At a political rally in Duluth last night, Donald Trump largely managed to avoid talking about immigration issues. But he did take the time to mock the masculinity of a protester,who held up a picture of Trump with former friend Jeffrey Epstein, now a convicted pedophile.

Moreover, Trump used the language that bullies traditionally have used to attack someone for being a sissy.

“Oh we have a single protestor, there we go. Goodbye, darling,” Trump said to the cheers of supporters. “So we have a single protestor, he’s going home to his mom. Say hello to mommy.”

Trump also questioned the gender of the protester, Sam Spadino. Spadino, who wears a man bun, had travelled two and a half hours from Minneapolis to protest Trump.

“Was that a man or a woman?,” Trump asked. “Because he needs a haircut more than I do. I couldn’t tell. Needs a haircut.”

The subject of Spadino’s protest, Jeffrey Epstein, is a financier who was convicted of soliciting sex from an underage girl for prostitution. A woman who says she was an underage sex slave for Epstein has alleged that Epstein recorded friends having sex with underage girls, allegations that have never been proven

The exchange by Trump highlights yet again how his thinking is trapped in the 1950s. He belittles protesters as less than manly, using the kind of language used against LGBTQ people for decades.

As with so much else that Trump says, his supporters would vehemently disavow any homophobic intent. Those of us who have been targeted with that same language know better.