The use of an expletive from a Trump campaign social media account on Monday reflects the coarsening of political discourse in the Trump era.
- Share full article
Former President Donald J. Trump at a campaign event in Dayton, Ohio.
Not long after former President Donald J. Trump held a news conference on Monday about his civil fraud case, a Biden campaign social media account shared a clip accusing him of being open to taking a foreign government’s money to pay for a $175 million bond.
As is often typical during political campaigns, Mr. Trump’s team accused their opponents of stripping nuance and context from their candidate’s remarks.
What was less typical was the language they used.
“Wrong, you dipshit,” a Trump campaign social media account, Trump War Room, fired back on X. “He said he’ll pay with cash, securities, or bonds.”
The Trump War Room account, part of his campaign’s rapid response efforts on social media, often posts clips from Mr. Trump’s speeches or from remarks by campaign surrogates. It also frequently shares criticisms of President Biden and the media. And during the primary, it attacked Mr. Trump’s Republican rivals in harsh terms.
Campaign mudslinging is a political tradition as old as politics itself. But the use of an expletive by one official campaign mouthpiece to address another reflects a coarsening of political discourse that has accompanied Mr. Trump’s rise and that has characterized the 2024 presidential campaign.
At recent rallies, Mr. Trump has used similar profanity to criticize Mr. Biden and a number of Democrats. Earlier this month in Georgia, Mr. Trump told supporters that everything Mr. Biden touched turned into bull droppings, using an expletive that he acknowledged some might consider beyond the pale.
We are having trouble retrieving the article content.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Source: nytimes.com
