Some of Trump’s die-hard followers happily support Trump’s most ridiculous ideas. But a big reason why he gets away with so much of what he says is that many people don’t see — or at least claim to see — the most offensive or extreme parts of what he says as not serious. In a New York Times/Siena College poll weeks before the election, 41% of likely voters agreed with the statement that “people offended by Donald Trump take his words too seriously.” And a Data for Progress poll in October showed that fewer than 4 in 10 likely voters thought Trump believed his more bizarre and extreme statements, including his claim that there were “very fine people on both sides” at the 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.

Trump’s ability to avoid responsibility for his most extreme rhetoric has also been captured in reporting on voter sentiment. Then a reporter for the New York Times asked Trump supporters in October about his promises, such as packing the federal government with loyalists, prosecuting political opponents, carrying out the largest deportation operation in history or imposing tariffs that could shake the economy, said they did not believe Trump’s claims. A 40-year-old Detroit Trump supporter told the Times he believed Trump’s promise to purge the federal government was “for publicity” and to “whip up the news.”

In some of my conversations with Trump supporters, I’ve seen a similar dynamic develop. They’ve discussed how they think he’s good for the economy or for slowing immigration, but if you ask about his most authoritarian rhetoric or his brazen comments about mistreating migrants, they’ll shrug and say something along the lines of: “that’s just Trump.” Being Trump.”

It’s true, of course, that Trump couches much of his commentary in a semi-ironic tone or uses cartoonish exaggerations to make some points that he probably doesn’t really mean. But this doesn’t mean it isn’t a serious problem.

Without even getting into the substance of his rhetoric, Trump’s joke effect makes him a poor, irresponsible leader. A fundamental tenet of representative democracy is that voters elect leaders who make clear promises and then try to keep them. If all of Trump’s rhetoric and policy commitments are shrouded in a haze of “we don’t know if Trump actually meant this,” then he is failing at the most fundamental level of fulfilling popular rule.

It is absurd that the public has to wait and guess whether he is serious or joking about setting tariffs so high that they could send the US economy into a tailspin, or whether he will pursue small tariffs to achieve a protect a few selected industries. . It’s also ridiculous that some of Trump’s more moderate supporters seem willing to gamble that he was merely exaggerating about how far he would go in wreaking havoc on the federal government to increase his power.

The bigger problem, however, is that Trump’s record shows that he should always be taken seriously. While every promise may or may not be literally true, his extreme speech about demeaning democracy and mistreating vulnerable people is always direction accurately.

Trump really tried to capitalize on lies about the election and tried to lead a mob to overturn the election results. Trump really refused to take a strong stand against white supremacists, and America saw that too increase in hate crimes during his term of office. Trump really oversaw a cruel family separation policy when it came to the deportation of undocumented immigrants. Trump really done try to use loyalists in the Justice Department to undermine democracy. According to his former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, Trump really asked if he wanted that could shoot demonstrators – only to reportedly encounter resistance from his advisors.

Both Trump and his supporters benefit from his winking, ironic tone and his ability to resort to the defense that any specific claim of his may not be serious. Trump may activate the extreme parts of his base while reserving the right to say something is a joke if the reaction is too intense. And his ostensibly “moderate” supporters may attempt to justify their public support of him by choosing which of his positions seem most defensible and which they can claim they are not liable for because they were supposedly said in jest or in jest . an act of pure provocation.

But after nine years of Trump in politics, four of them as president with an attempted self-coup, we know there is no norm that Trump won’t break, nor is there any idea too extreme to implement in reality. Anyone who assumes Trump is bluffing is the loser at the poker table.