Who is the biggest bully in America’s election?

Kurt Mahlburg
October 30, 2024 31 Reactions

If his critics are to be believed, Donald Trump is a Nazi, a fascist, a dictator, and a threat to America’s very survival.

Most Americans find these claims rather fantastical. But one label that has stuck is “bully”.

Is Trump a bully?

This was the question that television personality Phil McGraw — aka Dr Phil — put to the audience during his endorsement of Trump at Sunday’s Madison Square Gardens rally.

“I don’t like or agree with everything that Donald J. Trump does or says,” he began. “No human is perfect. We don’t strive for perfection; we strive for excellence.”

Dr Phil went on to explain that he wasn’t there to defend Trump — a man who needs no defence since he’s “tough as an old army boot”. He clarified:

I’m here to talk to and stand up for the people who have declared their support for Donald J. Trump, or they got found out, or they want to do it but they’re too intimidated.

Because you know what happens when somebody in this country says, hey, I’m going to vote Republican, I’m going to vote Donald J. Trump? They get canceled, intimidated, marginalised, excluded or even fired or boycotted. And you know what that means? In short, that adds up to being bullied.

And now we’re talking about something I know a hell of a lot about. Now you’re in my wheelhouse, buddy. I may not be an expert in politics, but I am an expert about bullying.

 

Liquid syntax error: Error in tag 'subpage' - No such page slug home-signup

Dr Phil elucidated that bullying inflicts harm, intimidation, coercion or distress, whether verbally, relationally or online — and here was his qualifier: by definition, bullying always involves a power imbalance.

Here is where he hit back at the idea that Trump is a bully:

Now, let me tell you what the critics are going to say when they hear me talking about this. They’re going to say, well, now wait a minute, come on. Isn’t Trump a bully? And let me tell you why the answer to that question is no. Because to be a bully, there has to be an imbalance of power. And when there’s not, it’s just called a debate. And he’s just better at it than anybody else. It’s called debating. It’s called arguing. It’s just — even name-calling. But it’s not bullying unless there’s an imbalance of power. And whoever he talks to, they’ve got a microphone, they’ve got on their big-boy pants, they’ve got a stage, they’ve got everything else. He’s just better at it.

Proving that he wasn’t just taking sides, Dr Phil conceded that the Democrats’ casting of Trump as Orange Hitler also does not constitute bullying. “It’s ugly,” he argued. “But with the First Amendment, which we all want to keep, there’s no imbalance of power, so it’s not bullying.”

The knock-down evidence generally offered for Trump’s bully status is his 2015 mockery of a disabled reporter. Trump later explained he had no idea the journalist whose article he had criticised had a disability.

Maybe Trump was telling the truth. Maybe not. But at worst, this belittling of someone for a weakness beyond their control does appear to be an isolated incident.

To be sure, there is no shortage of inglorious tweets and spiteful comments Trump has made throughout the years, as he has directed his ire at rival politicians, media personalities and other public figures. However, if we take Dr Phil’s definition of bullying, most of these fail to qualify Trump as a bully.

Opinions over Trump divide sharply, so perhaps you remain to be convinced.

But if you think Trump is a bully, consider a remark made just this week by the sitting president, Joe Biden.

Responding to an off-colour joke by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe that Puerto Rico is a “floating island of garbage”, on a recent campaign call, Biden said of Trump, whom Hinchcliffe supports, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his [Trump’s] supporters.”

Biden and his campaign have since walked back the remark, while the media has scrambled to help cover Biden’s tracks.

Don’t you doubt for a second that a days-long media firestorm would have erupted if Trump made such a claim about half the country.

It’s difficult to avoid the observation that America’s current Commander-in-Chief just called half of the people he supposedly represents “garbage”. And not just any half, but the half that tends to be poorer, more rural and less educated.

Maybe I have it wrong. Maybe Trump is a bully and he enjoys taking potshots at plebs.

But if he is, he’s not the only one — it’s just that he’s the only one the media cares to tell us about.  

Has bullying become part of political life nowadays?   

Kurt Mahlburg is a writer and author, and an emerging Australian voice on culture and the Christian faith. He has a passion for both the philosophical and the personal, drawing on his background as a graduate architect, a primary school teacher, a missionary, and a young adult pastor.

Image credit: Fox News screenshot 

 

 

 

Showing 31 reactions

Like what you are reading?

Here are some more articles you may enjoy