*UPDATED x 3* P-UTUS: Former Guy's Smell "Truly Something to Behold."

Found this Business Insider article from 2018: Trump supporters can't stand the idea of a smelly armpit or a stinky foot, a study found — and psychologists are not surprised.

Time and again, the researchers found that when they asked questions like whether a participant would be grossed out by a neighbor's stinky feet, farts, urine, feces, or armpit smells, Trump supporters were predictably more sensitive to the idea of foul body odor.

The researchers said the finding isn't true across the board for all conservatives; but it was closely linked with people's support for socially conservative ideas and endorsement of President Trump.

"This relationship seems to be explained by a particular aspect of social conservatism called right-wing authoritarianism," lead author Marco Tullio Liuzza told Business Insider in an email. This"right-wing authoritarianism," he said, includes an acceptance of authority and a hostility towards groups that don't closely adhere to a traditional social order.

Effective line of attack, I’m telling y’all.

Addressing the responses expressing squeamishness at this kind of attack, I get it. I really, really do.

I would LOVE it if we could decide our elections objectively and rationally, selecting only the best, most capable among us to be our leaders.

But that’s not how it works. Politics is an ugly business, and high-mindedness for high-mindedness’ sake isn’t going to change that. That’s the kind of thinking that gave us Dubya in 2000. Nor is worrying about the potential for blowback. That’s the kind of thinking that feeds the invincible Trump narrative.

My thoughts and feelings on this topic are far more complex than any one diary update can capture, so I’ll conclude by saying why I think this is a fair line of attack:

Personal hygiene affects how others perceive us. The President is the public figure of public figures, the foot that America puts forward. A stank-ass Commander-in-Chief is NOT putting our best foot forward. It also raises (further) questions of his fitness. Those are legitimate matters of public concern.

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^{Earlier UPDATE, sometime before the one above.}

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Responding to a number of comments that have asked if this is a true story or not:

I have no idea, BUT IT DOESN’T MATTER.

Trump’s responded with the equivalent of “he who smelt it dealt it:”

“Adam Kinzinger farted on live TV and is an unemployed fraud,” the spokesperson said in a statement to The Independent. “He has disgraced his country and disrespects everyone around him because he is a sad individual who is mad about how his miserable life has turned out.”

It doesn’t matter if it’s true because the line of attack is effective. It provoked a response, and the response isn’t a denial but a return volley. Return volleys bring with them, pun intended, the stench of truth about the original attack.

Here’s several other reasons it’s effective:

It undermines Trump’s core superman image. His image is everything he has, and the only thing he has. He’s built up a myth of being a god-like figure. I mean, geezus, we’ve all seen the paintings of him all oiled up and muscle-y, flying a helicopter or standing on the hood of a huge pick-up, or astride a dinosaur, or whatever. All the sorts of things he’s turned into NFTs. Prior to being President he traded on his NAME for decades. All he has is what people perceive of him. Take that away and he’s nothing.

It’s something people can understand. One of the things I’ve come to comprehend empirically over these past several years is that that if a crisis or other bad thing is too big then people will just turn away from it. Take climate change. Undeniably the biggest threat out there. But everybody tunes it out. Why? Because they feel like it’s too big for them to deal with. It’s the corollary to the Big Lie: if you can make the issue large enough then people won’t look at it too closely because they believe they are unable to understand it. They won’t take it in because they believe they can’t take it in.

If you want to make a problem stick in people’s minds you have to make it big enough to care, but not too big that their concern turns into self-oppression. Let’s compare Trump’s obvious corruption with the obvious corruption of another figure, George Santos. Trump defrauded people to the tune of millions, even billions, but understanding that level of corruption requires advanced degrees in accounting, law, and probably several other areas. By comparison, George Santos stole a much smaller amount of money and spent it on vanity products, porn, and vacations. That’s the kind of venal corruption that people can wrap their heads around, and it’s why Santos is out while Trump lingers.

Finally, it’s visceral. Nobody likes to be around a smelly person. I mean, people tolerate all kinds of things in children, but as soon as kids stink then the parents are called on the carpet. If you smell bad, people will let you know. Heck, even thinking about a smell can manifest a smell as far as the human brain is concerned.

So is this story independently verified by sources whose credibility is unimpeachable? No. We’ve got multiple accounts, but those accounts are all from people with ostensible axes to grind. Maybe we’ll get the confirmation we seek, maybe we won’t.

But again, it doesn’t matter. This is the kind of scandal (enough to call it StinkGate?) that gets stuck in people’s minds and can bring down a public figure. Look how much mileage the other side has gotten out of Joe Biden looking old.

A presidential candidate that can’t control his bowels and smells like a loaded diaper? That’s gold, man.