The disgust of Donald Trump

Abstract

‘I know where she went, it’s disgusting, I don’t want to talk about it. No, it’s too disgusting. Don’t say it, it’s disgusting, let’s not talk’. That’s Donald Trump, discussing Hilary Clinton taking a bathroom break. It is just one of the many things which disgust him. While his rhetoric about other races and religions steers clear of the word, his imagery evokes the rejection or ejection characteristic of disgust: deporting illegal immigrants, a wall on the Mexican border, a ban on Muslim travel. This paper argues that the affirmation, amplification and circulation of disgust is one of the primary affective drivers of Trump’s political success. In doing so, Trump capitalizes on the tendency of political conservatives to be more intensely moved by disgust. Discarding, ejecting or blocking the sticky, disgusting object becomes a visceral and even contagious necessity. Sharing that recoil, as Trump does with his most passionate supporters, can forge an intense, enduring and binding relation. While the dynamics of disgust are most evident in the crowds at his rallies, it is also mediatized and transmitted through broadcast and social media. As the Trump era unfolds, it is crucial to understand disgust as a mode of affective politics.