“If you need someone to get vicious toward an opponent, you get <this guy>,” “All I can tell you is he’s been vicious to others in his protection of me. <My guy> was brutal, but he was a very loyal guy,” Donald Trump 1979.
The guy was a flamboyant attorney, noted for creating pubic smear campaigns. Trump was very pleased until it turned out that hus guy was gay. Trump severed his professional ties when he learned his lawyer was dying of AIDS.
OMG, Judge me by my character, not my characteristics. With so many reason to disassociate from this guy, Trump chooses the one attribute that should not matter to reasonable people.
Trump illustrates the triumph of the medium over the message.