Donald Trump appeared to say that his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), isn’t weird because he’s “so straight.”
Trump was speaking at a town hall event in LaCross, Wisconsin, yesterday with former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii when he discussed how the Harris-Walz campaign has been calling Republicans – and especially Vance – “weird.”
“They picked this guy,” Trump said, referring to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), who has been vocal about calling Vance and Trump weird. “He is weird! Right? I’m not weird, he’s weird.”
“No, he’s a weird guy, he’s a weird dude,” Trump continued. “You know, they come up with soundbites, they always have soundbites, and one of the things is that J.D. and I are weird.”
Then Trump defended himself and Vance from the weird charges, calling Vance “so straight” and a “top student.”
“This guy is so straight? J.D. is so… He’s doing a great job, smart, top student, great guy, he’s not weird and I’m not weird. I mean, we’re a lot of things, we’re not weird.”
Totally straight and not weird.
One of the key features of authoritarian follower personalities is that they’re desperate to be normal. Like, they’re terrified of the idea that they’re not just like everyone else despite the fact that they are big weirdos. People who are afraid of being weird, or who get weirdly judgemental about weirdness, is a big red flag for me, personally.
Yea. Their entire structure of “give me power to fix your problems” quickly falls apart if people start to wonder whether the solutions will be ones they can empathize with or not.
They’re sort of operating in this “I am your warrior” framework, making it seem like people are empowering one of their own, themselves, basically, to fix their own problems. That whole thing requires the chosen champion to be “one of them” though.