It’s been a rough presidential race for Donald Trump.

There he is, taking time out of his busy and successful career to carefully and eloquently explain basic human principles to us all, and here we are just misunderstanding them like the cretins we are.

Like earlier this week when it was uncovered that he had referred to a woman as “Miss Piggy” and we all took offence, that hurt him.

Presidential nominee, Donald Trump. Source: Getty.  

During Tuesday's presidential debate, democratic nominee Hillary Clinton addressed Trump's previous comments about former Miss Universe winner Alicia Machado, who he'd referred to as "Miss Piggy".

As Clinton rightly pointed out, this was hardly the behaviour of a presidential candidate, or, you know, any semi-decent human.

"He called this woman Miss Piggy, then he called her Miss Housekeeping because she was Latina. Donald, she has a name," Clinton said, speaking over his interjections. "Her name is Alicia Machado and she has become a US citizen. And you can bet she's going to vote this November."

Hillary Clinton during the Presidential debate. Source: Youtube.

Naturally, Trump didn't take kindly to a woman misconstruing his comments on an international stage.

Rather than apologise for the comments, the 70-year-old New Yorker told Fox News on Wednesday morning that Machado was "The worst. The absolute worst."

"She was a Miss Universe contestant and ultimately a winner who they had a tremendously difficult time with as Miss Universe. She was the winner and she gained a massive amount of weight and it was a real problem... we had a real problem with her," he explained calmly.

Alicia Machado. Source: Youtube. 

Somehow, in Trump's mind, this makes him disclosing her weight, inviting reporters to watch her at the gym, and his comments about her being "clearly someone who likes to eat" therefore all okay.

That's not the only 'fat' jibe Trump dropped during Tuesday's debate, as Guardian columnist Lindy West notes.

Speaking about the Democratic National Committee email leak, he said: “Nobody knows that it was Russia that broke into the DNC ... I mean, it could be Russia, but it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, okay?”

Trump seems to think 'fat women' are "the worst". Source: Youtube.

Here's the thing: maybe we're at fault here, and we've been misunderstanding Trump all along?

First, he explained that he was best suited to be the leader of the free world because he is highly educated, saying, "I know words; I have the best words" — but for some reason, no one seemed sufficiently impressed.

Then he took the time during a Republican debate to guarantee party supporters "there's no problem" with the size of his penis. And again, we naively took offence.

When he said he'd probably date his daughter  if he wasn't related to her and us simpletons got all up in arms? It was clearly a compliment we'd gone and misconstrued.

Let's just hope America gets its act together before November and figures out how to understand what it is Trump is really saying.