JERUSALEM – On a recently released episode of the smash-hit podcast “TRIGGERnometry,” Soviet-born businessman and entrepreneur Dimitry Toukhcher, who has designed and constructed custom-made suits for the likes of Jordan Peterson, claimed he knew U.S. President Joe Biden was going to be replaced in the presidential race, the moment he saw him at his disastrous June debate with President-elect Donald Trump.
Speaking to the show’s two hosts – Francis Foster and Konstantin Kisin – Toukhcher noted with a critical eye how the president and the at-the-time Republican nominee for the role differed in their approach to clothing.
“What I proposed [in a video shot with a colleague] is that Biden will immediately be replaced after the debate,” he explained. “And it looked pre-planned before the debate just based on what Biden was wearing. I made a very cogent argument … and still remember these points.”
“We all see the world through the lens of what we do. A doctor might be looking for signs of dementia, for example. As a haberdasher, I see Biden’s outfit and I go, ‘Oh, they’re gonna replace him.'”
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He looked back at the 2016 campaign when Trump defeated Hillary Clinton, whom most people assumed to be the front-runner or even odds-on favorite to win the presidency.
“Look at how he was dressed in 2016. He had this sort of ominous message, and he himself had an ominous image. He wore very dark suits that looked completely oversized. He looked like a classic American industrialist, a sort of Henry Ford figure. He came in and said, ‘Guys, we need rules, we need boundaries, we need tariffs. We need all these things and the messaging was sort of negative.”
In contradistinction he said of the 2024 debate with Biden that Trump walked out in a Kennedy-blue suit: “‘Oh, my God what a brilliant guy,’ I thought. He’s wearing a light blue suit, which shows a message of hope, a message of perseverance of illuminating the future, which was not his previous image. I did a granular analysis of what Trump wore in 2016 vs. 2024.”
With regard to the ousted Biden, Toukhcher said whoever dressed him was trying to convey a message, although one neither of competence nor hope.
“He was designed to fail; [I knew] they were going to replace him.”
Tonight, celebrity tailor @LGFG_Dimitry joins us for a fascinating conversation about the psychology of fashion, and what our clothes tell us about our culture, leaders, and future.
Available on YouTube and X… pic.twitter.com/Gyefbjg5cV
— TRIGGERnometry (@triggerpod) December 25, 2024
“When Biden walked out, I said, ‘This is wrong.'”
He was wearing a suit a shade darker, which was an “intentional decision,” according to the designer.
“There is no way someone dressing Biden would miss that. But when you’re old and everyone questions your mental capacity, and thinks you’re about to die, what you don’t want to do is wear a black suit. Because what does black psychologically trigger? The idea of a funeral, of death. He was wearing a very dark navy blue suit, and that is not the color you put an 80-year-old guy in, who might have dementia.”
Toukhcher added other decisions were made, which in his opinion was a tacit – although subtle – admission that the man we were all told in Joe Scarborough’s impenetrable cant was the “best version of Biden I’ve ever seen,” was far from at his physical or mental peak.
Joe Scarborough goes full state TV:
“Biden is far beyond cogent. He is better than he has EVER been intellectually, analytically. He is the best Biden ever.”
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 6, 2024
He suggested the use of the overhand tie knot was one of these clues, as its use highlights haptic incapability.
“An overhand tie knot is the first knot your father teaches you to tie, it’s a small knot you tie very quickly. I guarantee you Biden doesn’t tie his own ties, but the fact they put him in an overhand knot was to show he is haptically incapable.”
As a result, he was immediately drawn to Biden’s shirt cuffs, which he noted used buttons rather than cufflinks – as opposed to Trump.
“If I’m dressing an 80-year old guy and people are asking, ‘Hey, is this guy potentially incapable of leading a country,’ I’m giving him a beautiful full Windsor tie, I’m giving him cufflinks to show he is able to eloquently place cuffs into his shirt, and I’m giving a lighter suit. He also wore the wrong shirt collar; you never wear a pointy collar with an oblong face. To me he was designed to fail, which is why I knew they were going to replace him.”
He initially demurred when asked about Kamala Harris’ clothing, saying that it might be more complicated for women to project power in the same way as men; acknowledging the usual attire for high-profile women in politics was a pant suit.
“I don’t know how to signal competency better than with a suit. But, what the heck is her branding anyway? This might be the more base [sic] question. What does she really stand for? I can’t really answer that, so how do I design an image for someone when I don’t really know what their ethos is.”
