Is Donald Trump Ugly?

Former president, Donald Trump, said at his rally in Pennsylvania, "I look better than Kamala Harris." Many people have commented about the way Trump looks, usually making fun of his choice of "tanning" color. They also mention the shape of his physique. Neither of which I need to give an example. You would have had to live under a rock not to know most of the comments about him. We don't need to address whether Trump is attractive. NOPE! That said, does attractiveness play a role in who people choose for president?

Studies going at least as far back to the 1970s tended to show a positive correlation between handsomeness and how subjects assessed a candidate. Scholars sometimes reasoned that the attractiveness effect took place because voters without a lot of information about a candidate used good looks to infer other good qualities—a kind of “halo effect.” Voters appear primarily drawn to faces that suggested competence.

Since all of the presidents have been men, we are in new territory, discovering does attractiveness matter when choosing a female president. The backlash from Trump's comments about Kamala Harris appearance, would make you believe looks do not matter. Looks have always matter.

Did looks make a difference for John Kennedy? Google him and you will find descriptions such as, witty, charismatic, and handsome, John Kennedy's youthful vigor attracted a new generation of Americans to public service and political engagement. At 43 years of age, Kennedy became the nation's youngest-elected president. His debate with Former President Nixon, solidified that a candidate's appearance mattered. Nixon looked a mess during the debate while Kennedy looked cool, calm, and collected.

Obama is considered to be handsome by I dare say, millions of women of all races. Obama's sex appeal hasn't hurt him in such images of him exited an ocean in his swim trunks. His physical fitness captured in photos for the world to see. What other president would get high marks in a swimsuit competition? He has touched a nerve among Black women in particular, who consider him an IBM (Ideal Black Man) — educated, eloquent, tall, attractive, family oriented, ambitious and down to earth.

President Joe Biden chooses outfits that make him look younger. Donald Trump opts for old-fashioned dark suits and long ties to convey a message of traditional masculinity. Choices like these are attempts by candidates to morph into the ideal "handsome man" by the public's standards.

Studies show, people vote for candidates who put a lot of effort in looking natural and effortless, but not perfect. Some suggest this is why Mitt Romney was not elected; he looked or presented himself as flawless. People also questioned if he was too handsome. Former President Bill Clinton had the ability to talk naturally and with ease with many ethnicities, such as the Black community. This sense of naturalness made voters feel he was trustworthy. Unlike Mitt Romney, Clinton was known not to be perfect. He was flawed, especially when it came to women. President Clinton was a president many women may have voted for due to his charisma and charm, if not for his physical features.

In 2005, Princeton psychologist Alexander Todorov and colleagues published an astounding study. Todorov and colleagues developed computer models of how faces can suggest character traits like trustworthiness and likability. The competent face shape is masculine but approachable, with a square jaw, high cheekbones, and large eyes. The shape of the eyebrows can suggest anger, for instance, while a long distance between the eyes and the mouth can suggest sadness. An incompetent face, beady, close-together eyes paired with high eyebrows suggest fearfulness. Mitt Romney vs. Newt Gingrich: How much do looks matter in presidential politics? (slate.com)

So, is Trump attractive? Evolutionary psychologist, Todd Shackelford of Oakland University. said Trump is not, from a scientific point-of-view, good-looking. “Indications of non-natural skin texture or color, non-natural hair”—such as Trump’s conspicuous fake tan and orange-tinted ’do—“these are cues that people read as, ‘Something is wrong,’ and that decrease ratings of attractiveness, according to Shackelford. But it seems Trump knows, when it comes to assessing the rich and famous, women are far more forgiving of physical attributes. This may be why Trump has so much White female support - the lure of money and power, not good looks

A 1976 profile of the young mogul in the New York Times gushes: He is tall, lean and blond, with dazzling white teeth, and he looks ever so much like Robert Redford. He rides around town in a chauffeured silver Cadillac with his initials, DJT, on the plates. He dates slinky fashion models, belongs to the most elegant clubs and, at only 30 years of age, estimates that he is worth “more than $200 million.”

Trump, who did look a little bit like Robert Redford in those days, described “flair” as one of his favorite words. “If a man has flair … and is smart and somewhat conservative and has a taste for what people want, he’s bound to be successful in New York,” he said. Trump informs people how to SEE him. The shtick appears to have worked on Andy Warhol, who wrote in his diaries in 1981 that Trump was “good-looking” and “a butch guy.” 

Trump’s perceived virility declined in the 1980s and ’90s in tandem with his prestige and financial troubles. When he no longer could rely on youthful good looks and a large bank account, Trump turned to BEHAVING ugly to draw people to him. Ugly IS his attractiveness. 

“The Ugly American” – a phrase made famous by the 1958 political novel about U.S. policy in Southeast Asia by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer – can no longer refer just to the prototypical loud, ignorant American. Today the title has taken on a real human face, and that is the face of Donald Trump. Like in 2016, Trump must make a campaign of darkness and disarray. He tries to take away the electorate's desires for a hopeful future. He strips the voters of the excitement of a new beginning, and demoralizes, demeans, and dejects. Donald Trump embodies ugly. This time, ugly is his only way forward. Ugly is how he surprisingly achieved accidental success in 2016. Ugly is how he will succeed again.

Because he is ugly in behavior, he tries to make his opponents ugly or whoever displeases him. He has no problem trying to ugly up women. When facing presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Trump said, "If Hillary Clinton can't satisfy her husband, what makes her think she can satisfy America?" [April 16, 2015]. Facing another female candidate, Carly Fiorina, he stated, "Look at that face. Would anybody vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president? I mean, she's a woman, and I'm not supposed to say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?" [Sept. 9, 2015]. On Arianna Huffington he stated, "Unattractive both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man — he made a good decision." [Aug. 28, 2012]. On Stormy Daniels, he also commented, "Horseface" [Oct. 16, 2018] "I never liked horseface. That wouldn't be the one. There is no one. We have a great First Lady."  [March 25, 2023]. You get the picture?

You can be beautiful on the outside but ugly on the inside and eventually your actions will show people how ugly you really are. Kamala Harris does not have to give energy responding to comments regarding how her physical features. Beauty fades, but the heart remains the same. Kahlil Gibran said, "Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart."  

If Donald Trump wants to focus on things that fade and don't matter and Kamala focuses of bringing joy and hope for a better and brighter future, I'll take what she is offering. Beauty has always been in the eye of the beholder. Thank goodness looks are not on the ballot. But if it was, scientific evidence shows Trump would lose by a landslide. 

I will end with a famous quote I learned as a child; "Beauty is as beauty does," which means that beauty is worthless unless it comes with a kind, generous soul. Whether someone is actually “beautiful” should be judged by their actions, not their appearance.

Universities are the Enemy (J.D. Vance)

WHY IS COLLEGE EDUCATED J D VANCE AGAINST UNIVERSITIES? I'll tell you why.

If you have listened to J.D. Vance, then you are aware the Yale Law School graduate has used sharp criticism of elite higher education to help establish his MAGA bona fides and build a national brand. The author of the best-selling memoir Hillbilly Elegy, published in 2016, Vance has written and talked about how education is key to opportunity and how higher education helped to lift him out of poverty. Vance, a former Marine, graduated from Ohio State University and Yale University School of Law. But, when it comes to others, university professors are “the enemy,” and he proposed legislation to restrict the consideration of race in admissions decisions. He does not believe YOU need higher education. NO LIFT FOR YOU.

he is not alone. The Right, or Republicans have a long history of disparaging higher education even though many of them holding offices are highly educated. During Vance's 2022 Senate campaign, his first run for office, Vance changed his tune on higher education, saying that universities are dedicated to “deceit and lies, not to the truth.” Why did he go to a university for so MANY years if he only learned lies? Maybe his HIGHER education has made him the ONE to tell you not to BE or BECOME educated. Even though he IS educated, this educational downfall, pitfall has not prevented him from becoming a Republican vice president nominee in 2024. 

I first wrote this post after listening to AFR (American Family Radio), where I heard for the hundredth time a standard Christian view which irritates me to no end. The statement: COLLEGE BRAINWASHES OUR KIDS.

In 2022, the reason this statement came up was due to a poll that was taken showing that people with college education tend to view President Obama more favorably and people with a high school or lower education tended to not favor President Obama. The radio hosts stated this was not because those with a higher education were smarter than the other group, but that they had gone to college (any and all colleges) where the professors have secular/liberal beliefs. These professors then in turn have 4-6 years to indoctrinate the kids to think liberally like them. In essence, most people with higher education are brainwashed by secular society. I FOUND THIS CHAIN OF THOUGHT TO BE RIDICULOUS AND INANE. If I am not mistaken, most parents have 18 years to rear their child before they send them off to begin their life. How can 18 years of CONSERVATIVE guidance be tossed to the wind so easily? How does a child, who clearly understands their family's values decide to throw them all away because a stranger has presented opposing (according to Christians) mores and concepts? A large number of Christians have been told over and over that colleges are liberal, and their teachings were in-line with 'woke' doctrine. Send off your child to become a doctor, lawyer, pharmacist, or engineer, and the university's MAIN focus is to indoctrinate your child with 'liberal' ideals. And fearful CHRISTIANS believe it. Even if they have been to college themselves and were not indoctrinated. The Right have become the anti-education at any level party, as evidenced by Florida's Governor, Ron DeSantis, who put restriction on history being taught in schools which opened the door for new Florida standards teaching students that some Black people benefited from slavery because it taught useful skills, approved by the State Board of Education in July 2023. WHAT KIND OF EDUCATION DO REPUBLICANS PREFER? 

Must ALL universities be done away with because Republicans are fearful of the education their soon to be adult children may have an opportunity to learn? And really, are Christian parents actually suggesting that their kids are susceptible to every new person they encounter? If their children are so easily swayed, then why do they let them go to universities or out into the world at all? They may be persuaded to do or be anything. It is almost as if Christian parents believe Christian children have a brain of mush and whatever they come into contact with they will believe it without questioning it or thinking about whether it is true or not. CAN CONSERVATIVE CHILDREN THINK FOR THEMSELVES OR NOT? CAN THEY CHOOSE RIGHT FROM WRONG WITHOUT PARENTS LIMITING THEM? It seems by the complaining that colleges brainwash Christian children, they can't think for themselves. OR CAN THEY????

STORY TIME. My oldest daughter who is 26 and a professional has met and made friends with dozens of people of different ethnicities. One of her male friends, who declares he is a Christian, came to her one day and said: "Yesterday when we were in a group, I was going to make a remark about _________ (who was of Hindu descent), but I realized if I said something racist about her it would have more than likely offended you or at least made you think I would talk about you in the same way; so I did not say it" With that he walked away. 

My daughter said something interesting. Her friend came from a rather elitist background. A family of well-educated parents, grandparents and siblings. He went to the private academies and private colleges. His fishbowl was made up of like people. It was while pursuing his career goals he had been exposed to other ethnicities on a consistent basis and thus befriending my daughter. This is the profound revelation my daughter came away with: as you branch out into life around people unlike you, you find that they are just like you and once you make friends with one person that is different than yourself, it begins to change your actions which in turn influences how you treat all people-across the board- that are different from yourself. Your fishbowl gradually turns into a pond, lake, and finally an ocean.So, maybe when Christian parents control the environment in which their kids are reared, limiting exposures to the bare minimum for recognition's sake; they are presenting the ONLY thing the child can believe or adhere to. Once the Christian or Republican child has freedom of choice and exposure, then they recognize what they were once told was not acceptable, has more commonality than they were led to believe. People did not attack, kill, maim, or hate them (remember most Christians say they are persecuted in the world and when this does not actually happen the child may start to believe their parents were not being completely truthful with them which causes bitterness on the kids' part). 

Is The Republican, Christian, Conservative effort to LIMIT education an effort to not embrace those as they see and speak of as OTHER which usually are people of color? Is J.D.Vances' stance against universities and higher education just a PUSH to ensure a possibility of returning to an America of the past which he and MAGA believe was GREAT? Is the only way to maintain conservative beliefs is to erase any offering of something different? Are parents wanting FORCED Christianity, Nationalism, and Conservatism? YOU BET YOUR BOTTOM DOLLAR.

A person's religion has to be their own. I cannot make or insist that my children be a Christian. They can go through the motions to satisfy me, but what good does that do me. It may make me look or feel better, look better to my friends and the church but it has not accomplished anything for God. I never cracked the whip on my kids when it came to religion. I told them about God, talked about Christianity daily; but I always let them know they had free will to choose to be a Christian or not and the consequences of both. We discussed the biblical and secular Creation debate and that they were the one to decide which one they believed. I did not create an alternate reality for them because I wanted them to always be prepared and able to live in the world, like all of us have to do eventually. I raised my kids with the full knowledge that God created them to have free will. As long as they were alive, they could choose evil or good and that their life choices were between them and God. I could not be the overseer or salvation of their souls. 

College is not for brainwashing. There is no torture room where they are stripping your child of all they once knew replacing it with Satan's message. If it were so, no one would send their kids to college. STOP BLAMING COLLEGE if your children stop believing the boogie man stories once they find there is no boogie man. Higher education doesn't remove the fear, it is actually SEEING there are not monsters like mommy and daddy said. At least, not like they had them believe. 

Face the real issue. It is the only way to continue a political party not offering a VISION for ALL the citizens of the country. Nothing more. Nothing less. A political party which insists on IGNORANCE or lack of education to flourish. A party making knowledge and understanding a TERRIBLE thing. You cannot own or control an EDUCATED person. It would be fine if Republicans didn't want their children educated, but it's EVERYONE'S child they want to be ignorant.

You have always heard you cannot change people; only the way you react to them. Women have been forever warned don't get married and think you can change him. Change doesn't come easy as evidenced by the turmoil our country is going through. People change because they want to change. 

It is like people believing the only way we could ever have a black president is because we are living in the end times or because he is the antichrist, or at least his hand maiden. This was said over and over during Obama's presidency. Those who want to believe such nonsense, believe it. Those who do not believe it has to be the end of the world for a black president to be elected don't. I have heard the one about college (indoctrination) and the president (not American) enough to be brainwashed, but I am not. Brainwashing is not as easy as Republicans would have you believe. But their repetitive insistence that universities are the enemy, has brainwashed the Right and Christians. Repetition is a brainwashing technique no matter how absurd. 

This is the end of my rant. I know rants usually tick someone off in one way or another. But I wrote these things because I was ticked off. Misery loves company. In the end if you believe colleges are brainwashing Christian children then prepare them for it. Tell them to research what they are told or learn only accepting facts. But it's not about FACTS, is it? Don't send them out to be sheep for the wolves. Talk with them about this concern. Talk to them about the entire college experience before they go and while they are in college. Believe it or not, there is more than you who can teach your child something for their betterment. P.S. I have been to college and never stopped believing in God and the Creation account in Genesis in the Christian Bible or any other part of the Bible. Science is not an enemy of Christianity, nor Philosophy. Not being grounded in God with a personal relationship with Him is the enemy. Political agendas cloaked in Christianity is the enemy. Not seeing other Americans as equals is the enemy.