Dutiful, loyal, always at the service of his father, living with his parents at age thirty. In Mario Puzo’s original novel, Vito Corleone’s second son is described as “a child every Italian prayed to the saints for. But Fredo is more of a complex, tragic figure than political mudslinging would allow. The implication of calling someone Fredo, like that of the alt-right insult “cuck,” is of weakness, specifically a failure to live up to the masculine ideal. Don, Jr., is more like the hot-headed Sonny, with Ivanka as the stealthy, power-hungry Michael, and Tiffany as Connie, the little sister who mostly sits on the sidelines.) (For my money, I get more of a Fredo vibe from Eric Trump. Trump, Jr., was likely embracing the chance to fling the nickname at someone else and make it stick, having been dubbed the Fredo of the Trump family since his father rose to political power. Kabuki theatre, a rich and venerable art form dating back to seventeenth-century Japan, has become Washington speak for “empty spectacle.” “Groundhog Day,” the genius existential Bill Murray comedy, is code for “mindless repetition.” It’s dismaying to see Fredo Corleone, brilliantly played by John Cazale in “The Godfather” and “The Godfather: Part II,” reduced to a political weapon, deployed in a disingenuous spat over what constitutes racist hate speech. Political metaphor tends to flatten all cultural references. “I thought Chris was Fredo also,” he tweeted. This is all so mind-numbingly idiotic.” Just when you thought things couldn’t get more mind-numbingly idiotic, the President of the United States, aroused on Tuesday morning by the smell of a fresh taunt, weighed in. The gun-rights advocate Dana Loesch tweeted, “Is Fredo a pejorative? Yes.

Sean Hannity offered an unlikely defense, saying that Cuomo “has zero to apologize for.” CNN backed up Cuomo, too, stating that he had been “verbally attacked with the use of an ethnic slur,” which prompted Trump, Jr., to call Cuomo’s self-justification an “excuse just as fake as his news.” Conservatives gleefully decried the false equivalency between “Fredo” and the N-word. Photograph from Paramount Pictures / GettyĬuomo’s detractors were soon posting videos of CNN commentators using “Fredo” to diss Representative Devin Nunes and Donald Trump, Jr., as proof of Cuomo’s hypocrisy. Fredo Corleone, brilliantly played by John Cazale in the “Godfather” series, is more complex and tragic than political mudslinging allows.

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