Keeping up with every vector of Trump-generated outrage is like playing a never-ending rigged game of whack-a-mole. For instance, in what might be considered a microcosm of this entire era, much of the backlash to the president’s use of an anti-transgender slur in a Truth Social post on Monday was quickly drowned out by the fuller-throated backlash to the president also seemingly inviting Iran to “take out” a pair of major California cities later that day.

While the unpatriotic stench of Trump glibly wishcasting nuclear attacks on U.S. soil apparently had more media salience (the White House has since pushed back hard against this characterization of his remarks), the president’s use of an anti-trans slur is far more insidious.

This was not just another instance of Trump seeming to relish the transgressive thrill of saying something most people know a U.S. president should not say. Rather, it’s more like the culmination of a concerted effort by MAGA leaders to normalize prejudice against a marginalized community—and declare open season for using slurs against its members.

Trump: "Annie 'Trannie' Andrews is running against our wonderful Darline Graham for the Senate in South Carolina … Trannie is not for South Carolina, and South Carolina must show, in the upcoming Election, that it is not for her."

It’s not at all exculpatory that Trump’s use of the word was directed at a cisgender woman. In his Truth Social message on Monday, he called out Annie Andrews—a pediatrician who is running against Trump’s handpicked candidate for the South Carolina Senate race, Sen.

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