It is hard to talk about President Trump without a mention of ego, his key defining aspect and major weakness. This characteristic is probably the primary reason why he responds to criticism, be it constructive or not, with scathing attacks on the personalities of the critics. At the presidential debate, he complained about the questions posed to him and said Megyn Kelly was a bimbo. He has called both Erick Erickson and George Will losers. Once asked a question on foreign policy by Hugh Hewett, he called him an unqualified radio host. Trump chose to attack Hillary Clinton’s husband, Bill, in answering to an accusation leveled against him about a comment he had made on his treatment and perception of women (Chiasma, 2016) . Despite its immaterialism, Trump successfully used the fallacy of argumentum ad hominem to confront opponents during his campaign.
As a logical fallacy, an Ad Hominem is an attack on the personality and not on the ideas of someone (Your Dictionary, n.d) . It basically means attacking the person instead of addressing their concerns or points of argument when they present a statement that you do not agree with. Trump specialized and reveled in this during his campaign, daring and provoking his opponents to attack him so he could get an opportunity to launch attacks on themselves. He used this tactic to increase his mentions in the media and grow his popularity among the masses. He would attack people’s personalities, physical looks, gender, and character, among others. Many people typically consider this as a weak argument: a rhetorical and fallacious appeal founded on immateriality. Trump, however, used it to his advantage.
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Trump has launched personality attacks on many people, both rivals and non-rivals. He mocked Marco Rubio by referring to him as ‘little Marco’, said Elizabeth Warren was goofy and referred to Clinton as crooked. During an interview he did in September with Rolling Stone, he attacked Carly Fiorina’s physical appearance and gender, insinuating that she was not fit to be the next American President. Rather than targeting the ideas of an opponent, an ad hominem attacks the person. This is the card trump played with Fiorina, focusing on her gender and physical appearance rather than her policy proposals, ideas, competence, or experience (Stack, 2016) .
Ultimately, Trump managed to avoid questions he could not answer, get away from giving self-incriminating answers, and win massive support. Additionally, he was able to outdo all his competitors in media mentions, regardless of whether they were negative or positive. He often attacked his opponents from both within and without his party. He abused Hillary through making sexist comments about her, called Ben Carson a ‘pathological’, and said Bernie Sanders was a ‘socialist whack job’. He repeatedly insulted Marco Rubio in public and called Ted Cruz a maniac. Further, Trump attacked the personalities of Rick Perry and Jeb Bush. He created a false public image of all these people which may, or may not have reduced the popularity of these people.
Ad hominem ignores critical thinking and fails to appeal to reason, facts, and objective. It also does not examine personal biases, assumptions, alternative proposals, and consequences. The person overlooks reason before taking action. It is ethical to reason critically and avoid personality attacks. We all want a humble but confident president who can take and face criticism objectively- one who knows that he does not have to insult people, is not a narcissist and acknowledges his mistakes. Argumentum ad hominem, however, worked for Trump, culminating in his win over Hillary and succession of Obama.
References
Chiasma. (2016, October 12). 5 Logical Fallacies from the Second Clinton Trump Debate . Retrieved June 2, 2017, from Medium: https://medium.com/@Chiasma/5-logical-fallacies-from-the-second-clinton-trump-debate-4080336314e1
Stack, G. (2016, March 14). Trump: King of the Ad Hominem . Retrieved June 2, 2017, from silvertonguetimes: https://silvertonguetimes.com/2016/03/14/trump-king-of-the-ad-hominem/
Weistein, B. (2016, March 8). How Trump and Friends Could Learn a Few Things From Mr. Spock . Retrieved June 2, 2017, from Fortune: http://fortune.com/2016/03/08/fallacious-arguments-logic-trump/
Your Dictionary. (n.d). Examples of Logical Fallacy . Retrieved June 2, 2017, from yourdictionary: http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-logical-fallacy.html
