Sewer politics degrade presidential dignity
On a recent flight back from Washington D.C., I killed some time by watching cable news—something I almost never do unless I am on a plane—and one segment centered around President Donald Trump’s questionable use of AI-generated videos. One post in particular grabbed everyone’s attention.
Following a wave of “No Kings” events, Trump posted an obviously AI-generated video of him piloting a jet emblazoned with the words “King Trump.” In the video, he soared over a “No Kings” march and dumped sewage on protesters. The news outlet I was watching featured pundits who were understandably aghast, but one of their primary complaints entirely missed the real point.
One of the guests criticized Trump for posting these kinds of videos as if they are real, which would make them a form of disinformation, a malicious deepfake. While Trump has undoubtedly peddled disinformation—including false claims about the election being stolen and immigrants eating people’s pets—this is not the case. Anybody who has seen the cartoonish video knows that Trump didn’t actually fly a jet and drop waste on people. Instead, this is an example of immature behavior that is beneath the presidency.
While this presidential indignity isn’t disinformation, it is still disgusting, no matter how hard people try to justify it. “The president uses social media to make the point,” U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said. “You can argue he’s probably the most effective person who’s ever used social media […] He is using satire to make a point.”
I don’t agree that Trump is the most effective person who has ever used social media. Remember when he posted, “Despite the negative press covfefe”? That was probably just an unfinished tweet, but it still has people scratching their heads. Nonetheless, Johnson is at least partially right: Trump’s post was clearly satirical, and Vice President J.D. Vance said he thought “it’s funny.”
It’s not my style of humor, but the MAGA wing of the Republican Party apparently thought it was hilarious. To each their own, I guess, but with America’s 250th birthday approaching, this is a good time for some introspection. Is this the behavior that our beloved founding fathers would appreciate? I don’t think so.
Sure, politics has always been dirty, and the election of 1800 pitting Thomas Jefferson against John Adams is proof. Their supporters engaged in all forms of mudslinging. “[An influential journalist] wrote that Adams was a rageful, lying, warmongering fellow; a ‘repulsive pedant’ and ‘gross hypocrite’ who ‘behaved neither like a man nor like a woman but instead possessed a hideous hermaphroditical character,’” Forbes wrote. Adams’ proxies responded in kind.
So how is this different from what Trump is doing? Well neither Adams nor Jefferson were president at the time; their supporters seem to have been the ones who directly engaged in this misbehavior; the attacks were against the candidates, not their supporters; and they didn’t resort to toilet—er outhouse—humor. Can you imagine George Washington, Jefferson or Adams handing out leaflets depicting them showering their opposition with feces? That would have been beyond the pale.
I think the founders were above this, and virtually every president before Trump has been too. I can’t even imagine more recent leaders, like former President Ronald Reagan, posting something like this. Trump’s trolling, satire or whatever you want to call it casts the standard set by his predecessors aside. The standard is that presidents should publicly act like mature, gentlemanly statesmen, although many of them were critically flawed in myriad other ways.
That aside, I suspect there is a gross double-standard here. Imagine how offended Trump supporters would be if former President Barack Obama posted a video of him soiling them from a plane. They’d be apoplectic and might call for his imprisonment. Or what if Hillary Clinton called them deplorables. Oh, never mind. We know how much that offended people, but I digress.
The point is that the United States presidency is a hallowed institution. Given its power and prestige, it influences how foreign nations view us and drives domestic political debate and discourse. When a president misbehaves, it reflects poorly on all Americans, and with Trump’s use of some AI-generated videos, he has acted beneath his station. His detractors, however, will fail time and again to correct his behavior if they do not properly identify his transgressions. In this case, it is not disinformation; it is degrading presidential dignity.