How Trump's Obsession With Weight Explains His Misrule
More than an odious personal prejudice, its also his go-toand inaccuratemetaphor for the U.S. government.
https://newrepublic.com/article/196784/trump-obsession-weight-explains-misrule
https://archive.ph/CqfNc
Soldiers react as President Donald Trump arrives onstage during a celebration to honor the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
When President Donald Trump addressed Army troops June 10 at Fort Bragg, his audience was screened for political leanings and physical appearance. No fat soldiers, read one unit-level message,
according to Konstantin Toropin and Steve Beynon of Military.com. Another memo,
reported by the NBC affiliate in Raleigh, said, Soldiers sitting in the bleachers are to be fit and not look fat. Its inconceivable that these directives originated anywhere but the White House.
This presidential aversion isnt new. Trump has a long record, which he lengthens every day, of disparaging people for what he regards as excess pounds, the
Chicago Tribune columnist Steve Chapman
noted in October 2016. But fat shaming is more than one of Trumps many deeply offensive habits. Its also a metaphor that Trump misapplies to the federal government hes supposed to manage.
Mr. Trump doesnt like fat people, a Trump Organization vice president once
told a caterer at his golf club in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. When Trump owned the Miss Universe Organization, he humiliated one winner
by publicly calling her an eating machine and, unbeknownst to her, invited the press to watch her work out at a gym. Trump
said that Rosie ODonnell had a fat, ugly face (he also called her a
pig) and that Kim Kardashian had a fat ass (he also said she had a
bad body).
These comments reflect Trumps well-documented mistreatment of women, but Trump often insults men for their weight too. When Trump was a real estate developer he routinely referred to one New York City official behind his back as the fat fuck,
according to a former Trump Organization executive. During the 2016 campaign he
repeatedly mocked his opponent Chris Christie for his weight, once pointing to Christie and saying, Youre not eating Oreos anymore. No more Oreos. In August 2024, Trump
said of the Democratic Montana Senator Jon Tester (who lost that year): Hes got the biggest stomach Ive ever seen. Trump even mocked one of his own supporters at an August 2019 rally,
saying, That guys got a serious weight problem. Go home, start exercising!
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