Horowitz: Trump’s Post-Debate Meltdown Reveals His Character
Tuesday, October 04, 2016
Given the structure of political reporting, most of the coverage of Trump’s Twitter rants and rally outbursts honed in on whether or not he was damaging his campaign because he was not staying on message. While he is certainly hurting his own cause by behaving this way, the focus on tactics and strategy, misses the far more important point. Donald Trump continues to demonstrate he does not have the basic character or temperament we expect in someone who is going to hold the highest office in the land. Whether we agree or disagree with our Presidents, we want to admire them as people. And too much of Donald Trump is simply not admirable.
Trump’s week long attack on the former Miss Universe, Alicia Marchado is the most recent case in point. Referenced by Hillary Clinton in the debate, Marchado recently spoke out about Trump’s abusive and insulting treatment in response to her gaining weight after she was crowned Miss Universe. Trump, who at the time was the owner of the Miss Universe Pageant, called her Miss Piggy and Miss Housekeeping, according to Marchado, and undeniably brought television cameras in to watch her work out as part of her weight loss regimen and provided a running commentary about her eating habits for the media.
Without Trump’s reaction this past week, perhaps most of this story could be chalked up to a 20 year old he said/she said dispute. But the reality star and businessman spent last week continuing to argue that Marchado had gained a massive amount of weight creating a major problem, called her ‘”disgusting”’ and cited a non-existent sex tape in a pathetic attempt to smear her character. This is part of an all too familiar pattern of Mr. Trump hurling insults and telling lies about anyone who has the temerity to criticize him. He also seems to reserve his harshest attacks for women who take him to task, whether they are television correspondents, like Megyn Kelly and Mika Brzezinski, or in this case, a former Miss Universe.
As parents we attempt to teach our children to exercise good sportsmanship, accept responsibility for our mistakes, apologize when it is called for, and to be kind-not cruel. On these basic measures of humanity, Donald Trump consistently comes up short. We deserve better in the White House. The good news is most Americans know it.
Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island.
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