Rarely a week goes by without US President Donald Trump lavishing praise on the bodies of men he meets -- fawning over "the muscles on this guy," or an athlete's "tree trunk" legs, or a UFC fighter who is "too good looking" to be in the ring.
While the remarks have sparked much online commentary about Trump's sexuality, some experts link the president's fascination with attractive men to his broader glorification of virility.
That trend has been further illustrated by his decision to host an MMA competition -- a particularly brutal sport with scantily clad, musclebound men -- at the White House for his 80th birthday on Sunday.
"It's almost like he is trying to reach for this glorified manhood that he cannot embody anymore," said Sabrina Karim, a political science professor at Cornell University.
"He is getting older so he cannot help but having this sense of loss," she told AFP.
During a recent Coast Guard graduation, Trump invited onto stage "the only cadet who earned a perfect score on every single fitness test."
As the cadet made his way to the stage, Trump remarked: "I want to check him out! Woah! Look at the muscles on this guy!"
While on a trip to Wisconsin, the president met Olympic speed skating champion Jordan Stolz, after which Trump lamented forgetting to touch his leg.
He's also described a naval cadet's arm "like steel" and called Jaxson Dart, quarterback for the New York Giants football team, a "beautiful guy" with "legs like tree trunks."
Trump also sizes up foreign leaders, noting the good looks of Paraguayan President Santiago Pena and Syria's Ahmad al-Chareh.
During the 2024 campaign, the billionaire raised eyebrows with his riff on golf icon Arnold Palmer's manhood: "When he took showers with the other pros, they came out there, they said, 'Oh my God, that's unbelievable.'"
Gay magazine The Advocate recently noted that "Donald Trump loves a beautiful man," adding that his UFC birthday party will be "the most elaborately homoerotic spectacle in the history of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."
A viral lip-sync parody video by Bransen Gates (@Branhattan on Instagram) of Trump's comments about men has racked up over a million likes.
"I'll kiss every guy, man and woman, look at that guy, how handsome he is. Not -- not with a lot of enjoyment but that's OK," the excerpt goes.
The president has even borrowed his favorite song to close rallies with -- the Village People's "YMCA" -- from the gay community.
"The irony is rich" for an administration that has "worked tirelessly" to signal in every way "that gay men are not welcome in this America. Because DEI," the Advocate article noted.
"In the US, presidential elections have always been masculinity contests," Dan Cassino, a professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University, told AFP.
"Trump took that subtext, and made it text, and that lack of subtlety has been his strength."
As a former beauty pageant organizer, the president also notoriously comments on women's looks, once causing a diplomatic stir by praising Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
He has also repeatedly attacked the appearance of White House reporters, calling a New York Times journalist who wrote about his health "ugly," and reproaching a CNN anchor for not smiling.
That's part of Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) playbook, Cassino said -- to mobilize young men who turned out in large numbers for him in 2024.
"First, you have to denigrate women, to show that they don't have the traits that men do," Cassino said.
"Second, you have to highlight men who do have these traits. For the most revanchist, retrograde men, MMA fighters are a good example of the kinds of traits men should have: young, muscular, strong and willing to use violence."
And it's all connected to Trump's self-image, Cassino said.
"These men look like the AI slop pictures that Trump posts of himself on his social media feeds," he said.
"The message is clear: This is what men are like, and that's why they should be in charge."
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