Trump’s vulgarity poisons public life

Donald Trump is a vulgarian. We know it: this has long been a determining element of his public and private life. But a new Washington Post report quantifies what many people have felt: Trump’s use of profanity, insults and combative language has gotten even worse since he returned to office in January 2025.

During Trump’s first term, about 40% of his speeches contained at least one use of vulgarity. In just the first 16 months of his second term, that figure rises to 93 percent. The president’s rude or insulting posts on social media have also tripled compared to his first term. The roadblocks arrive much later; most of his posts are posted between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m., indicating that the president, who has always been nocturnal, is even more so as he approaches his 80th birthday in June. His posts on Truth Social are more self-referential and self-centered: as of 2026, half of his posts have used first-person pronouns – sometimes more than 12 times in a single post. This represents an increase of 30% compared to 2018.

But it goes beyond the numbers. Trump’s vulgar behavior and cruelty are not accidental. They are structural and a defining characteristic of his policies, his vision of democracy and society, and his relationship with the American people and the world.

Bolstered by the Supreme Court’s right-wing majority, the president was elevated to the status of America’s first de facto king and an aspiring dictator. His apparent desire to end true democracy and the rule of law – replacing them with competitive authoritarianism through the Big Lie, voter cancellation, voter suppression, and the threat of the Insurrection Act and martial law – is accelerating the hallmarks of his political project.

Trump has launched a war of choice against Iran and repeatedly threatened to destroy its civilization – actions that constitute crimes against humanity. His administration is blatantly corrupt and ethically compromised, with his personal and family wealth estimated at several billion dollars.

The president is a gross racist who shared an artificial intelligence-generated video of Obama as monkeys. He regularly insults the intelligence of black people – and black women in particular – as “low IQ”. He says non-white immigrants are “poison” in the “blood” of the nation and parasites. He has repeatedly shown himself to be sexist and misogynistic.

These are not character flaws or just bad behavior. Collectively, these are attacks on the fundamental principles and norms of democracy, civility, decency, equality, fairness, and dignity on which American civic life nominally rests.

Fascism and other forms of authoritarianism are, at their core, vulgar political systems and crude forms of power that deprive populations and entire societies of dignity and agency.

Fascism and other forms of authoritarianism are, at their core, vulgar political systems and crude forms of power that deprive populations and entire societies of dignity and agency. It is no coincidence that Trump’s language and behavior have hardened in direct proportion to the acceleration of his authoritarian project.

As he gets older, he seems to increasingly lack filters or self-control. Whether this is intentional behavior born of the arrogance of power or a symptom of a deteriorated mental state is not the question. His drive for power has not been stopped by members of the Republican Party, American political institutions, or responsible elites. The walls have not closed in on Trump. This time, the so-called adults who have been in the room since his first administration are no longer present; they have been replaced by MAGA courtiers and enablers.

Speaking to the Post, historian Julian Zelizer called Trump historically unique in his use of profanity and how it “dovetails with a very aggressive presidency” and a very dominant leadership style. A swear word, Zelizer noted, is much more than that; the president’s profanity is a signal, a threat, to anyone who opposes him, indicating how far he is willing to go.

Public opinion polls and focus groups have repeatedly shown that Trump’s MAGA supporters admire the fact that he “tells it like it is” — that he ignores “political correctness” and talks like them. In an example of unhealthy leadership-follower dynamics and mass disinhibition, the president’s die-hard MAGA supporters crave such power and ability to act without consequence.

In a statement to the Post, White House press secretary Olivia Wales confirmed: “President Trump doesn’t care about being politically correct, he cares about making America great again. The American people love how authentic, transparent and effective the president is, which is why he won a landslide victory on November 5, 2024.”

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Trump’s electoral victory was not overwhelming. Apart from this, there is another possible explanation for his increased use of profanity and aggressive behavior.

Psychologist John Gartner, contributor to the book “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,” believes that the president’s worsening behavior could be a sign that his mind is becoming even more disturbed and pathological.

“First of all, he’s up at all hours of the night, posting all these lies and crazy stuff,” Gartner told the Daily Beast. “Rhythm – whether someone stays up all night tweeting – is a clinical indicator of some sort of mania or sunset.”

Gartner’s biggest concern is what the president’s behavior indicates about his true intentions. When Trump recently posted an AI-generated image of himself pressing a red button with mushrooms in the background, the psychologist didn’t treat it as humorous.

“He never jokes,” Gartner said. “And he’s not bluffing either. What he’s doing is preparing us. He’s preparing us for things that would otherwise be unthinkable.”

[Trump] decided to teach children a crude lesson about the need for national strength and vitality, about Iran, the possibility of an impending nuclear apocalypse, and how Iranian protesters – including women – were shot in the head by snipers.

Presidents are role models and teachers for a nation. Earlier this month, Trump invited a group of children to the Oval Office to celebrate the return of the presidential fitness test. Instead of an age-appropriate conversation about the importance of exercise and health, he decided to give the kids a crude lesson about the need for national strength and vitality, about Iran, the possibility of an impending nuclear apocalypse, and how Iranian protesters — including women — were shot in the head by snipers.

Trump even went so far as to ask the children to think about all the deaths a nuclear war would cause, and whether they would even be alive today if the United States had not attacked Iran. “You may be too young for this,” Trump told them. But that didn’t stop him from warning them that “[y]You can’t let a bunch of crazy people have a nuclear weapon or the world will be in a lot of trouble.

At one point during this lesson, Trump put his finger to his forehead to demonstrate how Iranian protesters were shot between the eyes. He also warned children about transgender women in sports, calling them predatory.

Several children seemed visibly upset. They should have been. Trump was actually teaching them violence, strength and nationalism, and preparing them to fear the dangerous Other – the organizing values ​​of fascism.

Since the president’s return to office, I keep returning to “Slouching Towards Gomorrah,” the 1996 book by federal judge — and failed Supreme Court nominee — Robert Bork. The book was a defining work of the right-wing culture wars, beating the drum of a moral panic about how liberals’ supposed wickedness, immorality, and crudeness were destroying the traditional values ​​on which American civilization and Western society depended.

Three decades later, it’s a dark and rich irony to see the immorality and cultural degradation that Bork railed against manifest in the person of Trump — and in his red-hatted supporters. The irony is dark, but as historian Rick Perlstein has clearly argued, it’s really not that surprising.

“What I had wrong about the American right was the idea that it succeeded in the 1960s by purging its craziest, most reactionary, most paranoid elements and becoming respectable,” he told the late journalist Bill Moyers in a 2017 interview. Historians are beginning to rethink that formulation, which is actually conservatives’ own portrayal. It’s a very self-congratulatory portrayal. What if the crazy paranoid fringe was actually the vanguard?

Donald Trump did not conquer or take control of the Republican Party and the “conservative” movement, nor did he corrupt their innocence. He simply gave them permission to be themselves.

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