“He hated it when you called him a moron. All morons hate it when you call them a moron.” – J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

But few can argue that Trump doesn’t have a mastery of one skill: branding. If he understands anything, it is the power of labels. Of boiling down extremely complex ideas to simple T-shirt worthy slogans. Throughout his life and his campaign, Trump has used his branding ability to coin short, palatable catchphrases like “Make America Great Again”, “You’re Fired”, “Build that Wall”, “Drain the Swamp”, “Lock Her Up”,  while labeling his opponents, “Crooked Hillary”, “Little Marco”, “Lyin’ Ted”, or “Crazy Bernie”. These phrases and terms have become rallying cries for his base, who incessantly repeat them with little understanding of their social or political implications. The fact that most of these slogans do not hold up under even minor factual scrutiny, is a testament to his ability to control his brand and project upon the world his preferred reality .

And this is the brilliance of “moron”. A word that seems to encapsulate how so many Americans feel about their contemptible President. Opinion pieces, polls, Twitter rants, and protests have all been used by the citizenry to voice their outrage over the seemingly endless blunders of the President, but those don’t fit on the front of a baseball cap. Trump’s actions and his own Twitter feed have overloaded the 24-hour news cycle with so much incompetence and demagoguery that the sufficient expression of discontent feels unmanageable.

But it appears that this is his strategy. Whether intentional or not, his repeated idiocy has prevented anyone from being able to properly focus on a single calamity(Except Bob Mueller *fingers crossed*). One racist comment is overshadowed by a hypocritical policy statement which is buried by Twitter attacks on world leaders. And the cycle continues repeatedly, while our tolerance continues to rise.

Does anyone remember when saying, “I did not have sex with that woman,” led to a presidential impeachement?

But then came “moron”. A term too simple to blame on Hillary or “fake news”.  Its efficient elegance only outdone by the fact that it wasn’t assigned by a liberal anti-Trump group or a political opponent, but by his own Secretary of State. A man Trump hired to oversee global diplomacy and act as one of his most trusted advisors called the President of the United States a “fucking Moron”. In front of a room of witnesses. On top of that, Tillerson issued a nationally televised statement that will only be remembered as “The Speech Where the Secretary of State Admitted to Calling the President a Moron by not Denying He Called Him a Moron.”

Trump will undoubtedly fire Tillerson in retaliation for his most public humiliation, but that word will stay. This egoist who believes himself to know more about everything than anyone, finally has an insight into how the world sees him. And it’s not just because there will be signs and hats emblazoned with the word at every protest, rally, or public event. He will sense it even within the safety of his Trump bubble, padded with yes men, eating away at the insecurity he wears like glass armor. Every time he hears a giggle, or catches a questionable look, he will briefly peek through his veil of ignorance and for a moment realize exactly what he is: a fucking moron.