President Donald Trump was caught on camera “flipping the bird” and shouting “Fuck you!” to a heckler who called him a “pedophile protector,” presumably referring to the contrived Epstein files obsession being used in desperation by Democrats. Of course the White House flacks are defending this latest indefensible outburst by the Vulgarian in Chief, but there is no defense. (The stated defense is just Rationalization #2A, Sicilian Ethics, or “He had it coming!”)
Further observations:
1. Yesterday a friend asked me what ever happened to “class” in this country, meaning manners, etiquette, civility, dignity and decorum. I didn’t give this answer because she is Trump Deranged and I didn’t want to set off a rant, but I do substantially blame Trump. When the President of the United States raises his middle finger and says “fuck” in public, it influences the culture and not in a good way. Once again I will point to this oft-referenced post from 2015, A Nation Of Assholes: The Ultimate, Undeniable And Crucial Reason Donald Trump Must Never Be President. See? I’m smart!
2. No, I do not believe for a second that Trump’s character flaws in this respect (or in other respects), while significant and deplorable, outweigh the importance of his efforts to right the culture and the government after their spectacular decline into incompetence, irresponsibility, anti-Americanism, and delusion.
3. The President clearly has almost no self-restraint at all, nor does he care about the dignity of his high office. This makes him a poor steward. I wonder if the office of the President can ever recover its aura and esteem after Trump,\ and return to the honorable position that George Washington made it from the start. I don’t think so. If I’m right, Donald Trump has permanently harmed society, politics, democracy and the nation.
4. True, Andrew Jackson, as President, might have shot the guy. But Andy had a little self-restraint.
5. What should be especially concerning is that Trump is getting less restrained as he perceives himself to be succeeding in his policy objectives. What’s the next escalation going to be? I shudder to think.
6. Democrats, after their recent full embrace of abusive vulgarity (“Get the fuck out!”) are in no position to try to capitalize on Trump’s coarseness, which doesn’t mean this shameless,hypocritical party won’t try anyway. Oh, I’m sure academic ethics villains Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt will come out with some screed accusing Trump of breaching “democratic norms,” but the two Harvard partisan hacks should have no credibility left by now after they neglected to mention that having a demented puppet President was a rather serious breach of a “democratic norm.”
7. Amusingly, many outlets blurred Trump’s finger in the photo above, which is even sillier than publishing his statement as “F— you!”
8.Will this episode win Trump more supporters than it loses? I wouldn’t bet against it.
Ethics Alarms 
And there was “Let’s go, Brandon!” Query: Why didn’t the media covering this event try to apply a thick coat of varnish over it? Instead, we get accurate reportage. For once!
“Yesterday a friend asked me what ever happened to “class” in this country, meaning manners, etiquette, civility, dignity and decorum. I didn’t give this answer because she is Trump Deranged and I didn’t want to set off a rant, but I do substantially blame Trump.
[…]
“No, I do not believe for a second that Trump’s character flaws in this respect (or in other respects), while significant and deplorable, outweigh the importance of his efforts to right the culture and the government after their spectacular decline into incompetence, irresponsibility, anti-Americanism, and delusion.“
Some while back you made a mention of astrology. It is curious that astrology — the belief that the configuration of the cosmos has ‘influence’ over the soul — is part-and-parcel of an older metaphysical system (The Great Chain of Being). It is impossible, as we live within scientific perspective, to ‘believe in’ must of the Old Metaphysics. They are incompatible systems.
However, from an ‘astrological’ perspective, a nation will naturally call forth as leaders those who ‘correspond’ to the state of the national soul. And the state of the national soul is (according to this way of seeing) a microcosmic expression of the macrocosmic situation.
The state of the American national soul (and other national souls I guess) is not in good shape! It has been vulgarized, corrupted, perverted, infected by evil imagery, and certainly there are enormous problems with ‘conduct’. Examined from a rigorous metaphysical standpoint, none of this can bode well. A nation goes down hill fast when it becomes corrupted.
The man Donald Trump is as screwed up as America is (if indeed you agree that the social body of America is infected and sick). In this sense he ‘expresses’ America, and it is not pretty. Ugly, arrogant, narcissistic, self-centered are some of the traits that are evident. There is another side though. Just as there is another side to ‘America’ (when individuals are concerned.
America is at a difficult point in its horoscope! 😉
(I personally think that Trump is carrying out a smallish percent of what he promised and what he could achieve. His methods also seem to me to be brazen and not too well thought out. It is a shame. However, there is no way his policies would EVER have been excepted by a significant part (about half) of the population. I do not think Trump can right things because he is part of all that is off-track. Unfortunate but true.)
The whole world’s gone low-brow. Things ain’t what they used to be.
Velma:They sure ain’t, Mama. They sure ain’t. It’s all gone.
Whatever happened to fair dealing?
And pure ethics
And nice manners?
Why is it everyone now is a pain in the ass?
Whatever happened to class?
Matron:Class.Whatever happened to, “Please, may I?”And “Yes, thank you?”And “How charming?”Now, every son of a bitch is a snake in the grass. Whatever happened to class?
Velma and Matron:
Class!
Ah, there ain’t no gentlemen
To open up the doors
There ain’t no ladies now,
There’s only pigs and whores
And even kids’ll knock ya down
So’s they can pass
Nobody’s got no class!
Velma:Whatever happened to old values?
Matron:And fine morals?
Velma:And good breeding?
Matron
Now, no one even says “oops” when they’re
Passing their gas
Whatever happened to class?
Velma:Class
Velma and Matron:
Ah, there ain’t no gentlemen
That’s fit for any use
And any girl’d touch your privates
For a deuce
Matron:And even kids’ll kick your shins and give you sass
Velma:And even kids’ll kick your shins and give you sass
Velma and Matron:
Nobody’s got no class!
Velma:All you read about today is rape and theft
Matron:Jesus Christ, ain’t there no decency left?
Velma and Matron:
Nobody’s got no class
Matron:Everybody you watch
Velma:’S got his brains in his crotch
Matron:Holy crap
Velma:Holy crap
Matron:What a shame
Velma:What a shame
Velma and Matron:
What became of class?
“I wonder if the office of the President can ever recover its aura and esteem after Trump, and return to the honorable position that George Washington made it from the start.”
That ship sailed when Bill Clinton was caught playing “swallow the leader” with Monica who was then sitting on the presidential staff.
5: I think another significant factor is that he isn’t running for re-election (he can’t) in 2028, so he has little motivation to worry about his popularity, especially with those who oppose him.
–Dwayne
The communication style of President Trump is often deplorable. However President Trump is a man of action, and his base and his supporters cares more about his actions than about his words and his lack of decorum. That was different than during the Bush and Obama administration, when the GOP was all about decorum, and were despised by its own base as a party of gentlemanly losers. A President who is rough at the edges but who fights and actually gets things done (Venezuela, Iran, illegal immigration) is much preferred.
It is not that the left has decorum; they drop F-bombs all the time. Not that that excuses Donald Trump, whoever it illustrates that Trump’s incivility is not a reason to switch parties.
Red State has some more details: it happened a Ford Motor Truck plant, and the worker who called President Trump a pedophile protector has been suspended.
According to Red State:
Trump, being a guy born and raised in Queens, New York, knew exactly how to handle someone like Sabula, and, according to those on scene, gave the Ford employee a one-finger salute in reply. The president possibly added a “f— you” for effect.
(In my opinion this still falls shorts of Presidential conduct, however.)
https://redstate.com/terichristoph/2026/01/14/ford-worker-who-heckled-trump-gets-suspended-from-job-n2198138
“Red State has some more details: it happened a Ford Motor Truck plant, and the worker who called President Trump a pedophile protector has been suspended.“
Donald Trump represents a class of men who have certain attitudes about women, about what they are allowed to do with women, et cetera. Trump has all the signs of what some would call (in Traditional Catholicism) ‘inordinate desire’. However, if the real facts are to be faced, the issue of ‘desire’ simply jumped out of its box over a series of decades. At a certain point ‘the images’ of visually underage girls and women were presented, through advertising, in film, in ways that bypass the discriminating mind and appeal to the unconscious or semi-conscious.
A search “sexualized girls in advertising perfume ads” pulls it all up. It is all on the verge of open pornography.
In absolute point-of-fact dearest Donald must be understood to be a type of ‘perv’. You can find them in rock music and those videos, you can find them everywhere. The core of the issue has roots in the sexual liberation movement. It has all come to flowering in the present time, not only in America, but world-wide.
There is no doubt that Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein share what are referred to as ‘proclivities’. And this is one more reason why Trump as a cultural figure, and as a psychological expression, is so bizarrely troubling.
My view has become that if you (if one) really want to *see things* in clarity you have a) to separate yourself from political affiliation and b) be willing to actually look into ‘the heart of darkness’. Looking into the madness of the human condition, and just how far debasement will go when it is left out of its boxes, is a very difficult project.
It certainly looks as if Trump has protected a pedophile. But the real issue is in reality far deeper than how it manifests in this man.
That 2015 post leads to a strong conclusion which seems absolute: “That is why we can never let Donald Trump, or anyone like him regardless of policy positions and leadership skills, become President of the United States of America.”
As we have seen since then, seemingly amplified today, the statement should have included the caveat, “unless he is opposed by a candidate deemed worse, or unless his subsequent efforts to right the culture and the government are deemed to outweigh his flaws.”
That post is well worth re-reading, especially whenever we brush aside examples of his fatal character flaws and label any criticism of them as TDS because we like something he is doing.
TJ Sabula, the worker who inspired this “Presidential” response, has reportedly been suspended (not good) and is likely getting the usual mix of death threats to his person and his family (the expected response for negative comments directed at Dear Leader) but… on the bright side…
Two fundraisers set up to help Sabula and his family (he’s the primary source of income) have reached half a million dollars in the two days since the incident.
So, game on! (Point 8 above).
How much will POTUS raise from this latest episode of “Your Favorite President” (TM) , season 2? Will there be special Trump T-shirts memorializing this heartwarming incident by our favorite “man of action”? Will he break a half million in new merch sales?
As to point 8, I do not understand why popularity figures into an ethics evaluation. This site has been accused (is that the right word) of being more politics than ethics at times. Point 8 supports that accusation.
From an ethical standpoint, one might hope that the midterms produce a result that will serve to constrain Trump’s worst impulses and put America back on the track where it will again be an inspiration to freedom loving people around the world, instead of the empirical hegemon Trump is promoting.
You’ll have to explain that comment, although I am thankful for your directing me to the typo in #8. I think the ethics point of that entry is clear: if people actually like a POTUS more who behaves like a vulgarian, gives people fingers and shouts “fuck,” their values have been warped badly, they don’t comprehend the role of leadership, and we’re probably fucked.
Still, I can’t imagine any result that would enhance the world’s affection for freedom, as most of the world, including nations like England and France, don’t like freedom much, and so don’t like Trump. If the Democrats win Congress, they will immediately proceed to try multiple impeachments, impede the rule of law, and generally reveres much of the progress made since January 2025.
Addendum: Your contrarian hobby sometimes makes you miss the forest AND the trees. Of course popularity relates to ethics. If a leader becomes more popular the more unethical he is, the Cognitive Dissonance Scale for that culture is not working correctly
I don’t approve of the language or the gesture, but if you’re going to do it, I prefer someone who does it to the “it’s not what it is” gesture of Obama when he was talking about Hillary.
“3. The President clearly has almost no self-restraint at all, nor does he care about the dignity of his high office. This makes him a poor steward. I wonder if the office of the President can ever recover its aura and esteem after Trump, and return to the honorable position that George Washington made it from the start. I don’t think so. If I’m right, Donald Trump has permanently harmed society, politics, democracy and the nation.“
The issue at play here, from what I admit is a limited perspective, is one of causality. When I was doing research about ‘America’ and about decline, decadence and the question of renewal and renovation (I was mostly interested in personal, and also spiritual questions and was reading Julius Evola and René Guénon and others similar), I was also able to converse to some people of your generation on other forums.
These people informed me of certain things about which I was not aware. For example there was a great deal of resistance in the 80s and 90s when the US c corporate class began to advocate for ‘globalization’. I was told that it was the American Left that was extremely concerned and alarmed what ‘gutting’ American industries and moving manufacturing out of the US would do to the American body-politic. At that time the Left was concerned about the American family, about income and prosperity, about fair wages — in short all the traditional Left concerns that seem to have been superseded now by bizarre Left Progressive objectives (which I can make no sense of and which do not seem genuinely leftist).
I wonder if you agree that it was ‘the Reaganite class’ and the Bush-class that overseen this dramatic and consequential structural weakening of the US which, if this analysis is right, set the stage for a consequential decline in (general) American well-being, especially in the manufacturing centers. It seemed to me that Michael Moore was making some good points:
I have wondered if the view that “Trump did harm” (or is doing harm) has got ‘causality mixed up. The conditions that have came about in America have a history, and if America is in decline, as so many say that it is, the project becomes one of an analysis of why this is. It becomes an ‘interpretive project’ and, in my view of things, there is no one who has cultural influence who does not come up with some theory as to why things are as they are’. And each theory is a facet yet generally each theory expresses one’s personal political, but also quite frankly metaphysical orientation. (For example the many practicing Christians who participate on your blog all have a deep metaphysical commitment).
There are two essays by CG Jung that could have some relevance to understanding Trump’s advent as a profoundly social-psychological event in American history. Wotan and After the Catastrophe. True, these essays deal with that notorious German figure, and some type of bizarre and dangerous ‘spirit’ that infected Germany, and I do not intend to parallel Trump in any way with that phenomenon, however Trump is a peculiarly inflicted figure. He is in a real sense ‘abnormal’ but I think ‘wounded’ is a better description. Thus he reflects or expresses a deep American wound that is best observed by examining that class that Michael Moore refers to. These are the people who lost everything. They lost their income, their relationships fell apart, and the whole addiction phenomenon besetted them. The wound is there.
For this reason there is a deep longing in the IDEA of ‘making America great again’. And this longing resonates among a large class of people. And this longing, which is also irrational, emotional, rather disturbed actually, leads people and also Trump to strange irrationalisms. How really does a nation become great? It cannot be done by bull horns and declarations. Greatness is built.
Unfortunately (excuse my pessimism) Donald Trump is like a ‘bad sign’ that appeared in the Heavens or like an ancient omen or presagio like a comet that appears and frightens and baffles people.
In actual fact I do not think that ‘people’ actually know how the country and perhaps even their own selves could ‘become great’ or even ‘become healed’. Consider the healing needed for that American class that (if this view is right) lost everything and then fell deeply into chaos and personal disaster. How do you rebuild from that?
I return to the question How did this come about? Where does responsibility lie? Who can be called forth and blamed? And then how in the world can the actual situation be confronted?
For someone interested — perhaps it is too esoteric? — here is the essay on Wotan:
And here is the essay (after the war 2 ended) called After the Catastrophe:
https://ahistoryofthepresentananthology.blogspot.com/2013/06/after-catastrophe-by-carl-jung-1945.html
These deal with a European crisis, and my purpose in citing them is not to equate Trump and Hitler, but rather to point to deeper, psychological sources that animate nations.
Now remember, Biden tried to fight the guy who criticized him at the auto factory. Trump is doing BETTER!