President Obama tended to define al-Qaeda and ISIS less as purveyors of tyranny than of bigotry and unreason, a scourge he believed extended beyond the Muslim world. In a 2014 speech at the United Nations, Obama called jihadist terrorists people who “peddle only fanaticism and hate” and argued “that humanity’s future depends on us uniting against those who would divide us along the fault lines of tribe or sect, race or religion.” If Bush was trying to link al-Qaeda with Saddam Hussein, Obama was linking it to militant Jewish settlers in the West Bank, Marine Le Pen, and Dylann Roof.

So why is Trump putting ISIS in the same category in which he places Rosie O’Donnell? Because for him, America’s primary goal is not freedom or tolerance. It’s success. Trump espouses no deeply held political, religious, or moral doctrine. He sees government through the lens of business. And thus, he’s more comfortable with the language of winning and losing than the language of right and wrong. That’s why he’s so obsessed with the margin of his electoral victory and the size of his crowds. It’s why he responds to articles critical of him by saying that the newspapers that published them are “failing.” For Trump, losing is worst thing you can do. There’s no room in his worldview for someone who fails in a noble cause. Remember what he said about John McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam: “I like people who weren’t captured.”

In selecting the term “losers,” Trump considered and rejected an alternative: “monsters.” He explained that, “I won’t call them monsters because they would like that term. They would think that’s a great name.” I suspect that’s wrong. While monster is a reasonable description of people who purposely kill children, it’s not the way ISIS terrorists view themselves. Unfathomable as it may be to people who don’t share their murderous worldview, it’s likelier that they generally see themselves as combatants in a just war.

So why does Trump think ISIS murderers would prefer the term “monster” to “loser?” Perhaps because that’s the term he would prefer. Think about the language he used to describe his sexual assault: “When you’re a star they let you do it.” For Trump, the ultimate test of a person’s worth isn’t right. It’s might. He figures jihadist terrorists think the same way.

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