Perhaps you heard what Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff said about Donald Trump in a recent campaign speech:
“While the sailors on the Lincoln fight his war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the President sleeps through his meetings, he golfs, and trades stocks. He doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.”
His reference to Natalie was to Natalie Harp, the president’s executive assistant, who joined him in the catering cart that snuck Trump and a small group of staffers onto Air Force One while leaving the Secretary of State, Treasury Secretary, and others on the Quatri-gifted plane that lacked the resources to defend itself against a threatened Iranian attack.
Ossoff has been attacking Trump like this for quite a while and getting a lot of attention for it.
Yesterday, in a Georgia campaign appearance, Ossoff called Trump a “draft-dodging, crook president.” He contrasted Trump with Senator Mark Kelly, a former Navy combat pilot and astronaut, saying Americans should consider who has actually demonstrated patriotism and service.
I have been waiting for this for a long time.
I appreciated Michelle Obama’s “When they go low, we go high,” and I support that sentiment in most cases. But when it comes to this President — a man who routinely insults people based on their weight and physical appearance and calls them some of the most vile names, the time for going high is over, for a few reasons:
Sometimes you need to meet your enemy on their turf in order to fight, and I think this is one of those times.
When you allow a President to refer to opponents with terms like “low IQ,” “mentally disabled,” “vermin,” “horseface,” “big, bat pig,” “crazy,” and “barely literate moron” and refuse to punch back, it only emboldens him and his supporters to continue.
He said that John McCain wasn’t a war hero.
Attacked Gold Star families.
Mocked the disabled.
Routinely insults women’s physical appearance and intellect.
Sometimes you need to punch back. Sometimes you need to go low and fight back.
I think this is one of these times.
But I also think that it’s especially effective considering who Donald Trump is at his core:
A man with an enormous but supremely fragile ego who is utterly incapable of laughing at himself or taking criticism of any kind. This is a man who would routinely call New York City newspapers, posing as his own publicist, to speak highly of himself. He created fake Time magazine covers featuring himself and hung them in his golf courses. He’s attempting to build monuments to himself and is actively plastering his name on things in a way no President has ever done before.
This is a man who never learned that it’s best to allow others to speak highly of you because he so desperately wants to be loved, so much so that the aforementioned Natalie Harp is known as “The Human Printer” because she spends her days printing positive things said about Trump online and feeding his ego with the printouts.
This is a man who conducts Cabinet meetings on camera so that each member of his Cabinet can compliment him publicly.
This is a man who once altered a National Weather Service map with a Sharpie to prove he was not wrong about where a hurricane landed.
He routinely takes cognitive tests designed to screen for dementia and then brags about how well he’s done. I gave the exact same test to Clara six years ago when she was 11 years old, and she scored 27 out of 30. She lost points for not knowing the date (in the midst of her summer vacation) and reversing the order of words on the memory portion of the test.
Yet he brags about it constantly.
His ego is thin and fragile as a roll of Dollar Tree toilet paper.
This is a man who cannot stand to be made a fool. He especially can’t stand the kinds of attacks that Ofodd is lobbing his way. He is incapable of self-deprecation or self-correction of any kind.
This makes the man ripe for a taste of his own medicine.
In the parlance of the playground, “He can dish it out, but he can’t take it.”
In response to Ossoff’s statements, Trump replied, “You mean Pee-wee Herman? Pee-wee Herman look-alike?”
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung: He called Ossoff “Jon Jackoff” and “the biggest cuck loser in politics.” He said that Ossoff should ask himself why he is “a miserable person who hates this country,” attributing it to Ossoff being a “radical, extremist Dumocrat.”
White House spokesman Davis Ingle described Ossoff as a “cringeworthy, feminine theatre kid cosplaying as Barack Obama,” adding, “Nobody gives a shit what this lightweight loser says.”
Those are actual public statements from White House communications officials.
All of this means Ossoff has managed to hit Trump where it hurts, which is great, because I promise you Senator Ossoff doesn’t care one bit about what the White House or Trump has said about him.
Unlike Trump, his ego is secure. Sticks and stones may break his bones, but names will never hurt him.
In fact, Ossoff probably loves it. While his remarks focused on actual facts related to Trump’s actions and decisions, the White House and Trump only managed to lob baseless, meaningless, crass, and stupid insults at Ossoff, absent any substance.
They said nothing about Ossoff’s record as a Senator. They did not criticize his actions or decision-making.
They simply called him names, which, for anyone with a strong ego and defined sense of self, means nothing to them.
Ossoff is exploiting Trump’s asymmetric vulnerability:
Trump is wounded by insults of the kind Ossoff has lobbed. Comments like these cut him to the core. They force his communications team to waste time formulating ridiculous responses. They probably send the Human Printer inter hyerdrive, producing mountains of positive comments on social media to counteract the attention Ossoff’s comments are garnering.
Meanwhile, Ossoff probably finds the White House’s response amusing. Their words do not do damage and fail to score any points. The language they’ve chosen is likely distasteful to moderate Republicans, independents, and religiously minded Americans.
Senator Ossoff understands that when your opponent has a weakness, as Trump clearly does, you pound away at that weakness whenever possible.
I wish more Democrats would do the same.
And it wouldn’t take much.
Just make sure, when speaking to the public, you remind people, if embarrassing, humiliating, but absolutely true facts about Trump:
Trump is often caught on camera sleeping on the job.
Trump paid hush money to a porn star with whom he had sex with shortly after his son was born.
Trump repeatedly promised never to play golf while in office but plays more golf than any other President.
Trump bankrupted casinos.
Trump is a draft-dodger.
Trump was Epstein’s best friend.
Trump refused to release the remaining Epstein files.
Trump promised to reduce prices on day one of his second term.
Trump promised to keep America out of war.
Trump bragged about grabbing women by the genitals.
Trump was found liable by a jury for sexual abuse.
Trump is a convicted felon.
They could mention his fraudulent university that stole money from Americans. His fraudulent charity, which federal officials shut down for misuse of funds. His six bankruptcies. The way that fans boo him at every sporting event he attends. His lackluster inauguration crowds. His inability to get musicians or celebrities to perform at any of his events. The minuscule crowds at his celebration of America’s 250th birthday. The way NATO leaders have openly laughed at him during speeches. His defense of Vladimir Putin over his own intelligence agencies in Helsinki.
The list of humiliations is endless.
This is what opponents of Trump should be talking about — not solely, but consistently.
Stand your positions. Make your arguments. Explain your thinking. Lay out your plans for a better day.
But also hit the guy where it hurts.
Force him to react.
Set him on his heels.
Don’t allow Americans to forget Trump’s greatest failures and indignities.
“When they go low, we go high” is right for so many instances, but not this one.
Jon Ossoff has it right. Jon Ossoff understands how to do battle with Trump. He’s also explaining, in simple, clear, and fact-based terms, how Trump is unriching himself and his family by manipulating markets, passing on sweetheart deals to his sons, and redirecting taxpayer money into his own coffers.
He’s doing it in ways Americans can easily understand the extreme level of corruption taking place in Washington.
Ossoff is doing it right.
Democrats would be wise to follow his lead.
