Donald Trump doesn’t want a dog, for fear of looking phony, he says. But Cockburn can’t help wondering if there isn’t a deeper neurosis here. The president, it seems, is a dogphobe. He once was reported to have said ‘I never understood why people like dogs. Dogs are disgusting’ — though Snopes declared that fake news.
Trump does however seem to have a strange canine preoccupation. He has used the word ‘dog’ over 40 times on Twitter. He employs the formulation ‘like a dog’ with particular regularity — often, misusing the dog simile.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/589251220000403456
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/715013260462960642
Are dogs thrown off TV?
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/677339850752806912
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/291568395621634049
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/702141081027104769
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/652150749082746881
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/620391296251916288
Do dogs get fired?
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/258640349872926720
Are dogs unfaithful? Cockburn thought famously that wasn’t the case…
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/253516010974507008
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/253516010974507008
Do dogs get dumped?
And, Cockburn’s favorite,
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/690708660377513984
He’s also displayed a predilection for comparing women to dogs (though incidentally has only tweeted the word ‘bitch’ twice, when quoting someone else):
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1029329583672307712
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/585281558816370690
And he loves to say how unsuccessful politicians ‘couldn’t get elected dog catcher’.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/616353051432079360
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/922798321739161600
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/625772928416763904
There is a clear pattern here. Cockburn wonders: was the President bitten by a dog as a child? Or did — horror of horrors — a dog ask young Donald for money?
