What’s vexing Donald Trump now? Kamala Harris’ looks

WASHINGTON – Of all the issues that seemingly preoccupy the mind of Donald Trump – his perceived persecutions, the evil of his enemies, the size of the rallies – there is one that may be the most consistent: other people’s looks.

The former president’s obsession with personal appearance dates back decades, but has flared anew with the candidacy of Ms Kamala Harris, a Democrat whose looks he has repeatedly mentioned in August, comparing his opponent’s appearance on the cover of Time magazine to that of “the most beautiful actress ever to live.”

Trump also compared her face on the Time cover to actress Sophia Loren, his wife Melania, and then, finally, in a jaw-dropper for a man known for such jaw-droppers, asserting that he was “much better looking than her.”

“Much better,” said Trump, 78. “I’m a better-looking person than Kamala.”

Following this logic, that also makes him better looking than his former-model wife, in his estimation.

And while such a statement was met with astonishment and amusement from his Democratic opponents, Trump’s fixation on other people’s looks has been used as both a devastating political tool and – specialists in male psychology say – a means of bolstering his own sense of self.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a president who was more obsessed with other people’s appearance,” said Mr Michael Kimmel, the author of Manhood in America.

“This is a man for whom appearances are everything, from his fake tan to his haircut to lying about his weight. He’s obsessed with physicality.”

Others have remarked on Ms Harris’ appearance.

At the Democratic National Convention this week, Mr Bill Clinton described Ms Harris as having a “thousand-watt smile.”

And even back in 2013, Mr Barack Obama made news when he said she was “by far the best looking attorney-general in the country”.

But Trump’s comments are seemingly habitual. Indeed, many of Trump’s well-honed campaign insults involve people’s personal appearances, a way of projecting dominance over other people, Mr Kimmel and other mental health professionals say, by displaying strength over your opponents.

The examples litter Trump’s electoral career: “Little Marco”, for example, a nickname he used in 2016 for cutting down Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who is 172cm, or casually suggesting that the former governor of New Jersey, Mr Chris Christie, was a “fat pig.”

With women, the talk has often been even more offensive, such as when Trump denied having attacked writer E. Jean Carroll, saying she was “not my type.”

(Manhattan juries nevertheless found Trump had sexually abused and defamed Ms Carroll, holding him liable for a combined total of nearly US$90 million or S$117.7 million.)

While Trump’s insults are plentiful, there is also a strange corollary: Trump often peppers his public comments with praise, sometimes going out of his way, for example, to compliment men’s looks.

Take his triumphant post-debate rally in late June in Chesapeake, Virginia, where Trump called the son of Virginia’s governor, Mr Glenn Youngkin, “much better looking” than his father, told a former member of Congress that he “looked good”, and gushed that Mr Derrick Anderson, a Republican congressional candidate, was “like a movie star”.

More recently, Trump has also opined that one of the best traits of his running mate – Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio – was his looks, including his beard and simmering blue eyes.

Trump’s stump speech also sometimes lathers praise on other men’s looks, as he reminisces about his interactions with a negotiator sent by the Mexican president during his time in the Oval Office.

“He sent me this very handsome guy: Very good, so handsome, so beautifully dressed,” Trump said, during a February speech in Maryland, about the Mexican delegate, adding he wanted to ask about the price of his suit. “He was a handsome devil.”

Mr Andrew Reiner, a senior lecturer at Towson University who has written extensively on masculinity, said that “as crazy as it sounds, this is actually progress for him.”

“Trump, always, in the past, would go straight for the jugular,” he said. “Now he’s leading with a compliment and following up with a punch.”

Mr Avrum Weiss, a psychologist and the author of Hidden in Plain Sight: How Men’s Fears of Women Shape Their Intimate Relationships, said that Trump’s flattery and fusillades may simply underlie an insecurity about himself.

“He’s incredibly concerned about his own appearance,” Mr Weiss said, adding: “It’s a game of king of the mountain: if other men look less attractive, then he looks more attractive.”

To be sure, Trump sometimes uses a compliment as a setup to a put-down, such as when he had talked about Mr Andrew Gillum, a former candidate for governor in Florida who later went to rehab for a drug addiction.

On several instances, Trump has praised Mr Gillum’s looks before adding that he “turned out to be a crack addict.”

It’s also clear that Trump dislikes praise of other men, particularly Mr Obama.

“They say, ‘He’s so handsome, oh, Obama’s so handsome, he’s such a great speaker,’” Trump said in 2023 in Pennsylvania. “What does he say? He says nothing.”

And as Trump’s remarks about his comparative looks with Ms Harris suggest, the former president also likes to hear nice things about himself, even if he’s the one doing the complimenting.

During the Manhattan criminal trial, for instance, he posted that – appearances to the contrary – he was not sleeping in the courtroom but merely resting his own “beautiful blue eyes”.

Nor does the former president seem immune from simply fishing for a compliment, such as a moment in 2022, when Trump addressed a crowd in Ohio, suggesting he saw an attractive person in the crowd.

“Oh what a handsome…” Trump began.

Then, he paused.

“President,” he added, about himself.

The crowd roared. NYTIMES