Why Does Donald Trump Curse, Insult People, and Call People Names?

Yesterday, President Donald Trump visited a liquefied natural gas plant in Louisiana, where he turned his remarks into something like a political campaign speech. The speech’s nominal purpose was to talk about energy policy and to celebrate United States’ growing energy independence. Unlike the courteous, charming, presidential-types of speeches that I blogged about a few days ago, this wild event sounded more like a campaign rally. President Trump took advantage of the obviously friendly audience – Hackberry, Louisiana is serious Trump country and the natural gas industry has a natural incentive to mistrust green energy projects.

President Trump’s Louisiana speech played to Trump’s base voters. His presentation was loud, foul-mouthed, and careless of facts. Yet his audience laughed and applauded his most ridiculous comments. What is going on here?

Now, to be fair, not all of the speech was awful. Some of Trump’s comments were a bit partisan, but within the lines of hard-hitting political talk, for example:

“It was not long ago that Sempra planned to build a natural gas import terminal on this very spot. That was in the past, when our leaders pursued policies that were anti-American energy and anti-American worker and anti-American wealth.”

That comment was probably unfair and unreasonable, but it focused on policies, as presidential speeches should do.

However, President Trump quickly resorted to curse words, bizarre insults, and name-calling. He criticized Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke for rebooting his campaign: “I got Beto. Beto. Beto is falling fast. What the hell happened? . . . Political geniuses – when you have to restart your campaign, history has said that does not work out well, right?”

Moving on to Democrat Joe Biden, Mr. Trump said, “I don’t know what the hell happened to Biden. What happened to him? I’m looking and I said, ‘that doesn’t look like the guy I knew.’ What happened to him?” Going downhill from there, Trump spent a full paragraph criticizing Bernie Sanders: “And Bernie – you know, Bernie is crazy. (Laughter.) Bernie is crazy. . . . Bernie has got a lot of energy, but it’s energy to get rid of your jobs. He’s got the opposite energy that you produce. Not good energy. You don’t like his energy.” We call people crazy because we don’t know how to respond to their ideas. We call people crazy because we fear change. It is to that fear that Mr. Trump appealed.

Trump saved his top insults for Elizabeth Warren: “Pocahontas, I think, is probably out. (Laughter.) Boy, you got some beauties there. 350 million people and that’s the best we can do. (Laughter.) I don’t think so. Even as Democrats I could pick better than that. (Laughter.)” He was referring to Warren’s claim to have Native American ancestry.We call people names because we want to reduce their power, limit their influence, and, yes, stop anyone from listening to their ideas.

Trump ended the lengthy speech by telling the workers that “this has been a great honor to be with you today.” He continued that “I want to congratulate the workers, because ultimately it doesn’t work without the workers. (Applause.)” He intoned the presidential benediction: “Thank you. God bless you. And God bless America. Thank you. Thank you. (Applause.)”

I suppose that most presidential speeches have political undertones. Trump’s excessive aggression and open politicking obviously violated presidential norms and may have violated some kind of rule about using publicly-funded events for partisan purposes. He did include some substantive comments during his speech. Nevertheless, the press inevitably emphasized Trump’s politicized insults.

But I have some questions:

First, do we really want the president to engage in behavior and speech that no fifth-grade teacher would tolerate in the classroom? President Trump’s name-calling was infantile. Calling a United States Senator “Pocahontas” was racist and rude. Hinting about her physical appearance was sexist. Warren doesn't call Trump a fat slob, does she? So why should he comment on her looks?

Second, why does Trump speak that way? The answer is simple. Trump speaks this way because it works. Trump always notices his audience’s reactions. He insults people and calls them names because his audiences respond to that kind of talk. His Louisiana audience laughed, applauded, and cheered as he ranted. But why would anybody respect a politician who speaks that way?

So: 

Every public speaking teacher explains that rhetoric is about adapting to the audience. There are two ways to understand Trump's audience. At first, I was inclined to quote one of Lisa Lutz’ Spellman novels: “what is wrong with you people?” But that doesn’t help solve our problems. Maybe we should instead show more empathy. Something is going on across red state America that makes millions of people increasingly anxious, unusually fearful of change, and intolerant of opposition. What is it? Why do so many basically decent people, who in the past would have scorned someone like Donald Trump, suddenly praise and encourage his worst behavior? Although Trump does not articulate their concerns’ hidden causes, and although his solutions and policies offer them nothing, we need to think long and hard about why someone as unpersuasive as Donald Trump would suddenly become so persuasive.

In other words, President Trump gives foul speeches because foul speeches get him votes. Mr. Trump does not alleviate his audience's concerns, which are real; instead, he provokes their anxieties. Perhaps we can hope that Americans who respect rational discourse will vote more often. If disgusting rhetoric stops getting votes, politicians will stop spewing out disgusting rhetoric.  

Which Donald Trump is real? Yes, the warm, charming, personable Donald Trump is real. But the angry, irrational, hateful Donald Trump who spoke in Louisiana yesterday is just as real. Respectable conservatives admire the first Donald Trump, but the foul-mouthed Donald Trump has far more admirers than he should.