BINGHAMTONREVIEW.COM
Trump Said What?!
TRUMP SAID WHAT?!
By Tom Sheremetta
I
t’s been crystal clear for a while now that Trump has no filter. Throughout his presidency, we’ve been introduced to a plethora of sayings that are indeed unorthodox for a president. Some think it’s funny, while some think it’s non-presidential and childish. We see these debates of how people feel about Trump’s rhetoric on a daily basis in our lives, whether it be Chelsea Handler calling Trump an asshole through visuals or dank memes on the God Emperor Trump Facebook page. Even though Trump has his savage moments, it is important that he have a filter at times. I love the memes that come out of Trump’s daily life as our president. I also love that he doesn’t beat around the (Jeb) bush. However, that doesn’t mean that I personally approve of everything he says. Let’s be honest: he has said some overly cruel things. On top of that, it seems that Trump has a bit of a narcissistic attitude as well. He points out other individuals’ faults to progress his own character, mainly on Twitter. On multiple occasions, Trump has been flat out wrong about things. Let’s take a look at each of these special rhetorical techniques and analyze some of my favorite Trump statements. Even before his run for presidency, Trump had his cruel moments. We can first look upon his tenure on Celebrity Apprentice, where he wasn’t shy and had no problem being over the top with his speech. For example, in 2013, during an episode of Celebrity Apprentice, Trump said to female contestant Brande Roderick that it “Must be a pretty picture, you dropping to your knees” (TheDailyBeast. com). Not only was Trump married already, but this was shown on national television. There’s no need for him to make that crude comment and, in fact, he shouldn’t have at all. Fast forward to his presidential run: we were all introduced to his controversial comments towards women. Firstly, the infamous “grab ‘em by the pussy” comment shook the political world.
editor@binghamtonreview.com
I understand that it wasn’t a public discussion (“locker-room talk”) and that it was more commentary on the phenomena that rich people can get away with anything. However, insinuating that money can lead to grabbing a woman’s genitals, implicitly coercive and non-consensual, is crude, deplorable, and uncomfortable in execution. Finally, his comment that Megyn Kelly had “blood coming out of her wherever” after a heated presidential debate just shows that maybe Trump isn’t a polite person. He tried to come back and say that he meant out of her nose or ears, but come on, we aren’t stupid. This, as well as other crude comments, are nothing new for Trump. Trump is also a big fan of putting others down through jabbing rhetoric, while at the same time shining praise on himself. We saw this throughout the Republican primaries. Trump gave it to his opponents, such as telling Cruz that he has no friends in the Senate and calling Jeb Bush “low energy.” Sure, it propelled him into winning the primaries and made for some great comedy, but debates should be more about policies than who can come up with the best insults and comebacks. Most of this behavior can be seen on his Twitter, as his posts are a battleground for anyone who crosses him. With his Twitter, anyone is at risk of a roasting. We’ve seen people from Hillary Clinton, to Kim Jong-Un, to Lavar Ball, come under fire. Yes, some of his tweets are downright savage, such as the tweet calling Kim Jong-Un “short and fat.” But, once again, this is our President. Is it really a good representation of our country when our President gets into verbal altercations on the Internet with a basketball dad and runs his twitter like a gossip page? The worst part of Trump’s rhetoric is when he’s dead wrong about what he’s saying. I understand that there are mistakes or misinterpretations, but there are times when what he says makes absolutely no sense. Recently, there have been a few instances of this.
Firstly, one of his recent responses to the Parkland Shooting truly caught my eye. Trump stated that we need to look at the violence of movies and video games and that “maybe they have to put a rating system for that.” (TheHill.com) One, there’s already a rating system (how does he not know that?). Two, there hasn’t been a valid study that showed that violence in entertainment creates violent people so calm down old man. And lastly, the Parkland school shooter was old enough anyway to be able to watch violent movies and play violent video games. Then, days later, Trump suggested that maybe the U.S. should confiscate guns from dangerous individuals before due process (TheHill. com). For someone that is in “support for the second amendment,” I guess he doesn’t care about the rest of our constitutional rights. We all know that it’s important to do research before making a claim. We also know that when we don’t, we’re at risk of making a fool of ourselves, as Trump has done. In essence, this article is just to show that there have been numerous times where Trump has stepped out of line, before and during the presidency. Going from the rhetoric level of Obama to Trump is a big difference. I personally thought that Trump would have calmed down a bit after winning the presidency, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Sure, it’s funny and #savage when Trump uses his rhetoric correctly, but it’s very embarrassing and childish when he doesn’t. Sources:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/watchtrump-told-female-apprentice-to-drop-to-yourknees https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/ post-politics/wp/2015/08/07/trump-says-foxsmegyn-kelly-had-blood-coming-out-of-herwherever/?utm_term=.cc5c19f5044e http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/375102-trump-raises-concerns-about-impact-of-violent-movies-says-we-may-have http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/376097-trump-take-the-guns-first-gothrough-due-process-second
BINGHAMTON REVIEW
15