Why MAGA calls Trump "Daddy" [View all]

[marmar]

Why MAGA calls Trump “Daddy”
Yes, it's a weird sex thing. But it also reveals secret insecurities

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published August 18, 2025 6:45AM (EDT)


(Salon) The MAGA movement is determined to make politics as disgusting as possible, destroying democracy one juvenile 4chan meme at a time. It turns out that American fascism isn’t just wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross, but accuses women of having “Arby’s in your pants,” claims immigrants eat people’s pets and peddles conspiracy theories that politicians’ wives are secretly trans. In their mission to gross out normal people, Donald Trump‘s followers, much to his delight, like to call him “Daddy.”

It seemed to have really taken off in October, when Tucker Carlson gave his “Daddy’s home” speech at a Georgia campaign rally. He likened Trump to an abusive father, and compared America to his teenaged victim, all in an unsubtly sexualized way. “When dad gets home, you know what he says? ‘You’ve been a bad girl. You’ve been a bad little girl, and you’re getting a vigorous spanking right now,” Carlson said, as the crowd cheered wildly.

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The “Daddy” meme stuck. Mere days after Trump’s re-election, golfer John Daly went on Fox News to proclaim, “I think our country needs Daddy Trump.” GOP Michigan State Sen. Jonathan Lindsey declared in June that many Americans see “Daddy Trump” as a “father figure.” Most disturbingly, in June, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte affectionately called Trump “Daddy” at the most recent NATO summit. Rutte may have just been trying to flatter the notoriously narcissistic president, but Trump’s team lapped it up with the eagerness of a dog going after beef drippings. His fundraising arm even got in on the act, releasing a T-shirt with his mugshot and the name “Daddy” underneath it. The official White House account posted a video of Trump at the NATO summit set to “Daddy’s Home” by Usher, which was swiftly taken down when the singer issued a copyright claim.

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No doubt a lot of this is sublimated sexuality, which is often the case with a right-wing that outwardly embraces Christian right hostility to most forms of sexual expression. But it is the power dynamic that Carlson invoked — the large man versus the small girl — that really distills why Trump and the MAGA movement are so attracted to this “Daddy” idea. Fascism is a vehicle for weak, insecure people to feel powerful in the most cowardly way possible: By violating and abusing those they believe can’t fight back. It’s the attitude of the rapist and the child abuser, someone who pathetically congratulates himself for being “tough” because of his violence, but who fears taking on someone his own size. No wonder Trump is the perfect avatar for it. ....................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/08/18/why-maga-calls-trump-daddy/