Donald Trump referred to terrorists as “evil losers” Tuesday in response to the Monday afternoon bombing of an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester. True to form, the leftist establishment media lost their collective minds.

Twenty-two people – many of whom were children – died in the attack. The perpetrators had connections to ISIS, and British authorities have since arrested several suspects connected to the explosion.

President Trump made his statements in Israel while meeting with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. He said:

“I won’t call them monsters, because they would like that term, they would think that’s a great name; I will call them from now on losers because that’s what they are, they’re losers. And we’ll have more of them but they’re losers – just remember that.”

Of course, the establishment media had some sharp criticism for the president’s comments. The Guardian had this to say:

But foreign policy and linguistics experts warned on Tuesday that the president’s new designation risked cheapening the impact of terrorist attacks, potentially adding to some relatives’ grief and lessening the public’s awareness of the threat.

The hosts of “The View” also had some critical words for the president’s statements. When discussing the ways in which a president should speak, Whoopi Goldberg said:

“I want him or her to be one step above and I don’t want them talking like I would talk, when it comes down to it, if you’re the president of a country, you have to speak for that country.”

Surprisingly enough, The Washington Post only gave mild criticism – even acknowledging that Trump’s approach might not be so catastrophic:

Trump’s thinking makes sense. The problem is that he often does not choose his words carefully and has therefore reduced the meaning of a term like “loser,” which he has assigned rather liberally to political opponents such as Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, and to foils in the media, including CNN, Politico, the New York Daily News, Graydon Carter, Bill Kristol and S.E. Cupp.

The term “loser” may or may not be the best word to describe radical Islamic terrorists, but the president’s sentiment is correct. In the past, we have represented Islamic terrorists as monsters – something the Western world should fear. Previous administrations have characterized these people as boogeymen lurking in the shadows, waiting to wreak destruction on our civilization. The problem is that this confers upon radical Islam a power it should not have – the ability to make us fearful.

When speaking of Islamic extremists, our rhetoric should not elevate our enemy to a position of power – it should marginalize and demean them. The war we are fighting against groups like ISIS is not merely a military campaign; it is also psychological. ISIS has been known to use psychological tactics to obtain more power and earn more converts. We must fight them in kind.

If our words ascribe a level of validity to these terrorist groups, it will only further embolden them. This is not to say that these organizations are not a threat, only that we must do whatever we can to take away their most dangerous weapon: fear. The truth is that these people are not worthy of any measure of respect – they are thugs, bullies, lowlifes, and yes – losers. The best way to defeat radical Islamists is to show the rest of the world that they are not worthy of our fear.