Donald Trump Is Angry

Donald Trump is angry. That’s why people like him.

He’s happy to admit to this — he once described his willingness to “accept the mantle of anger”.

While this might seem obvious, it isn’t just that he says he’s angry. It’s that you can see his anger, on his face.

Other politicians might speak of anger or pain, or shock or determination or disappointment or any one of a hundred strong emotions, but their years of conditioning and media training have ironed out all of the extremes of facial expression from them.

Other politicians might be caught out in the odd moment making an unbecoming face, or succumbing to a micro-expression which gives away a glimpse of intense human feeling on their part, but it’s the exception rather than the rule. With Trump, it’s the rule.

Five seconds of Googling for “Trump Angry” will present you with a disturbing gallery of facial expressions. Trump is angry. Trump hates. Trump is comfortable with us seeing his scorn, his contempt. When Trump imagines humiliating, crushing and even killing his enemies (often accompanied by a curiously delicate claw-like hand movement) Trump expresses his anger not just through words but through a genuine, unsimulated grimace of sincere and heartfelt cruelty.

That face, which so many people are familiar with from TV, has something genuine about it which professional politicians don’t have. His supporters aren’t angry in the abstract, about grand ideas — they’re angry at their circumstances, angry at their country, angry at their enemies.

And for once, there’s someone on TV who’s able to say the same thing. Not just say it, but show it — mean it.