'Piggy.' 'Fascist.' 'Communist.' Trump thinks words are political tools that don't really hurt.

By Gary Abernathy

‘It’s easier than explaining it’ sums up Trump’s philosophy when it comes to outgoing and incoming verbal insults

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” — Traditional children’s retort.

The fact that it was not surprising when President Trump called a female reporter “piggy” during a recent press gaggle aboard Air Force One is evidence of the unfortunate new norm Trump has established when it comes to off-the-cuff presidential insults. But a follow-up meeting in the Oval Office helps explain why Trump has never considered verbal jibes — either his own or those directed at him — something worth getting too worked up over.

As USA Today recapped the “piggy” affair, “Aboard Air Force One en route to Palm Beach, Florida, Trump had held a press gaggle to answer reporters’ questions. One reporter was asking a follow-up question about the Jeffrey Epstein files when Trump cut her off, pointing a finger toward her and leaning in as he said: ‘Quiet! Quiet, piggy.’”

It was an insult Trump had used before. The same USA Today story notes, “1996 Miss Universe winner Alicia Machado of Venezuela has said Trump called her ‘Miss Piggy’ when she gained weight after winning the crown.”

Numerous stories ripped Trump for the more recent comment, with many focusing on his supposed penchant for insulting women.

I try never to insult anyone, male or female, with demeaning personal descriptions. Most people I know don’t either. But in his defense, Trump is an equal-opportunity offender. He insults men. He insults women. For those who believe women should be treated as equal to men in the workforce and elsewhere (a belief I share) Trump makes no distinction. In Trump’s world, women are every much a target-rich environment for insults as men.

Why does Trump hurl such juvenile verbal abuse at others? Uncovering the roots of such a recurring character deficit would require Trump spending hours on a psychiatrist’s couch, an exercise in self-reflection never likely to occur. But a recent Oval Office session offered a clue as to Trump’s attitude regarding words as weapons.

‘You can just say yes’

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani was visiting Trump last week in the wake of Mamdani’s recent election victory. At one point, Mamdani was asked whether he still considers Trump a fascist, as he had said during his campaign.

Mamdani began to respond when Trump turned to him and said, “That’s OK, you can just say yes.” Mamdani replied, “OK, all right.” Trump expounded, “It’s easier than explaining it. I don’t mind.”

At another point, when pressed on Mamdani calling him a “despot,” Trump noted he had been called “much worse.”

Without a doubt, Trump couldn’t care less about the insults hurled his way in the political arena. They’re just words. He’ll take what you throw at him and throw it back twice as hard. When Trump said “I don’t mind” that Mamdani has called him a fascist and a despot, it’s likely that truer words were never spoken.

Trump has repeatedly called Mamdani a communist. He undoubtedly will call him that and other derogatory things in the future. For Trump, they’re just tools of the trade, just words that can’t really hurt anyone.

In fact, no one is on the receiving end of more derogatory and at times disgusting insults than Trump, including “Hitler,” “Nazi,” “fascist,” “authoritarian,” “dictator” and much worse, as just a peek at the Trump-hating memes that circulate online reveals. They represent vile and contemptuous attacks on the president to such a degree that we would want to protect young children from seeing them.

So when Trump calls a woman “piggy” or some variation thereof, it is undoubtedly to him just part of the game — a game played by him and others on a daily basis. Again, most of us would never stoop that low. But Trump has long wielded words as weapons to a degree unlike any politician — especially at the presidential level — before him.

Now — stipulating that some of us of the old school still believe that insults that might be leveled at men should never be employed against women — we should acknowledge that our society has become much too sensitive about verbal affronts.

When I spent six years as a contributing columnist for the Washington Post, my mostly conservative columns were met by some of the ugliest vitriol imaginable from the Post’s mostly liberal readers. Aside from the online comments, I received in the mail hundreds of letters and postcards calling me every name in the book, often accompanied by creative but often obscene illustrations. My email box filled up after each column with every personal verbal attack you can imagine.

I laughed at them. Many of them I saved to show to friends, who often couldn’t believe how hateful and vile people could be.

Words only hurt if we let them

More people should laugh off such things. But instead, we live in an “outrage society” where people can’t wait to rush to a microphone or go online to express maximum offense taken at some supposed highly insulting verbal injury that came their way.

Even ChatGPT has gone woke on the subject of verbal abuse. When I looked up the old “sticks and stones” saying to see if it was attributable to anyone in particular (it doesn’t seem to be) Chat GPT (who you’ll recall didn’t know Dick Cheney had died until I finally convinced it) informed me, “It’s a traditional English saying meant to encourage people to ignore insults or verbal attacks.” But it quickly added, “Of course, we now recognize that words can hurt—but the phrase is still widely quoted.”

I hadn’t asked for ChatGPT’s opinion on the saying, but it felt obliged to share it. Likewise, Google’s “dive deeper in AI Mode” added, “The saying dismisses the power of words to harm a person’s self-esteem and mental well-being.”

I agree that words can be hurtful. But the sting should be short-lived. Instead of insisting on the notion that hurtful words can leave lifelong scars, and playing up the idea of victimhood even more than our society already does, we should do more to encourage the practice of shrugging off hurtful verbal attacks.

Allowing people to hurt us with their words is in reality surrendering control of our “agency” (a popular concept these days) to others. Our self-confidence should never be based on what others — even presidents — say or think of us. And that’s what we should be reinforcing to our children, teaching them that those who insult us really have deep-seated self-esteem problems of their own. (And that applies to Trump, too.)

Just out of respect for the office and for the sake of old-fashioned decorum, presidents shouldn’t hurl insults the way Trump does. But if you’re going all-in on the verbal assault game, as Trump obviously has, it’s clear that at least he doesn’t discriminate.

“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” While Donald Trump may take that old saying to extremes, we could all do well to pay it a little more heed.

Gary Abernathy is an award-winning journalist and columnist with a long career in news media and politics, including as a contributing columnist for the Washington Post and a frequent analyst on PBS NewsHour. Never miss an update from Abernathy Road, where Gary offers opinion and analysis about political and cultural developments.