The President of the United States called a woman a pig.

Can we all just take a minute and try to let that sink in?

I know we’ve all gradually been desensitized over the last ten years, grown accustomed to his repugnant, sneering vulgarity; so used to his prolific indecency that it almost becomes white noise.

But we need to remind ourselves of how very abnormal this all is.

Faced with a question regarding one of the most expansive human trafficking investigations in our nation from a respected journalist, America’s Commander-in-Chief, its representative in the world, the person in its highest seat of power, stood before cameras and reporters and said, “Quiet, piggy.”

Watching this, I was almost tempted to ask the question, “What kind of person does this, on any level, in any professional capacity, in any other setting?” but I know the answer. It’s the same kind of person who says they are so powerful they could grab a woman by the genitalia. The same kind of person who has been credibly accused by dozens of women of abuse, harassment, and sexual assault.

The same kind of person who was declared in court to be liable for raping a woman. The same kind of person whose body of work is littered with misogyny and dehumanization of women. The same kind of person who has spent years leveraging his power and position to prevent the release of documents of an investigation of unfathomable sexual violence, which likely implicates him.

Donald Trump has always been a pig.

He has always been an amoral, vile, vulgar creep who lacks a single noble impulse.

That is an indisputable, objective, quantifiable fact.

The question that needs to be asked once again is, “What kind of person supports a person like this?”

How morally broken does someone need to be to affirm this unrepentant ugliness, to vote for it, to double down on it, to defend it, to celebrate it?

How addled by prejudice, perverted theology, and political tribalism does a human being have to be to declare alignment with a man who is this bereft of simple humanity?

What kind of heart finds affinity in the absolute worst of our species?

Sadly, I think we know the answers to these questions, as well.

For years, we’ve tried to give his supporters the benefit of the doubt, to see them as victims of political, religious, and familial indoctrination; otherwise good people manipulated by bottom-feeding partisan media, duped by cunning power-hungry charlatans, and woefully misled by trusted voices in their lives.

We’ve all worked incredibly hard to craft a story in our heads that removes any responsibility or culpability from his sycophantic disciples—because the alternative would be to admit that people we know, love, and once respected have not been tricked by him but released by him.

To be honest with ourselves would force us to reckon with the unthinkable reality that he has given them permission to fully embrace the darkness in their hearts.

But as we witness Catherine Lucey, a respected, experienced professional (not to mention a human being), treated with such sickening disdain by a sitting president, it’s another reminder that this is not normal, that he is not normal, and that standing with him is not normal—or at least, it shouldn’t be for people of faith, morality, and conscience.

The president is a pig.

That is a national disaster, a planetary disgrace, and a historic farce.

But the far greater tragedy is why so many Americans see him as a hero.

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