A number of prominent conservatives have made it a point to publicly refer to President Donald Trump as “daddy.” While the nickname has been derided by many as cringey and weird, it might actually tell us something about Trump’s political style, how his supporters view him and how people overall may at times assess political figures, according to experts.
On Friday, actor Mel Gibson was asked during an appearance on the Fox News show “Hannity” to weigh in on Trump’s recent visit to California amid the wildfires (Gibson, a California resident, lost his home in Malibu) when he bizarrely said, “I’m glad Trump’s here at the moment. It’s like daddy arrived, and he’s taking his belt off, you know?”
And conservative lawmakers such as Reps. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) have also readily given Trump the moniker. During an appearance on Fox News last week, Donalds listed off things he expects Trump to do during his second term, saying that the country will get the “stability that we were asking for.”
“Daddy’s back,” he said. “And that’s what you’re going to see.”
Boebert similarly leaned in on the parental figure theme in a post she shared on X, formerly called Twitter, the day before Trump’s inauguration.
“Daddy’s home!!” she wrote in the post, which featured a Time magazine cover showing an illustration of Trump.
The list goes on. Musician Kid Rock added the lyrics “daddy’s home” to his “We the People” song during Trump’s pre-inauguration event, and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson notably delivered an unsettling speech at a Trump rally in October, in which he compared the U.S. under Democratic leadership to a “hormone-addled 15-year-old daughter,” before referring to Trump as a “dad” coming home to restore order and “spanking” a “bad little girl.”
People have widely criticized these daddy nicknames and metaphors — and for several reasons. While parental metaphors have been thrown out and placed on other candidates before, including Democratic ones, Trump’s “daddy” nickname — and analogies associated with discipline — have been ramping up lately, and people are dumbfounded by it. Many have taken to social media to condemn these “daddy” remarks, calling them creepy. And some have wondered what all this says about the way Trump’s supporters perceive him.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University who writes about fascism, authoritarianism and propaganda, told the “Pivot” podcast in April that resentment over social progress fuels much of Trump’s appeal.
She said that Trump “models himself for that environment” and that “strongmen” like him know how to “read the marketplace” and “understand what is wanted.”
“They model themselves and will be whatever they need to be to get to power, because they have no morals,” Ben-Ghiat said. “They’re just about getting control.”
“He also told these people that he loved them — that they were the forgotten,” she later added. “There’s a sense that he’s not just going to represent them, he’s going to protect them and take care of them.”
Read on to hear more on what experts have to say about the “daddy” nickname.
Was Trump’s ‘daddy’ nickname born as a result of his political style?
Some political scientists have described Trump’s political style as authoritarian populist. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley’s Othering and Belonging Institute describe authoritarian populist leaders as those who are effective at stoking fear and division by “capitalizing on anti-establishment sentiment to paradoxically support their illiberal ideas.”
Jacob Neiheisel, associate professor of political science at the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences, told HuffPost that he also believes Trump has a “nationalist/populist element to his presentation. … Coupled perhaps with a willingness to flout political norms and conventions.”
Neiheisel said that he does think Trump’s political style plays into an image and expectation the president has created — at least according to his supporters — that he will be tough on “all that ails the country.”
He said that the recent development of his supporters calling him “daddy” interestingly taps into a broader conversation and past research on family models and American politics, in which liberalism is thought to be associated with a nurturant parent worldview, while conservatism is more aligned with a strict father worldview.
Jane Junn, a professor of political sciences and gender and sexuality studies at the University of South Carolina Dornsife, told HuffPost that patriarchy, overall, has fueled a “longstanding concept in societies around the world that men should rule.”
She said the thinking is often that men should be “strong,” “tough and aggressive,” and “authoritative.”
As it relates to Trump, Junn said that his rhetoric is “consistent” with the idea that he wants to be seen as a leader who “knows best.”
Junn pointed out that Trump’s real-life history as a father and husband doesn’t fit traditional or conventional views of what a “family man” is, so she doesn’t think his personal life is what’s driving his supporters to call him “daddy.”
“I think the origin for his supporters is probably more [about] an authoritarian control, by a man, a single man,” she said.
What are the broader implications of having groups of people calling their president ‘daddy’? does it signal anything about how the next four years will go?
Neiheisel said that he’s “concerned to an extent” about what this says about how well people will hold elected officials accountable.
“‘Strict’ fathers are to be obeyed without question in this worldview,” he said. “I am also worried, however, about retribution against political rivals, as there may be an expectation that a strict father disciplines dissent and metes out punishment.”
Junn said that she believes Trump’s supporters who use the familial moniker for the president might want to “throw back to a traditional time where daddy was in charge and you just did what he said and everything will be OK.”
She said that, while she thinks it’s too early to make predictions on what this all may mean for the future of the country, the parental nickname “signifies something broader” nonetheless.
“What it signifies is the desire among a lot of his supporters to have the politics be about the man and not about the party platform or not about his policies per se,” Junn said.
What’s considered a healthy approach for how one should view their president and other elected officials?
Neiheisel said that presidents, or any political figures, can “easily be turned into folk heroes.”
He pointed to what’s known as a “beer poll,” in which voters are polled to find out which candidate they’d rather get a drink with.
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“A healthier model, perhaps, is to think about presidents and other politicians as employees that we have to make a decision about whether to ‘hire’ or ‘fire,’” he said.
“A president does a lot of things, but he’s not your daddy,” Junn said, adding, “He is not a dictator, he is not all-powerful, he has checks and balances — not only by the other branches of government but also of states, as well as ordinary Americans who either did or didn’t vote for him.”
“He’s not all-powerful, and he’s certainly not your daddy,” she said.