The Guardian (USA)

Trump has become obsessed with toilets. Is it because he is a busted flush?

- Arwa Mahdawi

With the election just around the corner, Donald Trump seems to be feeling the pressure. And the pressure, apparently, is just not good enough. During a rally in Nevada on Sunday the president launched into a bizarre rant about water pressure. First, he talked about subpar dishwasher­s, and how he called a guy in Ohio, did a deal, and now the dishwasher­s “work beautifull­y”. Then, I am sorry to say, he moved on to his bathroom issues.

“It’s the shower, it’s the sink, and you know the third element in the bathroom,” Trump complained. “But I don’t say it, because every time I say it, they only talk about that one,” he said, gesturing vaguely towards reporters. “Because it’s sort of gross to talk about, right? So I won’t talk about the fact that people have to flush their toilet 15 times. I will not talk about it. I’ll only talk about showers.” Trump, a man of his word, proceeded to talk about showers.

Perhaps you are getting a weird sense of deja vu? Don’t worry. Your brain isn’t broken: Trump, who no longer seems to have Covid-19 but still has uncontroll­able logorrhoea, has delivered a variation of this diatribe before. In December 2019, the president announced that he’d issued an order to review water-saving regulation­s because “people are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times”. Being a big-picture guy, Trump also reassured everyone the government was “looking very strongly at sinks and showers”. He made the comments in a roundtable meeting at the White House on 6 December but, it being an urgent issue and all, also brought the subject up during a Michigan rally on 18 December.

Why is Trump so obsessed with toilets? One imagines Freud would have had a theory or two. My own, very simple, explanatio­n is that the guy is potty; he has worms in his brain and something horrible in his gut. Interestin­gly, however, Trump seems particular­ly bothered by bathroom issues during tough times. His 2019 rants were delivered as impeachmen­t proceeding­s started. His latest loo-natic monologue was delivered with the election just weeks away, Joe Biden leading in the polls, and the number of people with coronaviru­s surging across the US. Is he subconscio­usly showing us he’s worried his career is about to get flushed down the toilet? Let’s hope so and let’s hope it happens: it’s time to dump

Trump.

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 ?? Photograph: Erik S Lesser/EPA ?? Trump … strange obsessions.
Photograph: Erik S Lesser/EPA Trump … strange obsessions.

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