Tom Nichols Brutally Savages Trump’s Character: In Real Life, Working Class Americans Would ‘Punch Him Out’

The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols pulled no punches in attacking former President Donald Trump’s character this week while joining Charlie Sykes on the Bulwark Podcast.

After a discussion about whether or not Trump can actually be disqualified for seeking office by the 14th Amendment, Nichols, a retired professor at the Naval War College, noted that the Constitution rests largely on the assumption the public will be “decent” and political leaders will act in the best interest of their community.

Nichols argued that is now “gone” and that many elected leaders act as if they “are playing a game” or on a “reality TV show” with no care for future generations. He then turned to Trump and made the case that not only is he not decent, but that most of his followers would not actually like to know someone like him in their personal lives.

“These people who love Donald Trump, if they knew someone like Donald Trump in their daily life, they would hate him,” Nichols declared.

“Absolutely,” agreed Sykes — who is a regular MSNBC contributor.

“These are working guys who, you know, Trump walked in and said, hey, I’m stiffing you on your paycheck and I’m going to grab your sister. These guys would lose their minds. They’d punch him out. But when he does it from a stage, they say, That’s my guy,’” Nichols concluded.

Sykes agreed and added, “Or all the soccer parents out there. We’re hearing a lot about parents’ rights and how hard it is to raise a kid these days. You know what parent would want Donald Trump to be a role model, you know, in terms of sportsmanship and all of those things. I guess it’s the experiment whether you can sort of have a bifurcation, whether or not you can live lives of virtue and responsibility in your personal life and hope that your political positions don’t leak out.”

“The founders did not think so, Charlie. The founders made the argument that if you live an unvirtuous private life, you will eventually bleed into an unfortunate public life,” Nichols replied.

Listen to the full podcast here.