Terrorists, dictators, mass shooters, gang members, deadly natural disasters, and… Kamala Harris. These are the things President Donald Trump considers “monsters.”
In his first live TV appearance since his COVID-19 hospitalization, Trump on Thursday raged for nearly an hour on Fox Business Network, declaring his refusal to do a virtual debate with Joe Biden and suggesting Gold Star families may have given him the deadly virus. Towards the end of the interview, the president aimed his fury at Sen. Kamala Harris, calling her a “monster.”
“This monster that was on stage with Mike Pence, who destroyed her last night by the way, this monster she says, ‘No, no, there won’t be fracking, there won’t be this.’” The famously truthful president then complained: “Everything she said was a lie!” Harris is “horrible,” “totally unlikable,” and a “communist,” Trump added.
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As it turns out, “monster” is one of the president’s more frequently used descriptors among a very limited lexicon including words like “tremendous” and “fantastic.” Trump has often used the word in a positive manner, approvingly describing TV ratings, rally turnout, legislation he’s signed, economic growth, or the panic among the “deep state” after he fired FBI Director James Comey as “monsters.” The president also owns a golf course called The Blue Monster at his Doral resort and, in 2005, boasted to Howard Stern about his wife Melania’s “monster” pregnant body.
But the president also often deploys the word “monster” as a pejorative, seething about murderers, terrorists, killer storms, and now his rival’s vice-presidential nominee. Behold, a near-complete list of what Trump considers monstrous:
ABU BAKR AL-BAGHDADI, ISIS LEADER
“And the monster known as al-Baghdadi, the founder and leader of ISIS, is dead.” —Feb. 24, 2020.
“The animal known as Al-Baghdadi is dead and the entire ISIS caliphate is destroyed, and his terrorist empire, and he was indeed a monster, has been totally demolished.” —Jan. 9, 2020.
“We killed the savage leader of ISIS, al-Baghdadi, who was responsible for so much death, including the mass beheadings of Christians, Muslims, and all who stood in his way. He was a monster.” —Jan. 8, 2020.
“Baghdadi was a savage and soulless monster who raped, tortured, and slaughtered the innocent, including many, many Americans.” —Nov. 28, 2019.
“Baghdadi, he was a savage and soulless monster, but his reign of terror is over.” —Nov. 1, 2019.
“These savage monsters will not escape their fate, and they will not escape the final judgment of God.” —Oct. 27, 2019.
IRANIAN GEN. QASSEM SOLEIMANI
“Soleimani was the Iranian regime's most ruthless butcher, a monster who murdered or wounded thousands of American service members in Iraq.” —Feb. 4, 2020.
“But the Democrats are outraged that we killed this terrorist monster, even though this monster was behind hundreds and hundreds of death… But the Democrats are doing everything possible to disparage what we did with the hit on this monster.” —Jan. 14, 2020.
“We caught a total monster, and we took him out. And that should have happened a long time ago… We had a shot at him, and I took it, and that shot was pinpoint accurate. And that was the end of a monster.” —Jan. 9, 2020.
“For 18 to 20 years, he was a monster… If you look over his past, his past—he’s been called a ‘monster,’ and he was a monster. And he’s no longer a monster; he’s dead.” —Jan. 7, 2020.
SYRIAN DICTATOR BASHAR AL-ASSAD
“These are not the actions of a man. They are crimes of a monster instead.” —April 13, 2018.
MASS SHOOTERS
“On Saturday, August 3rd, at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, the soulless and bigoted monster killed 22 innocent people and wounded 27 others.” —Sept. 9, 2019.
“Then, in the early hours of Sunday morning in Dayton, Ohio, another twisted monster opened fire on a crowded downtown street. He murdered 9 people, including his own sister, and injured 27 others.” —Aug. 5, 2019.
“The monster in the Parkland high school in Florida had many red flags against him, and yet nobody took decisive action.” —Aug. 5, 2019.
A SNOWSTORM TRUMP VAGUELY REMEMBERS
“There was one case where we had a tremendous snowstorm, and it was just about frozen. It was like a monster storm, I don’t even know how I got there.” —Sept. 26, 2019.
GANG MEMBERS
“They want to abolish the agency that is removing violent predators, drug dealers, murderers, MS-3, monster gang members.” —Aug. 24, 2018.
COP KILLERS
“Three years ago on the Fourth of July weekend, [NYPD] Detective [Miosotis] Familia was on duty in her vehicle when she was ambushed just after midnight, and murdered by a monster who hated her purely for wearing the badge.” —Aug. 27, 2020.
THE CORONAVIRUS
“You do have to check swine flu because that was peanuts compared to this monster. “This monster is the worst thing that’s happened in this world since 1917. Where it could have been a hundred million people died.” —Aug. 17, 2020.
“We realize how strong children are, right? It’s their immune system is maybe a little bit different. Maybe it’s just a little bit stronger, or maybe it’s a lot stronger. Right? It could be a lot stronger. We’ve learned a lot by watching this monster.” —May 6, 2020.
“This horrible, dark period where this—this monster came and worked its horrible, horrible spell over the world. 184 countries as of this morning.” —April 10, 2020.
“We need the stockpile so we can immediately move them from place to place, wherever the monster hits. It’s a monster… This is a monster we’re fighting.” —April 7, 2020.
“Wherever that monster goes, we’re able to move with it... We’ll get [the states] a lot more [PPE], depending on where this monster is going.” —April 6, 2020.
“So, as of this morning, it’s 182 countries are under attack from this monster.” —April 5, 2020.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF
“Finally, Liddle' Adam Schiff, the leakin' monster of no control, is now blaming the Obama Administration for Russian meddling in the 2016 Election.” —Feb. 18, 2018.
HILLARY CLINTON
“In one way she is a monster, OK? Look at what happened, look at her history. In another way, she is a weak person, she is actually not strong enough to be president.” —Aug. 5, 2016.
CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES
“But every year, it's the same thing, and this one is a very big one. This is a number of big ones. You put them together, and it’s—it’s a big monster.” —Sept. 14, 2020.
“We say ‘God bless you’ to those that were killed in this horrible fire, because it’s a series of fires. You put them together, and it’s a big monster, Gavin.” —Sept. 14, 2020.
“I’m going to California from here, going over to see some of our great people that are doing such a great job with those monster fires that they have.” —Sept. 13, 2020.
“Brock, perhaps you could give a little bit of a presentation as to how we’re going to stop the rest of this monster.” —Nov. 17, 2018.
HURRICANES
“[Hurricane Laura] came very quickly. It came—in fact, I guess you would say, Pete, they were looking at that as a storm, and all of a sudden, the storm became a monster.” —Aug. 29, 2020.
“[Hurricane Dorian] really began to form and form big, and now it’s looking like it could be an absolute monster. We’re ready.” —Aug. 29, 2019.
“As an example, Florida got $12 Billion & Texas $39 Billion for their monster hurricanes.” —May 16, 2019.
“[Hurricane Michael] started out very innocently a week ago. This was a small storm in an area they never thought. They said it grew into a monster.” —Oct. 10, 2018.
“When that big monster is coming in—in this case, to Texas. And it was coming in. They’ve never seen a water dump like that, I think, in history, in terms of water coming down.” —June 1, 2018.
“I mean the bad news is that [Hurricane Irma] is some big monster. But, I think we're very well coordinated.” —Sept. 10, 2017
