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Americans may never rid ourselves of our collective need to narrate political conflict in military terms. Everything must be understood as a pitched battle between two clear opposing sides. This is not an especially illuminating way of looking at things—nor does it meaningfully narrate the messiness of the present. Still, for years now, media narratives have tended to flatten complicated dynamics into the simpler concept of battle. And Trump’s presidency has supercharged this tendency: His conduct is regularly described via words and metaphors that connote virility and warlike might. It’s a puzzling way to characterize a man in his 70s who’s sufficiently wimpy enough that he allegedly doesn’t fire people himself, and who alternates his eruptions of bravado with sulky retreats whenever he’s in a direct confrontation. The fact remains, however, that Trump is seldom credited with merely having said something. Instead, he “assails.” He “reasserts.” He “cracked down,” “ripped into” his enemies, and conducted “multifront wars.” These narrative decisions effectively launder his flaws: his poor judgment, his fits, his inconsistency, his moodiness—these, along with his ignorance and sulks, get rescripted as proofs of his masculine strength.

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