Donald Trump Has a Weird Standard of What Constitutes Profanity

At a photo op with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö in the Oval Office today, Donald Trump spent the meeting ranting about impeachment. He railed against Rep. Adam Schiff, calling him a “lowlife” and repeating his claim that Schiff should resign and that he should be arrested for treason.

Trump also compared Schiff to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has admitted to being on the call between Trump and Ukranian President Zelensky that sparked the whistleblower complaint that led to the current impeachment inquiry. Schiff has said that he and others in Congress are “deeply concerned” that Pompeo might try to interfere with their investigation. Earlier today, Donald Trump tweeted that “Adam Schiff should only be so lucky to have the brains, honor and strength of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.”

At the meeting with Niinistö, Trump told reporters that Schiff couldn’t carry Pompeo’s “blank-strap.” He said he wouldn’t say the exact expression “because they’ll say it was a terrible thing to say,” but he repeated the odd self-censored version. Staring at a reporter, he said again, “That guy couldn’t carry his blank-strap, you understand that?”

In case you’re not fluent in weird, outdated expressions, I’ll save you the Googling. The blank means jock. Jockstrap. It’s actual locker room talk.

Look, I don’t want a president who says things like “carry his jockstrap” in meetings with foreign leaders, but the self-censorship is especially strange since, right before this meeting, Trump tweeted out a message with the word “bullshit” in all caps.

Really, where’s the consistency?

(image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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Vivian Kane

Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.

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