Does this count?

"I'm sorry we got rid of the seats but..."

- Donald Trump, Jan 22, 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR1EMOxdzzs

With timestamp: https://www.youtube.com/live/KR1EMOxdzzs?t=1085s

I think it might count. That's as close as we're ever going to get to an apology from him.

He says it wasn't really his fault that more people wanted to attend than could fit in the tiny venue (blames the crowd). Then he tries to assign the blame for the venue to the governor of NH.

If he's reacting to people in the crowd that look uncomfortable, he doesn't offer to get anyone a seat that might "need" it.

Trump says “I apologize” for my bad combover. Is he taking responsibility for his appearance? I guess… But I think it’s a sarcastic apologize which doesn’t count per the description. https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1814789595399069935?s=46

@traders

It's clearly a joke

I wouldn‘t count it tbh, it‘s a joke

I never thought I’d honestly laugh at a Trump self-own. Thought it was outside of his emotional range.

Hmm, is it a joke? It is funny, and was intended to be funny, but the combover really is bad, and he clearly doesn’t like how it looked. I’d say that’s a non-heartfelt and funny apology, but an apology nevertheless. I’d resolve this as a YES.

If it was serious he would be changing his hair. Literally while he's saying the apology he has the exact same combover.

Of course he won’t start messing with his hair live. I’m sure he’ll take action to try and improve his hair for future rallies (or, he’ll realize he can do it again as a bit, but I think he might be too vain not to try and fix his hair in the future).

So he never saw the photo before he used it in his speech? I meant he would've changed his hair by now if he was serious.

He is responding to a live camera feed of himself that showed how bad he looked from one side, not a campaign picture. He also referred to his barber a bit later during the speech, saying that he doesn’t think he did a very good job for the rally (which is why he doesn’t tip him).

Ok it may count then actually

I think it may be the truest apology we’ll ever hear coming out of his mouth

(I am not 100% sure if he said that his barber didn’t do a very good job for the rally, or if he said that his barber doesn’t do a very good job in general, but it was a clear reference to the combover he had during the rally which caught his attention on the screen.)

But he is literally not sorry or apologizing to anyone, he is just mad that he didn‘t look fabulous in his own eyes and is trying to play it down with ‚humor‘

Yes, that would be the most sincere apology he’s capable of

Isn’t being annoyed at not being the best possible version of yourself that being sorry is? I notice that I am starting to feel confused about what people think feeling sorry is.

Well, feeling sorry is the feeling you have, when you care about someone in a sense that what ever you have done has given them a disadvantage (or made them feel worse, which is the same thing in this instance) and you regret it, hence apologizing. What Trump did was just feeling uncomfortable with himself though, not because he actually is sorry to anyone

He's saying sorry to the crowd for not looking beautiful for them. An apology motivated by narcissism is still an apology.

I don't think there would be any argument if he had publicly apologized to the family of the man who was killed last week. Even something like "I'm sorry for your loss" in that context would probably qualify, but a combover joke?

"An apology must entail taking responsibility for something he had personal control over."

Do you really think Trump does his own hair and makeup before appearances? He could just be saying he's going to fire his stylist and is clearly making excuses that it looked fine from one angle but just couldn't see it from the bad angle (no control).

Trump is responsible for his hair, and missed his side-profile. It’s a reach to say that he isn’t taking responsibility by saying sorry because his barber is ”in truth” responsible.

The market implies apologies for something that warrants a public apology; something which caused damage or harm in some way.

His own hairstyle is not one of these things imo.

I have a NO bias.

It implies no such thing. The apology just needs to be on something he has control over, and that he can take responsibility over.

Look at the examples. We're not talking about jokes about haircuts.

If ”I apologize for not wearing a red tie today” wouldn’t resolve this as yes I’d be quite surprised. If the apology needs to be over something truly serious, that should be said very clearly in the question description (and ideally, the title).