Trump Slurs in Context--

 

Terre Haute Tribune Star, May 28, 2026

READER'S FORUM

Context necessary to read the past

Our 250th anniversary is almost here. Besides celebrations galore, there’s the retelling of the events and actors of the American Revolutionary era: Breeds or Bunker Hill, “Common Sense,” Button Gwinnett, and so on.

Solitary facts from those times are all interesting in a Jeopardy quiz show kind of way. For instance, did you know Thomas Jefferson was very particular about having his hair regularly cut? It was not a late night TV comic who made a joke out of this stray fact. It was Abigail Adams. She expressed the view that Jefferson might be spending a full year of his allotted time on earth in a barber’s chair. John’s wife was a woman always ready with a sharp comment.

But a deeper appreciation of the revolutionary era requires more from us than smiles at a light remark on a Founding Father’s hair clippings. Historical facts are given meaning through the historian’s creation of context — time, place, circumstance, consistency and inconsistency of a leader’s behavior.

Context allows us to read the past as part of an understanding of the present. Too often hollow political slogans stand in for the needed deeper understanding of the complexities of any historical period or event. Try making useful sense out of the MAGA label without historical context. If you’re going to “Make America Great Again,” on the most basic level you must ask: When did that “Again” exist and what made it so “Great”?

“Say what you mean and mean what you say.” Pithy advice. Choose your source. This phrase has been attributed to General Patton and, wait for it, Horton the elephant in Dr. Seuss’s “Horton Hatches the Egg.” Generals or elephants, we want our leaders to work and express themselves consistently. Their doing so provides a context for following and judging them.

If you read only one of Donald Trump’s 3 a.m. posts on the Truth Social platform, it is easily dismissed as a failed try at humor, or an upset stomach speaking, the sour product of too many burgers and fries. But examining his 8,800 posts on Truth Social since Trump took office in 2025, the Wall Street Journal found one in 10 calling a person or group a name such as “crooked,” “sleazebag,” “loser” and having “low IQ.”

That’s context verified by the numbers over time. It’s the president of the United States saying what he means to say, how he thinks and feels. Can we agree these slurs and insults aimed at others tell us much more about Trump than his hair clippings? But equally important, what do they say about those who read his stuff, nod in agreement and vote accordingly?

Finally, I do admit to wishing Abigail Adams was around to say something about Trump’s thinly-crafted bouffant.

— Gary Daily Terre Haute