As the people of Minneapolis have mounted a well-organized and determined resistance to the federal government’s assault on their city, one thing has become clear: The super-manly men of the Trump administration — both the ones on the ground in Minnesota and the ones back in Washington — are a bunch of whiny little babies.
If all those disaffected young men Republicans have been working so hard to appeal to are looking for a good model of masculinity — and just as important, the absolute worst model — they should pay close attention to what is going on in Minneapolis.
Let’s start our story with Vice President JD Vance, who is always ready to step in and defend the honor of dudes, whether they’re being mocked by “childless cat ladies” or harangued by dangerous agitators. A few days ago he posted this to X:
He apparently heard this story from someone in the Department of Homeland Security and rushed to share the tale of brave ICE agents under assault from a veritable army of violent leftists. It’s a miracle they escaped with their lives!
But as Politico reported, Vance’s story is contradicted by both the Minneapolis police and the owner of the restaurant:
Singh said the two men came into his restaurant around 8:30 p.m. and were discussing why so many restaurants in the area were either closed or only offering takeout. Singh told the men it might be due to ICE activity in the city.
“And the guy told me, ‘ICE is not problem,’” Singh recalled of what he said was a Monday night conversation, which matches the Jan. 19 police report. Singh said the officers were in the middle of their meal when a few people came into the restaurant and told Singh they suspected ICE was there.
Singh said more people arrived outside and began congregating around the car. Meanwhile, the two agents told their server they were being harassed, he said.
“One guy actually told me, ‘Brother, don’t come between this,’” he said, referring to one of the federal officers in his restaurant. “‘We’ll teach them a lesson.’” Minutes later, Singh said more uniformed officers arrived outside and the two men left shortly after.
Perhaps not so dramatic a confrontation. But it did put me in mind of something Vance said after Renee Good was murdered, in the frenzy of administration efforts to describe her as a deranged terrorist and her killer as a hero. Noting that the agent, Jonathan Ross, was involved in an incident six months before in which he was “dragged” by a moving car and needed stitches for a cut in his leg, Vance said, “So you think maybe he’s a little bit sensitive about somebody ramming him with an automobile?”
Put aside the fact that Good didn’t “ram” anyone. Now consider how often we’ve heard liberals mocked for saying that the rest of us should be sensitive to other people’s feelings, or for asking for consideration of their own feelings. For instance, when liberals say that someone living with the memory of trauma might be offered an extra dose of kindness and consideration, conservatives shout “Man up, you worthless snowflake! Facts don’t care about your feelings!” Yet in this case, Vance argued that because of something that happened to him months before, Ross doesn’t just deserve sympathy, he gets to kill people if for a moment he finds himself scared.
Or just as likely, insulted. Good and her wife both spoke to Ross with a kind of gentle mockery that he no doubt found deeply wounding to his manhood (“Go get some lunch, big boy,” her wife said). After he shot her, the first words out of Ross’ mouth were “Fucking bitch.” As President Trump said in justifying Good’s murder, she was “very, very disrespectful.” And you know what a man does when a woman disrespects him.
In the version of masculinity MAGA offers to men, one of the key elements is that you get to do what you want and nobody can stop you, especially women. Talk however you want, do whatever you want, grab women however you want. To paraphrase Trump on the “Access Hollywood” tape, When you’re a man, they let you do it. You have no obligations to others; satisfying your own desires is what matters.
Now let’s see this recently revealed recording of Gregory Bovino, Trump’s very own Colonel Lockjaw, psyching up the troops for an assault on an American city:
“Arrest as many people that touch you as you want to,” he says. “It’s all about us now, it ain’t about them…This is our fucking city!”
But what we see over and over is that these guys are wimps. There they are in full battle rattle, camo and helmets and body armor and guns, covering their faces, cosplaying like they’re about to enter Fallujah circa 2004 when in fact they’re taking down some grandfather or smashing some mom’s car windows because she didn’t get out of their way fast enough. They’re amped up on all the warrior talk, sucking in their guts as they point their guns at ordinary citizens. They have no emotional control.
And if they take off their Oakleys for a second, you can see what’s in their eyes: they’re afraid. They’re the ones with the guns, and instilling terror in civilians is the objective of the whole operation. But they’re scared out of their wits, so much so that when some people yell at them in a restaurant, the story of their harrowing escape gets all the way up to the vice president.
But there’s something else on display in Minneapolis, too. People are demonstrating real courage — and it isn’t the guys in Kevlar. Ordinary people are confronting the men with guns, standing up for their neighbors and their community and the things their country was supposed to represent. Those people are defending the vulnerable, putting themselves at risk, organizing and coordinating and acting together.
You don’t have to be a man to do those things, but that can be a model for masculinity too, one of strength, courage, and a commitment to protect those around you. The Trump goons are weaklings, and any young man watching them should understand: That way lies nothing but shame, moral degradation, and the contempt of everyone whose opinion you should value. Make yourself into something better.
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