Kirsten Powers

Opinion columnist

Now we know what offends in Trumpland.

It’s not people losing health care. It’s not the president publicly humiliating his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, an early and loyal supporter of then-candidate Donald Trump. Nor is it the president of the United States bromancing an avowed adversary of the United States, as Trump regularly does with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The red line of offense appears to be a potty mouth.

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After erstwhile White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci’s expletive-laced tirade to The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza, word leaked as to how the bizarre interview was received in Trump’s world.

Initially, the president reportedly was delighted by the interview, until someone apparently explained that "The Mooch" made him look too outer-borough. The president and his family “did not appreciate how (Scaramucci’s) comments linked them to vulgarity,” tweeted The Washington Post’s Robert Costa. They are fine with playing rough, he was told, but don’t embarrass them.

Axios’ Jonathan Swan reported, “One (White House) official who is largely forgiving of Trump's behavior told me the president's tacit endorsement of Mooch's lewd comments made him question more seriously than ever before whether this was the kind of place he wanted to work.”

Firing the FBI director for not dropping an investigation? No problem. Politicizing a speech to the Boy Scouts? More, please. Tweeting like a teenager hopped up on Adderall? Absolutely. But don’t curse to a reporter.

Evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats used the Scaramucci incident as the occasion for an open letter to the president, urging repentance and for Trump to “lead by first washing out Mr. Scaramucci’s mouth with a bar of soap. After a thorough rinsing, strip his credentials and escort him personally off the White House grounds.”

Vander Plaats was a Ted Cruz supporter, but in a post-election interview, he claimed Trump’s elevation to the White House was the result of God’s intervention. He invoked Scripture, saying Trump was called “for such a time as this.” He promised that evangelicals were going to stand with the president but also “challenge (him if he did things) that are outside of God’s design.” Incredibly, nothing Vander Plaats’ modern-day Esther has done in the past six months seems to have irked him as much as cursing by a White House aide.

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The Rev. Tony Campolo has a bit he does on Christian campuses that highlights the problem with misplaced outrage. “I have three things I’d like to say today,” Campolo tells them. “First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don’t give a s---. What’s worse is that you’re more upset with the fact that I said s--- than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night.”

The same could be said of the lack of offense so many Trump defenders take about his dehumanizing comments about Mexicans or seeming cheering for police brutality. It’s not that what Scaramucci did was OK; it’s that it’s probably the least problematic thing that has happened in the Trump administration in terms of issues that actually affect people’s day-to-day lives.

But at least he hasn’t said “s---.”

Kirsten Powers, author ofThe Silencing: How the Left is Killing Free Speech, writes often for USA TODAY. Previously, she worked for Fox News and is now an analyst for CNN. Follow her on Twitter @KirstenPowers.

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