Above all things, the Ulitmate Fighting Championship spectacle on the White House lawn on Sunday was Donald Trump’s birthday present to himself. The self-proclaimed “Greatest President in History” once again reminded the public that the only record he’ll set is in White House corruption, using the fight both to line his own pockets and enrich his billionaire benefactors. But if the 80-year-old was hoping that proximity to half-naked men punching each other would make him look more robust and virile, the opposite happened. Despite the dramatic music and his ever-thickening foundation application, Trump looked frail and his ever-present hand bruise was hard to ignore, despite the efforts to cover it with makeup.
The painful event was an almost too-perfect symbol of the larger problem infecting Trump’s White House: it’s run by men obsessed with looking tough, but who are, in actuality, weak and incompetent. The more they fail, the more they grasp for these theatrical but ineffectual displays of masculine preening, hoping that the public mistakes loud and violent displays for strength. This may fool the hardcore MAGA base into perpetuity, but increasingly, it’s becoming evident to everyone else that all the chest-pounding theatrics are just a cover to conceal the weakness that defines MAGA manhood.
Not that anyone in the White House will be learning any lessons. For weeks, if not months now, it’s been evident that Trump lost his ill-advised war against Iran, but his inability to admit it led directly to a quagmire. More than three dozen times, a desperate Trump has declared a “deal” with Iran, only to have the whole thing fall apart, usually because Iran can set terms that make it clear that Trump lost.
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This week, it seems Trump will try to square that circle by using his usual reality show tactics to create an illusion of victory while turning tail and running. There is a much-hyped signing ceremony planned, where photos and video will be taken, so Trump can make it look to his gullible followers like he “won.” It won’t be a victory. Trump not only failed to accomplish the four objectives he claimed in starting this war, but Iran will walk away with far more power over the Strait of Hormuz and therefore the fate of the world’s economy than when this started. But hey, he’ll yell “we won” a lot and hope that the volume will overcome reality.
The UFC fight exemplified MAGA’s false understanding of what strength actually looks like. Yes, the guys in the cage can punch really hard and knock each other out. But, as I noted in my video response to watching the fight, the event was a pitch-perfect illustration of how fragile traditional, right-wing masculinity really is. These men live in what appears to be daily terror that the slightest misstep — getting caught cooing over a kitten or shaking their hips to a Beyoncé tune — will emasculate them. The over-the-top violence is a grasping effort to stave off this fear. Hyperbolic dominance displays function as a baby’s blanket, a totem to cling to in order to self-soothe over the ever-present threat that someone, somewhere, might call them “gay.”
(Chris Unger / Zuffa LLC) Josh Hokit speaks with U.S. President Donald J. Trump following his win in a heavyweight fight during the UFC Freedom 250 event.
UFC fighter Josh Hokit proved how fragile MAGA masculinity is during the White House event, bellowing “Michelle Obama is a man” into the microphone held by host Joe Rogan. A lot of outlets took this outburst literally, oddly assuming that Hokit might actually believe conspiracy theories positing that the former First Lady is secretly trans. While he’s no one’s idea of a smart person, however, Hokit is almost certainly not confused about the biology of the mother of two. Despite all his muscles, Hokit revealed that he’s a pathetic coward, so threatened by a strong, capable woman that his fear is all he can think about in what was supposed to be a big night in his life. The response of the crowd — big cheers — shows that this abject terror of women is widely felt among MAGA men.
Mistaking this sexist weakness for toughness is a common problem in MAGA. So is confusing violence with strength. That’s how Trump lost the war with Iran. He and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth loudly and repeatedly insisted that defeating Iran would be easy because the U.S. has bigger weapons. Never mind that this theory of war failed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam. The MAGA concept of manhood is so tied up in these childish views about violence and domination that they are incapable of learning anything. Learning is itself viewed with suspicion, as an emasculating enterprise best avoided for more punching and bragging.
So it’s no wonder that Hegseth is attempting to restore his injured masculinity from losing the Iran war by looking for new victims he hopes are even smaller and easier to beat. He’s been making noises about going into Venezuela and using the current leadership’s pliability as cover to kill accused gangsters. Even in this, however, Hegseth reveals how weak MAGA masculinity is. Right-wing leaders are incapable of picking a fight with someone their own size.
Instead, like cowards, they cast around for weaker parties to victimize. It’s the paradoxical mentality of a rapist or an animal abuser — losers who want to think they’re “winning.” Say what you will about UFC fighters, but at least the weight class means they’re required to take on opponents who can fight back. Hegseth and Trump clearly prefer even easier fights, like the sniveling babies they are.
“Learning is itself viewed with suspicion, as an emasculating enterprise best avoided for more punching and bragging.”
Unfortunately, MAGA men get reinforced in the myth that “loud and violent” is a sufficient substitute for real strength, because this behavior is so tiresome that others often give into the tactic, out of hopes they’ll just go away. The vibe of the country right now is that of an exhausted divorcée, mentally tuning out while her ex-husband makes up silly lies about how sexy all his new girlfriends are, hoping he’ll reward her patience by writing the child support check on time this month. Trump lost the war long ago, but there’s a collective understanding that he’ll never pull out, unless he can pretend he won it.
There’s an incentive to play along and let the Toddler-in-Chief play-act the victorious general, because otherwise this war could last until he’s dead or out of office. It’s the grotesque compromise women have to make daily to survive men whose privilege has turned then into addled narcissists, blown to national proportions. Unfortunately, this may not be enough to placate Trump, Hegseth or all the other MAGA male leaders who know, deep down inside, that they’re weak men. As long as they’re in office, they’ll be tempted to “prove” their masculinity through violence, even though this never works. If it were only UFC fights on the White House lawn, that’s survivable. But the siren call of war is never silent to the insecure man with power.
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