Republican presidential primary front-running candidate Donald Trump continues his campaign of insults without apologies. This highly unusual strategy was initially thought to be sure to backfire and be short-lived, pandering only to the lowest stratum of US society. However, that has not appeared to be the case, and Trump continues his insulting barrage against individuals and groups.The latest target of his derision is The New York Times’ reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has arthrogryposis, a condition that affects his joint movements.
When a spokesperson for the Trump campaign was asked about whether this aggressively-insulting campaign strategy is a good long-term strategy, she replied: “At first, we didn’t think it would last. But the general election is less than one year away, and we think we can stretch this strategy the rest of the way. Mr. Trump’s attacks on Muslims have been well received, and we think we can ride the Muslim hate bus for a bit longer. We haven’t even gotten around to the Jews and Catholics yet!”
The spokesperson admitted that Trump’s attacks on Mr. Kovaleski have not been well-received: “Well, we tried insulting the physically-challenged, and that did not go too well. We’re looking for an appropriate mentally-challenged target to go after next to see if that registers positively with the general public. If that doesn’t work, we’ve still got plenty of niche target groups left like the left-handed, those with lazy eyes, the obese, and librarians.”
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