![]() Going into the first primary debate, approximately two months after he announced his candidacy with an inflammatory speech in which he labeled Mexicans criminals, the New York businessman had already insulted the party’s 2008 presidential candidate, John McCain, going so far as to state that he “likes people who weren’t captured.” iii ii The insult politics of Donald Trump, however, was inseparable from his candidacy for president from the beginning. “Donald Trump is beginning to cross a lot of red lines of the unforgivable in politics,” Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois) said in August 2016. While the breaking point for them differed, many explicitly cited the insulting or mocking rhetoric and politics of Donald Trump. In fact, the list of prominent Republicans within the party openly refusing to endorse the nominee was considerable and included such party leaders as Mitt Romney, George W. i Collins and Marin were not the only Republicans to break ranks and refuse to support the controversial nominee. “He’s insulted me, the people I love, the community I represent,” Marin, the former Mayor of Huntington Park and Mexican immigrant, stated. Marin cited the nominee’s insulting rhetoric as the straw that broke the camel’s back. Bush administration, had said she could not support the nominee. ![]() Three months earlier, Rosario Marin, a longtime Republican who served as Treasurer of the United States in the George W. iii After having been shot down on a bombing mission over North Vietnam in 1967, McCain spent over five (.)ġ In August 2016, Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced she would not support the Republican Party’s nominee for president, the former reality TV celebrity Donald Trump, because of his insulting rhetoric.ii Yourish, Buchanan & Parlapiano, 2016.i Karen Yoursih, Larry Buchanan, & Alicia Parlapiano, “More Than 160 Republican Leaders Don’t Support (.).The initial unwillingness of the other candidates to engage in insult politics, as well as the backlash against those who eventually did, further illustrates the problems inherent in the use of insulting and mocking language. Rather, the particular political position of Trump, and his media image, explains how he could utilize insult politics to his advantage. However, there are strong indications that Trump won the White House in spite of his mocking rhetoric, not because of it. The insult politics Trump utilized throughout his campaign served a political purpose. This article challenges both assumptions, illustrating how Trump fits into a long tradition of insult politics, and how it remains controversial and politically dangerous. Trump’s mocking and insulting rhetoric in the campaign was widely described as both norm-breaking and, surprisingly, not politically harmful. This article positions the Trump campaign in historical traditions of right-wing populism, incendiary political language, and insulting rhetoric. ![]() While often hailed-or denounced-as unprecedented, the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump was not ahistoric. ![]()
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