Donald Trump can say anything derogatory about his opponent, but he has yet to say—or can’t say?—about Kamala Harris’s far smarter two-pieces

Donald Trump slumped over a table as he gazed at his phone during his recent interview with Elon Musk. Photo: Reuters

By Ray Zhang

Donald J. Trump, the beastly Republican candidate for the US election in November, has never been a dapper dresser. When I think of business or presidential smartness, I’d never think of felon, Mr Trump. Not that sartorial spiffiness is important when it comes to qualifications for the top job in the US, but since Mr Trump, also the occasional ugly sneaker seller, cannot resist cruelly commenting or angrily attacking his opponents’ (or, in particular, women’s) appearance (even how they laugh), he should be fair game. He even told journalists yesterday at a press conference conducted in his New Jersey golf club that he is “entitled to personal attacks”, referring to his presidential rival Kamala Harris. I won’t be personal, but I have always been bothered by Mr Trump’s turnout—no, not the crowd, or lack of, that has been coming to hear him rant-speak, but the manner of dress in which he addresses the crowd, or lack of.

In particular, I was struck by a photo that has been published in reports of his recent X interview with the platform’s owner Elon Musk, who has enthusiastically endorsed Mr Trump: the one (above) that showed him slumped over a table, hands with one of the other, while starring at his phone. Two things stuck out: The right shoulder pad and the square cufflinks at the end of his shirt sleeve. I can understand that the Grand Poobah of the personal insult, who pitches himself as the famous alpha male that women cannot resist, probably pays no attention to details when it comes to what he wears, but for someone who loves public attention, who deeply desires to be publicly adored, this slackness is very curious to me. And if the devil is indeed in the details, surely Mr Trump wants to be a friend, just as he considers himself to be the endearing chum of Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong Un?

If the devil is indeed in the details, surely Mr Trump wants to be a friend, just as he considers himself to be the endearing chum of Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong Un?

This is not the first time I am criticising Donald Trump’s unflattering suits. But he seems even more oblivious now of how his tailored outfits would speak to the electorate, as if the disavowal of comeliness has political heft or that the sacrifice of smartness would indeed Make America Great Again. In the latest photo, that pronounced shoulder pad bugged me most. It stared at me more that his distracting hair did. Its massiveness only outsized by those employed in Balenciaga blazers. What was it enhancing—the powerful shoulders that are not? Mr Trump is a tall man (although he is reported to be above 6-feet [or above 1.82m], no one has been able to furnish the exact figure), he does not appear to be of imposing built, not even when he raised his right fist defiantly after he was shot at last month during a rally in Pennsylvania. Some bolstering in hulkiness was therefore needed?

Scrofulous Donald Trump has always cut a tenebrous figure. That is possibly his way of looking presidential. Dark, bulky, and brooding, and sloppy. The size of the shoulder pad was not the only disconcerting thing. The seam between the shoulder and sleeve was dimpled—the antithesis of immaculately tailored, suggesting either a suit that has been overused or of inferior make, which would be rather curious, considering that it has been reported that he wears Brioni suits or American brands Hickey Freeman and Hart Schaffner Marx. A good suit is made to correct bodily shortcomings. Yet, on Mr Trump, his makes him look like a slattern or a used-car salesman after a long unfruitful day. What is paradoxical is that he wears under his slack jacket a shirt with dressy gauntlet (or turnback) cuffs and secures them with very visible (although hideously square) cufflinks. Oh, there is that ridiculous, over-long, limp (usually red) tie, too. As the old joke goes, did a salmon die around his neck?

The gleeful Trump clones at the former president’s “hush money” trial. Photo: AP/Getty Images

Throughout his relatively short political career, Mr Trump is as noted for his questionable behaviour on the campaign trail, in the white house, and on the campaign trail again as his approach to dressing well. Some people use sloppiness to play down or deflate self-importance, but it is not the case with Mr Trump. In his ill-fitted suit, he is better than everyone else. His need for nattiness is as urgent as his requirement for orderliness in the White House. Wherever he stands to address his “massive” crowd, he looks dour and ready to attack whoever he deems unworthy, or worse, “stupid”. It does not matter that he looks uninspiring. Others must not. Even if they appear as an illustrated likeness. He said on the X interview about Kamala Harris: “I saw a picture of her on Time Magazine today. She looks like the most beautiful actress ever to live,” and added, not complimenting, “It was a drawing. And actually, she looked very much like a great first lady, Melania.” Mr Trump, of course, has a tendency to associate other women with those he has had marital relations with, such as saying E. Jean Carroll looked like his former wife Marla Maples.

However not-fetching he appears in his suits, it is frightening that there are many who desire to dress like him, that looking like Donald Trump is a sartorial triumph or scoring big with the MAGA masses. Mr Trump’s political lackeys such as Doug Burgum, Mike Johnson, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Cory Mills (from left to right in the second photo above) appeared at his “hush money” trial to support their Republican deity as bad Trump replicates. In his tech-challenged X interview, Elon Musk did try to steer his interviewee away from insulting the opponent he’ll meet in November, but that did not stop him from launching an offensive against Ms Harris, just as at the start of the live audio stream, according to the host, unidentified forces sent out a “DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack ”. He called her a “radical left lunatic”, and while he could have a “great conversation” with Mr Musk, Ms Harris couldn’t as she “is not a smart person”. His personal attacks, like his many suits, are seriously ugly.