Today, in response to the Manchester terrorist attack, Donald Trump announced how he will define terrorists: "I will call them, from now on, losers because that's what they are: losers."
It’s during moments of trauma that a president is supposed to speak with eloquence to bring the country (and the world) together. Unfortunately, Donald Trump is a terrible president in every way, from his corrupt cover-ups to his terrible policies to his incompetence with the English language.
As I note in my book about Trump, President Trump Unveiled: Exposing the Bigoted Billionaire, Trump uses insults as a defense mechanism because he lacks the intelligence and the wit to respond in any other way.
The terrorist in Manchester joins a long list of people Trump has called a loser: Jeb Bush (“a loser”), Club for Growth (“They are total losers!”), S.E. Cupp (“totally biased loser”), Graydon Carter (“a total loser”), critics on CNN (“Boring anti-Trump panelists, mostly losers in life!”), Ted Cruz (“loser”), Cheri Jacobus (“Major loser, zero credibility!”), Bill Kristol (“an embarrassed loser”), New York Daily News (“a total loser!”), Politico (“Losers!”), Marco Rubio (“big loser”), and Karl Rove (“loser”) (“a loser”) (“a loser”) (“loser”) (“total loser”).
Trump has tweeted about a “loser” more than 170 times, using the word to describe Rosie O’Donnell (“a total loser”), Danny Zucker, Ana Navarro, Mark Cuban, Richard Belzer, Cher, Salon.com, Huffington Post, Jonah Goldberg, George Will, Ron Fournier, Chuck Todd, Russell Brand, and Sint Maarten Prime Minister Sarah Westcot-Williams.
He even once tweeted his own quote: "’Show me a man without an ego and I'll show you a loser’ - Donald Trump.”
To Trump, anyone who criticizes him is a loser: “You can only smile when the losers of the world try so hard to put down successful people. Just remember, they all want to be YOU!”
Trump also invokes losers to celebrate holidays, such as “I wish everyone, including the haters and losers, a very happy Easter!” and this bizarre 2013 tweet: “I would like to extend my best wishes to all, even the haters and losers, on this special date, September 11th.”
Trump also has defined as losers anyone who criticized his line of ties, people who claim he wears a wig, and people who call him “F**kface Von Clownstick.” In fact, he has used the term “loser” to describe anyone who suffered from the Bush recession (“One good aspect of the Obama depression is that it will separate the winners from the losers”).
Losers also included anyone questioning Trump’s athletic abilities and sports expertise: “The haters and losers that assume I was a non-athlete and know nothing about coaches should look into my past-unlike our President-open book.” And losers are anyone who questions Trump’s conspiracy theories about vaccines: “To all haters and losers: I am NOT anti-vaccine, but I am against shooting massive doses into tiny children.”
Trump also announced, “If I’m the third most envied man in America, the small group of haters and losers must be nauseas [sic].” We are, for so many reasons.
Compare Trump’s “loser” to a run-of-the-mill politician like Theresa May (“the worst of humanity”) and it shows how terrible Trump is at even a simple presidential task.
At some level, Trump’s incompetence with language is the least of his flaws. Trump’s open bigotry against Muslims makes him a leading recruiter of terrorists. He has proposed a budget that is unprecedented in world history in the scale of its attacks on the poor and benefits for the rich.
But Trump’s “loser” mentality is important because it reveals who Trump is. Trump has a limited vocabulary because he has a limited mind. He sees the world in terms of winners (himself and anyone who likes him) and losers (anyone who attacks him).
With a president who thinks that everyone from twitter trolls to terrorists should all be called “losers,” the American people are the real losers.