American Presidents were often inspiring orators and careful wordsmiths. Under “King Trump”, however, the American Presidency and political discourse have devolved into an odiferous farce.
The degradation of American culture continues to unfold, as spiteful and asinine behavior is normalized. We might call this the “moronification” of America. Political discourse in the United States has reached an odiferous low point of obscenity, cruelty, and stupidity.
A new nadir in President Trump’s response to the “No Kings” protests of October 2025 could be observed.[1] The President re-posted an AI-generated video on his Truth Social feed in which he drops shit on protesters from a military aircraft. On the side of the warplane, the words “King Trump” are written. Trump wears a crown as he flies the plane, strafing the masses with manure.
When I first heard about this video, I thought it must be mocking Trump. But it was Trump himself who reposted it. Republicans have defended it, despite the fact that it seems to confirm the accusation that Trump is a cruel tyrant.
Satire is used by the powerless to poke fun at the pretensions of the powerful. But when people in power mock the powerless, it is merely callous and cruel.
The American Presidency was once a bastion of enlightenment. Presidents were inspiring orators and careful wordsmiths. Thomas Jefferson’s lofty words transformed the Declaration of Independence into a rhetorical masterpiece. American children memorized presidential speeches, such as Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Now, children giggle at Presidential poop jokes.
Crass meme-culture has invaded American culture. This is supercharged by social media algorithms and AI-slop. And people are often too thickheaded to understand even that they are being mocked. When Republicans like Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, defended the President’s scatological video as “satire”, it was clear that they did not understand satire.[2]
Satire is used by the powerless to poke fun at the pretensions of the powerful. But when people in power mock the powerless, it is merely callous and cruel.
This video would be satire if someone else posted it—as a way of ridiculing Trump’s regal fantasies. But when the President posts a video of himself pooping on the people, it is not satire. What was the joke supposed to be—that Trump is, in fact, a king who wants to shit on his subjects? Will the President next start reposting those South Park cartoons which mock his penis and portray him as having sex with Satan?
This is all so sad, ugly, and moronic. American political discourse has devolved, and everyone is behaving like the fourth-graders on South Park. I worry that we are giggling our culture to death.
Don’t misunderstand my point. In the United States, the First Amendment guarantees our right to behave like fourth-graders. Censorship is not the answer. Rather, the solution is education. We must cultivate the desire for enlightenment. Let’s all grow up. Enough with the poop and penis jokes. It is shameful and dangerous to behave like morons.
I discussed the moronic turn in American politics in much more detail in my book, Tyranny from Plato to Trump. I argued there that we all have a tendency to be moronic, by which I meant to direct attention to the common human failing of foolishness and a lack of self-control. I wrote the following:
We foolish morons lack the desire to be wise. We want to be entertained and amused. We do not lack intelligence. We drive cars and pay our bills. But we acquiesce to our foolishness and succumb to stupidity. When we behave moronically, we do not care about truth as much as we care about laughter, excitement, rage, and violence. I say “we foolish morons” here because everyone can be a fool or a moron at times. We get drunk and say dumb things. We get carried away by the crowd. We let anger, gluttony, and lust get the better of us. Sometimes we give in to anger, hatred, and violence, which is the most moronic and dangerous thing of all. [3]
I realize that the term “moron” can be offensive. At one point, it was associated with the eugenics movement. But I use the term here in a technical sense, tracing it back to ancient Greek sources, where a moron was understood as someone who was intellectually blind and morally obtuse. Morons, in this sense, do not have brain damage. Instead, they are fools by choice: they turn away from enlightenment and prefer to think and behave as children.
Plato warned about this common fault in our humanity, which was linked to his rejection of democracy. For Plato, democracy was a ship of fools in which morons elect the ship’s captain. Plato’s solution was a dictatorship under a wise philosopher-king. That Platonic solution is, of course, a pipe dream. There are no virtuous and benevolent despots. The modern solution is a Constitutional system based upon fundamental rights, the separation of powers, and a system of checks and balances. But that system only works if citizens and politicians are wise and virtuous.
I fear that the moronic turn will continue unabated. There appears to be a negative feedback loop here. Stupid people elect stupid people. Imprudent leaders appoint foolish advisors. And we, the moronic masses, laugh ourselves silly as the ship of fools sails to oblivion.
I hope the fever of foolishness will break. People can grow out of their childishness. But that requires a conscious effort. Immanuel Kant famously said that enlightenment is “man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.”[4] Kant reminds us that we have a choice in the matter. We don’t have to be moronic. We can choose wisdom and virtue. We can turn away from the poop and penis jokes and overcome the puerile and petty behavior of the present moment. If we don’t, future historians will wonder how we could have been so stupid.
Image Source: “‘King Trump’ official tweet” (19 Feb 2025) by the White House (U.S. federal government), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
[1] Trump Truth Social Shit bombing: https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115398251623299921
[2] “Mike Johnson says Trump was ‘using satire to make a point’ with AI poop-bombing video” Political, October 10, 2025, https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/10/20/congress/mike-johnson-trump-poop-video-00615255.
[3] Andrew Fiala, Tyranny from Plato to Trump: Fools, Sycophants, and Citizens (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2022), 95.
[4] Immanuel Kant, “What is Enlightenment?”
