Donald Trump loves nothing more than a rally exit to the Village People's Y.M.C.A., gold on everything he owns, near-gold hair in a bouffant, and a good long talk about decorating and design. He was raised in the gayest of cities. There is nothing wrong with a president being gay. There is something wrong when he thinks he can mock Jon Ossoff as less than a man, and his vice president can make a joke of James Talarico, without either of them confronting his own demons. There is nothing wrong with appreciating other cultures, or the LGBTQ history in the music he dances to. But there is a lot in Trump's day-to-day conduct that raises a serious question, from Y.M.C.A. on up: how fluid is President Trump?
Trump told a rally in Greenville, North Carolina, on Tuesday night that he had looked at Sen. Jon Husted's ass. Then he said it was not his thing.
1. Oct. 12, Youngstown, Ohio: "I don't do this with men very often." He started "examining his body, because I didn't know he was a great athlete." "I looked at his ass and I looked at the whole --" His hands: "He's got these, like, claws."
2. Oct. 17, Highland Heights, Kentucky: "I stood right over here and I examined his ass. I never did that with, no, I never did that with a man before. I examined his ass and then I looked at his shoulders."
3. Oct. 20, Greenville, N.C.: "I've never studied the body of a man before; it's not my thing." "Nothing wrong with it of course, nothing." Then: "I always preceded by saying nothing wrong, but it's never been my thing, to be honest with you, but I looked at his ass." Husted's backside was "a pile of muscle," his shoulder "like a piece of steel," the whole man "a monster."
Not very often. Never. Not my thing. Husted did not change between Oct. 12 and Oct. 20. Trump's disclaimer did.
