Trump talks tough. But his toughness is phony, just like everything else about him. Faking it has worked for Donald Trump in the past. But his feud with Joe Biden shows how phony-tough he is.

Windsor Mann | Opinion

Show Caption Hide Caption Biden and Trump threaten to 'beat the hell' out of each other President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden have been going back and forth for more than a year, threatening each other. Veuer's Sam Berman has the full story.

In case you didn’t notice in all the political chaos last week, the president of the United States publicly threatened to beat up a former vice president of the United States, who previously said he wanted to beat up the president of the United States. No big deal.

Speaking at an anti-sexual assault rally on Tuesday, Joe Biden endorsed physical assault. “If we were in high school,” he said, referring to much younger, imaginary versions of himself and the president, “I’d take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him.”

“I’ve been in a lot of locker rooms my whole life,” Biden said, under the mistaken impression that anyone cared. “I’m a pretty damn good athlete. Any guy that talked that way (about women) was usually the fattest, ugliest SOB in the room.”

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Two days later, and two days after the first lady talked about the need to stop cyberbullying, President Trump tweeted: “Crazy Joe Biden is trying to act like a tough guy. Actually, he is weak, both mentally and physically, and yet he threatens me, for the second time, with physical assault. He doesn’t know me, but he would go down fast and hard, crying all the way. Don’t threaten people Joe!”

Literally every sentence in this tweet applies to Trump himself. After criticizing Biden for threatening physical violence, he threatened Biden with physical violence. Then, after threatening Biden, he advised him not to “threaten people.”

Many people found this funny, including Vice President Pence. It is funny, kind of. However, mostly it is just pathetic.

Biden and Trump are what the late columnist Stewart Alsop called “phony-tough.” They have 10 draft deferments between them. They are making up for these missed opportunities by imagining what it would be like if they were young again, in a locker room, and full of testosterone. It sounds like the plot of a gay porn movie.

Trump isn’t just phony-tough. He’s phony-everything.

Faking it has worked for him in the past. He pretended to be a tough and successful boss on TV. He fake-wrote a book, which became a best-seller, prompting him to fake-write a slew of follow-ups; they all feign toughness, and some, like Time to Get Tough, rather blatantly. He hung a fake Time magazine cover of himself in his clubs. He faked a disability (bone spurs) to avoid the draft but summoned the courage to fake-fight Vince McMahon at WWE’s WrestleMania.

Weak in real life, he acts tough on TV and online: safe spaces for bullies. His targets are wide-ranging, but he’s particularly ruthless toward women, whom he views as weaker. When criticized for his attacks on others, Trump blames political correctness. He is confused. His real problem is with civility.

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Trump’s phony-toughness has real-life consequences. When you preach violence, sooner or later someone will practice it. And Trump likes to preach violence:

Feb. 1, 2016: “If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you?”

Feb. 22, 2016: “I’d like to punch him in the face.”

Feb. 26, 2016: “In the good old days, they’d rip him out of that seat so fast.”

March 4, 2016: “Try not to hurt him. If you do, I’ll defend you in court.”

March 11, 2016: “Part of the problem and part of the reason it takes so long [for protestors to leave] is nobody wants to hurt each other anymore.”

Aaron James, author of a book whose title is too profane to print, wrote, “The first rule of democracy is a no-violence rule: We argue instead of punch, we use words instead of fists, and we appeal to reason, however strong our passions.”

Elected officials are defying this elementary rule. The Montana congressman who physically assaulted a reporter, Greg Gianforte, won his election. Trump and Biden are using words instead of fists, but they are not arguing or reasoning — they are emoting. This is not what grown men do. This is what little boys do.

Biden has always been rash, but Trump has made him more so. In talking about Trump, he talked like Trump. This is one of the many problems with Trump: He spawns imitators, among his supporters and critics alike. Robert De Niro, in a video posted on YouTube in 2016, said he’d like to “punch (Trump) in the face.” Kathy Griffin joked about decapitating him. De Niro and Griffin, as well as Biden now, are private citizens, but they have a public platform, and they should use it cautiously. Those combating Trump’s nastiness, won't win by emulating it.

Windsor Mann is the editor of The Quotable Hitchens: From Alcohol to Zionism. Harass him on Twitter @WindsorMann.