Every time President Donald Trump says something, you can count on the media to have a meltdown, ready to put the faux outrage machine on full blast with the usual narrative about decency. And they seem to think we’re going to fall for it each time, as if every time Trump says something they don’t like, we’re supposed to care more about that than anything else in our lives.
Last week, Trump ruffled feathers when he called Gov. Tim Walz “The seriously retarded Governor of Minnesota.” This week, during an Oval Office discussion about fraud cases tied to Somalis in Minnesota, he said he didn’t want to bring “garbage” into our country. The media predictably pounced, rolling out the “racist” headlines before Trump had even finished lunch. The New York Times ran with “Trump calls Somalis ‘garbage’ he doesn’t want in the country” as if he’d committed a hate crime.
But then Trump applied the label “garbage” to Ilhan Omar herself, calling her “garbage” along with her “friends.” He said, “These aren’t people that work. These aren’t people that say, ‘Let’s go, come on, let’s make this place great.’ These are people that do nothing but complain. They complain, and from where they came from, they’ve got nothing.” Harsh? Sure. Accurate? I would say so. But sugarcoating has never been his thing, and pretending otherwise is pointless.
The pearl-clutching over Trump’s words would be easier to tolerate if the press didn’t so obviously protect Democrats doing the same thing. Remember when Hillary Clinton called Trump supporters “deplorables”? The media wasn’t outraged. Heck, Trump supporters weren’t either. It was a badge of honor, and we threw it back in her face.
And Biden went even further. Last year, during a conversation about comedian Tony Hinchcliffe joking that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of garbage” at a Trump rally, Biden responded, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.” That remark wasn’t vague, sarcastic, or theoretical. He called millions of Americans “garbage.” Period. The White House spun it as a misunderstanding, and the media—ever eager to protect their guy—dutifully relayed that excuse.
Trump naturally turned it into another rallying cry for his campaign, with his infamous campaign event featuring a garbage truck emblazoned with the Trump-Vance campaign logo. You see, Trump didn’t cry crocodile tears over it. He took it as a badge of honor and flipped the script.
It’s not that difficult to spot the pattern. When Trump uses blunt, politically incorrect language, media outlets treat it as evidence of moral corrosion. When Democrats lob insults at Trump supporters, journalists sprint to massage, reinterpret, or even erase the words. That’s how the game works in the legacy media.
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What’s more, Trump’s bluntness is exactly what many voters like about him. He says what he thinks, and it drives professional outrage artists insane because he doesn’t play the role of a phony politician. His refusal to tiptoe around delicate sensibilities is baked into his political DNA. The man built his entire public career on saying the things everyone else was too afraid to say.
So yes, Trump called Ilhan Omar “garbage.” He also called Tim Walz “retarded.” But Hillary Clinton called Trump supporters “deplorable,” and Joe Biden called us “garbage.” When I was growing up, kids were taught, “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Today, the left literally claims that words are “violence.” Can the left stop being crybabies about it?
And yes, he said he didn’t want “garbage” coming into the country. The media pretends that makes him unfit for office. Voters who remember how Democrats talk about them might disagree. They know what’s really going on here: another round of selective outrage from a press corps that’s allergic to fairness and addicted to moral theater. In the end, Trump is Trump. Get over it.
