For release: 05/14/24
Trump outdoes himself with crude language
By Cal Thomas
Tribune Content Agency
If you are the parent of young children, are you OK with your kids hearing former President Donald Trump’s language and putdowns, like the ones at his rally last Saturday in Wildwood, New Jersey?
One can hear a kid justifying his or her own swearing: “If Trump can talk like that, why can’t I?” Is this the way we want our children to be raised? They will learn swear words soon enough (and hopefully control their use of them or eschew them altogether).
There was a time when we were taught to respect those in authority and use acceptable language. I remember my grandmother once admonishing me when I said something “nice young men don’t say in public.” The words that offended her were “toilet paper.”
Trump’s cursing was the perfect finish to a week that included the salacious testimony by porn actress Stormy Daniels at his trial. I understand he is frustrated by a trial that seems to him, and many others, like a political hit, but that doesn’t justify a potty mouth.
On television, in movies, in certain mean and increasingly upscale streets, men and women are using language that in the words of Professor Henry Higgins “would make a sailor blush.” Where is what used to be called decorum? Need a definition of decorum? It is “dignified propriety of behavior, speech, dress, etc.” Synonyms include politeness and dignity. None of these are reflected in Trump’s demeanor.
Decorum once included men who muted themselves in front of “ladies.” Now too many ladies are using curse words in public. Men and women chanted “bulls**t” at the Trump rally. Trump called President Biden a “moron” and mocked his way of walking. He said s**t more than once. You stay classy, Donald.
Trump uses Hell as a curse word with increasing frequency. Does he believe in Hell? Does he believe in Heaven and know how to get there? His fervent evangelical supporters, some of whom bizarrely claim he shares their faith, should ask him.
The number of people who ignore, or justify his behavior is astounding. They have made a bargain with the political devils for whom power and results, not character, are supreme. Yes, President Biden occasionally uses bad language and has his own character flaws. He disobeys teachings of his Catholic church on abortion and other issues, but his “absolution” – largely from the media – is different from what Trump receives from his followers.
Trump probably sees the tens of thousands who attended his New Jersey rally as justification for his behavior. Trump said President Biden couldn’t draw anything close to that number, railed against his New York City trial, and questioned for the umpteenth time the 2020 election results. Trump’s fans appear willing to believe anything he says. That also goes for Biden, who lied numerous times during a recent CNN interview.
Maybe it’s generational, but isn’t behavior objectively and eternally right or wrong? We seem to be trying to have it both ways. Curse words are bad when used by a politician we dislike but are ignored, even praised, when one approves of a politician. Here’s a test: Try cursing in church if you want to know if all behavioral standards have been abandoned.
Perhaps Trump should consult the wisdom of our first president. George Washington said: “The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing…is a vice so mean and low, without any temptation, that every man of sense and character detests and despises it.”
According to the Association for Psychological Science, regular swearing “is a defining feature of a Type A personality. It is negatively correlated with conscientiousness, agreeableness, sexual anxiety, and religiosity.”
That seems to accurately define Donald Trump.
Readers may email Cal Thomas at [email protected]. Look for Cal Thomas’ latest book “A Watchman in the Night: What I’ve Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America” (HumanixBooks).
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I have followed your column for years, ever since my college days when I was a fervent Evangelical Christian (which I no longer am). If you ever want the full story, email me, but here is the short story. I was raised in a conservative Roman Catholic household. When I became an Evangelical Christian my freshman year in college, my parent thought I had joined a “Christian cult.” That was the principal reason I later left Evangelical Christianity, and while I returned to the Roman Catholicism of my birth, the damage had been done. I began to question everything about Christianity to the point I am a person without faith anymore.
I still hear Evangelicals tell me that Catholics have a “cult” surrounding the Pope. I did not believe it in the 1980s (one of many facetious arguments I heard from Evangelical zealots back then), and I certainly do not believe it now.
Instead, I see Evangelical Christians creating a “cult” around Donald Trump. It is nauseating, and against everything Jesus ever preached.
I am no longer an Evangelical Christian or Catholic (although I retain a deep love for the idea of the Virgin Mother), and I am neither a Republican nor Democrat. While Catholics like Biden and Pelosi are problematic, they support other tenets of the Catholic Catechism like not supporting the death penalty. The death penalty, in my mind, is as anti-Christian as abortion.
And, by the way, despite my lack of faith, I believe neither in abortion nor the death penalty.
However, I do NOT vote pro-life due to the extremists in the movement. In one of your columns, you gave Trump at least partial kudos for upending Roe v. Wade. What about his support for the death penalty, despite that being in contradiction to the Catholic Catechism? What is your opinion on the death penalty? What is your opinion on Pope Francis?
I noticed that before January 6, 2020, you were a big Trump supporter. In fact, you were like many Evangelical Christians: you saw Trump as America’s Evangelical Pope. The Book of Revelation (13:1-18) warns against false prophets and the anti-Christ. If the Chtistian faith is true, the Trump surely might fulfill the prophecy of Revelation, as he seems to have so many Christians under his spell.
While I no longer believe any of this, I know that you do. You say in this column that Trump has a “potty mouth.” How cute!
Why don’t you say that he speaks in the Language of Satan?
Why? Because you still use kid gloves on this man, who has had three wives, has cheated on all three of those wives, and is a serial adulterer. But, he gives Evangelical Christians political power.
It has never been about Jesus with Evangelicals, just political power. It was why I left the movement in 1984
Focus what I call the “original cast” who will never let you down and never fails (that would be Jesus) and not the “road show” which would be the rest of us sinners. Warning: The unpardonable/unforgivable sin or “blasphemy of the Holy Spirit” is mentioned in Mark 3:22–30 and Matthew 12:22–32. Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter” (Mark 3:28), but then He gives one exception: “Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin” (verse 29).
From time to time you rail against Trump’s character. However it seems you have a hard time wrapping your head around the idea that he is a totally lawless person. As the previous commentator noted, you often give him kid glove treatment and demonize attempts to rein him in. Have you read the numerous commentators who like Frank Bruni who saw someone not trying to serve but be God? I heard a joke recently about Trump reading his new Bible, seeking strength and comfort, but stalled out on the commandment against having other gods. Also have you read the numerous times he has said something to the effect of being able to do anything he wanted? On one occasion he said Article II of the Constitution gave him authority to do what he wanted. He prefaced his comments on grabbing women with “you can do anything”. His constant use of 4 letter words is part of that overall picture. If you could internalize that idea of Trump, you would have no difficulty in joining with Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney in using the full force of the law to keep him away from becoming president again.
I’m sure you have held and still hold democrats to the same standard. Biden with his ‘big Fucking deal’ in response to Barack Obama aka Barry Soetoro’s passing of another unconstitutional law (government mandated insurance). Your post is laughable as you democrats try to pretend you’re unbiased . Ask Peter Doocey how he felt when Biden called him a son-of-a-bitch. Your selective memory only of the man who righted this country until your party cheated him out of office in the last election is typical for people brain damaged to put dementia Joe within one order of destroying what’s left of our country.
Yes I have