Mind you . . . I am not a fan of the president of our nation. Not even close. As far as I am concerned the man is an immoral, corrupt, nasty, lying individual who relishes the chaos and trauma he inflicts upon others—especially the citizens of the United States of America. He is a buffoon . . . a clown with no admirable qualities. I cannot stand the man.
Knowing my own disdain for this individual I catch myself in a shockingly ironic position of understanding his recent “flipping” behavior with a heckler at a Dearborn, Michigan, Ford Plant. We all saw it on the news, on social media, and across the Internet. As tRump was touring the auto plant one of the laborers yelled at him, “Pedophile protector!” Of course, we all know this is a reference to the Epstein files dealing with the sex trafficking scandal that just won’t go away for tRump. Files that the president himself ordered to be fully released to the public back on December 19th, 2025. A date that has come and gone with little to show. Nearly a month later less than ten percent of the files have been released. Needless to say, the nation’s citizens are not happy. They feel scammed . . . gaslighted . . . played for dupes.
It is a “touchy” subject for tRump. A real irritation. A rash that won’t go away. It is no wonder that the laborer’s heckle got under the president’s skin. Frustrated and angry the leader of the United States reacted like one of us . . . like a common person . . . he pointed at the guy and gave him the “finger” . . . flipped him off . . . gave him the “bird”. In America there is no greater retort to express contempt and displeasure towards another than letting the “bird” fly.
I understand tRump’s behavior. I understand where he is coming from. It is a totally “American” reaction. According to the White House Director of Communication, Steven Cheung, “. . . the president gave an appropriate and unambiguous response.” Americans throw the “your number one” sign a million times a day. So, why not the president of the United States of America? If we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that we understand. The insult has been around for generations, and we’ve even used it ourselves.
This is the frustrating part . . . we’ve all done it. We have all “flipped” someone off. Given someone the “finger” or the “bird”. Declared them “number one”. I know I have. Probably more times than I would ever want to admit . . . especially when driving. It’s a universal sign of displeasure and irritation with another person or group. Get cut off—the “finger” is exposed. The message is sent.
A couple of years ago I got disgusted with the frequency of my profane signaling while driving. Tired of “flipping” people off. That’s when I started to use sarcasm. Everyone appreciates sarcasm. Instead of giving other drivers the “finger”, I started to give them the “thumbs up” sign. For a while I felt good about it . . . even thought it was humorous, but it didn’t feel the same. Still did not reflect my frustration and anger towards that errant driver. I’m human after all and the “bird” came back. Sadly, I now use both hand signals saving the “finger” for those I perceive as the most offensive.
That’s the kicker. The “finger” that the president flashed at his heckler is offensive. It has always been offensive. We all know what it means. It is as old as the Pantheon . . . the ancient Greeks used it to express displeasure towards others. In ancient Rome it was a physical threat. One story explaining the origin is the Agincourt myth. According to the story it was 1415 during a battle between the English and French at Agincourt. The English used longbows which were a powerful weapon. The French feared the weapons and when they would capture these English soldiers, they would cut off their middle finger. Without this finger, the bow couldn’t be used effectively. They thought this would keep the English from fighting in the future battles.
Well, the English won the battle, they mocked the French by showing that they still had their middle fingers. English longbows were made from yew trees. Pulling back the bowstring was called “plucking the yew”. Taunting the French, the English waved their middle fingers while proclaiming, “See, we can still pluck you!” It eventually evolves into the gesture we know today . . . “pluck yew!” I think you got the picture.
Okay . . . it was inappropriate for the president to “flip” off the factory disgruntled factory worker no matter how infuriating the statement was. Also, it was inappropriate for the laborer to say what he said no matter how truthful it might be. This was not hospitality . . . not the way to treat a guest no matter how vile that person might be. As for the president . . . well, it’s not the behavior we expect from the greatest leader of the free world. We expect much more from our president. Yet . . . come on! We would have done the same thing had we been being hassled and heckled. We would have “flipped” the guy off too.
That is the whole frustrating part of this scenario . . . as much as I cannot stand this individual or his behavior and actions . . . I understand his knee-jerk response. Though I don’t agree with what he did, I understand. And if we are honest with ourselves, we have to admit that we understand too. It’s kind of an icky feeling wouldn’t you say? Ironic in that we catch ourselves lowered to and on the same level as someone we despise.
At the same time, I am not fooling myself. The gesture by tRump might come across as an ill-gotten moment of frustration and contempt . . . a slip of the finger . . . a mistake by the president. But it wasn’t. No, it was more of a revealing Freudian slip. An inner thought that expressed what the president really thinks about others . . . about the world and nation . . . about us as the citizens he represents. A “oops, did I say that out loud” moment. Most of the time he just expresses them through his daily actions of creating chaos and trauma—not a profane gesture. This individua—tRump—does not like us or our nation. He expresses it daily waving his middle finger at us, taunting us . . . proclaiming, “Pluck Yew!” Maybe he will add the symbolic gesture to his verbal repertoire and start being congruent. Wouldn’t surprise me.
As I stated earlier, I am not a fan of tRump. No, I am far from it. Much of what this individual represents and does makes me sick and angry. He is despicable. Though I do not agree with his recent “flippant” behavior . . . I understand. As we have witnessed, it will continue to get worse. The individual knows it. He doesn’t care. The emperor’s new clothes are being exposed for what they are . . . nothing! And he knows it. He is cracking and his opposition knows it. Does he care? Naw, he’s just letting the “bird” fly.
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