Der Mann, der nichts sieht ...

Donald Trump, 79, has discovered a new talent: invisibility. Not his own, but that of the women around him. Since he entered politics, he claims, he never mentions women’s looks anymore. Never. Not even if “the most beautiful woman in the world walks right past him.” He would not even look. A man with tunnel vision - except the tunnel leads straight into his own archive. The claim belongs roughly in the category of “I stopped drinking alcohol after I invented whisky.” Trump’s political career is littered with comments about women’s hair, faces, bodies, age, and attractiveness, usually wrapped in mockery, often as attack, never by accident. Anyone who wants to have forgotten all that either suffers from selective amnesia or has a very creative understanding of truth.

That he delivers this declaration to a visibly confused audience sounds less like self-control than like unintentional comedy. The man who has commented on everything that did not escape to the golf course within three seconds now wants to be the ascetic of equality. No glance, no word, no judgment. One has to picture it: Trump in the room, women walking past, and he stares with iron discipline into nothingness. A monument to self-denial.

“I am a very aesthetic person, believe me - but not anymore when it comes to women. I used to call them beautiful, but now I do not care what they look like. Since I got into politics, I never mention appearance. The most stunning woman could walk by, and I would not even look, because in politics that would be political suicide.”

Perhaps by “not mentioning anymore” he simply means “not noticing anymore.” Or he considers silence progress, as long as it is announced loudly enough. The only certainty is this: when someone emphasizes what they supposedly never do, they usually enjoy doing it all the more. And when Trump says he does not look, it might be wise to check the cameras just in case. In the end, one realization remains: some statements are so obviously false that they do not need refutation. They stand there like a mirror no one wants to look into - least of all the one who just set it up.

In our own matter

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