Former President Donald Trump is increasingly embracing his crude side, but Washington Post coverage from his latest Iowa rally revealed that the Republicans there not only loving it, but they're also "relishing" it.
Trump has always been far from one of the prude elders in his generation, but his profanity, "crass" insults, and "vulgarities" are consistently growing. According to the report, however, it's now being promoted by the normally friendly and polite midwesterners of Iowa.
It has been almost 14 years since former vice president and now-President Joe Biden was caught on a hot mic moment dropping an F-bomb. "This is a big f--king deal," he said of the newly passed Affordable Care Act in March 2010.
Now, Iowa Republicans are walking around in t-shirts spelling out “F--- Biden." Children wandered around wearing shirts reading FJB, meaning the same.
"During his speech inside a high school gym in Fort Dodge, former president Trump called one GOP rival a 'son of a b----,' referred to another as 'birdbrain' and had the crowd shrieking with laughter at his comments on Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who he called 'pencil neck' before asking, “How does he hold up that fat, ugly face?” He brought the house down while mocking Biden, at one point baselessly suggesting Biden is using drugs and can’t get offstage 'by the time whatever it is he’s taken wears off.'"
The report cited one of the introductory speakers from the Iowa state legislature saying anyone who kneels for the national anthem is a "disrespectful little sh--." The crowd roared. Signs read "Biden Loves Minors," and a t-shirt showed Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris performing sex acts.
“Joe’s gotta go,” the Post quoted 59-year-old Lori Carpenter, who was leaving the event. “And the ho shouldn’t have been there in the first place.” The “ho” of which she speaks is Kamala Harris. The Post cited a "more vulgar" name the woman then used.
“It doesn’t bother me,” she said of the crudeness.
Meanwhile, 71-year-old Marsha Crouthamel, a relative, was there for the ride.
“It doesn’t bother me either because his policies are strong,” she agreed, explaining that Trump's insults and profanity get laughs. “Sometimes you just gotta excite people a little bit.”
“We’re Christians, and we can look past that,” Carpenter explained. “We see the good that he did our country when he was in.”
While Trump has spent the past four years attacking Biden as "sleepy" and questioning his mental stability, the last several months have prompted some to wonder if it was a pre-emptive strike to inoculate himself against the same such attacks.
As Trump begins to give more speeches, he's seemed increasingly confused. Several times, he thought he ran against former President Barack Obama in 2020. He had to be corrected twice in a Fox interview, then made a similar mistake at a rally, thinking Obama was the president today.
That same day, he confused Biden with Hillary Clinton, saying his polls were up against the latter. He caught himself, making the correction. A week later, Trump thought he ran against George W. Bush in the GOP primary in 2016 when it was actually Jeb Bush.
Last month, Trump mistakenly called Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán the leader of Turkey while speaking to a New Hampshire crowd. Trump welcomed him to the White House in 2019.
Then, Trump made a mistake he's mocked Biden for: He welcomed the rally in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He was in Sioux City, Iowa. He had to be told where he was by a state senator, Brad Zaun. Embarrassingly, Zaun was caught explaining it to Trump over the microphone.
A little over a week ago, Trump mistook Biden for Obama again, making it the fourth time he's made the mistake publicly.
“Everything Donald Trump says is either projection or a reflection of his deep insecurities. The American people elected Joe Biden in 2020 and rejected the hateful, divisive extremism of Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and they’ll do it again next November,” Biden campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa told the Post.
The implication from Moussa is that whether through fat jokes or claims of cognitive impairment, Trump is trying to point at someone else before anyone notices it's him. Then he drops curses and vulgarities to distract even more.
