Here’s One Weird Trick For Calling Trump ‘Weird’ That Will Make It Less Weird

Vice President Kamala Harris attacking former President Donald Trump as “weird” has tremendous upside — but carries several risks that can be mitigated with this one weird trick! (It’s actually more than one, but then the joke wouldn’t work!)

Since Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee a week ago following President Joe Biden’s bombshell dropout, one new line of attack has come into ostentatious relief. Harris For President officials and surrogates — and the VP herself — have taken to labeling Trump and his running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) “weird.”

It’s not necessarily a new attack — Biden and his own campaign officials sounded the note repeatedly prior to his dropping out — but the theme has taken over the Harris campaign’s messaging in recent days. On Saturday, Harris rolled it out during a speech in Massachusetts:

We’ve got momentum. It’s on our side.

And you may have noticed Donald Trump has been resorting to some wild lies about my record. And some of what he and his running mate are saying, it’s just plain weird. (Laughter.) I mean, that’s the box you put that in, right? (Laughter and applause.)

The message has become so ubiquitous that CNN ran multiple segments per hour on Monday pointing out and analyzing the messaging.

That’s more than on MSNBC, which is also covering the shift in language. The “weird” trick even earned a mention on Fox News from senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich:

You can chalk that up in the “upsides” column — the “weird” attack has caught on with the media the way the campaign’s previous hits have not. When Biden and the campaign mocked Trump as “old” (he is) or cognitively suspect, it resulted only in more coverage of Trump’s attacks on Biden.

Another advantage is that there is an embarrassingly rich reservoir of source material. Trump is already known for bizarre rants about a variety of wildlife and fictional serial killers, and Vance has brought dolphins and “cat ladies” and more to the table.

But the most substantively resonant attacks along these lines have had to do with the Trump-Vance assault on reproductive freedom. In one campaign memo released Monday, Harris For President campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa wrote:

Every time JD opens his mouth is a reminder that a Trump-Vance administration would be focused on inserting themselves into every American’s living room, bedroom, and doctor’s office. They want to ban abortion, rip away IVF treatments, and restrict contraceptives. Because in Trump’s Project 2025, the government knows better than you. It would just be weird if it wasn’t so dangerous – and it’s why the stakes this November are so incredibly high.

In another memo released this weekend, the campaign branded Vance a “creep”:

JD Vance Is a Creep (Who Wants to Ban Abortion Nationwide)

JD Vance is weird. Voters know it – Vance is the most unpopular VP pick in decades.

This week, we’re all finding out just how creepy JD Vance and his Project 2025 plans are.

In newly unearthed audio, Vance calls for a “federal response” to block women in red states from traveling to another state to get an abortion – in the grossest way possible:

Vance: “Okay look, here’s the situation, let’s say Roe v. Wade is overruled, Ohio bans abortion in 2022, let’s say 2024, and then, you know, every day George Soros sends a 747 to Columbus to load up disproportionately Black women to get them to go have abortions in California. And of course, the left will celebrate this as a victory for diversity … if that happens do you need some federal response to prevent it from happening because it’s really creepy? And you know, I’m pretty sympathetic to that actually.”

These examples illustrate the problem and the solution to the “weird” attack. As CNN’s John Berman pointed out, there’s a large gravity deficit between the “weird” laugh line and the stakes of the election.

There’s also the risk that simply using weird as the epithet will alienate people who appreciate weirdness. Many of the people who support Democrats have a philosophical and spiritual affinity for people who have been called weird by others. Weirdness in and of itself is no vice.

But repetition is key in the effectiveness of the attack, which presents a problem. How do you make clear you are not against all weirdos? Just these ones.

The solution is simple: pair the keyword with an appropriate modifier. Trump and Vance are sex weirdos, creeps who want to let the government monitor your periods, Trump goes off on weird unhinged rants, Trump is weirdly unable to tell the truth, Trump is a weird creep with young women and girls like Taylor Swift and Miss Teen USA.

It’s not just that they are weird, it’s that they are weird about stuff that can hurt you.

Another potential drawback is that Democrats don’t sound the same as Trump when they repeat something over and over again. Trump has an utter shamelessness that makes him seem self aware when he drills these simple concepts, while Democrats can seem self-conscious when they all zero in on the same word.

Modifying the word helps, but also maybe mixing up a synonym here and there would help. Not a lot or you lose the advantage of repetition, but just occasionally throw in a “strange” or a “creepy” or a “bizarre.”

So far, the “weird” attack has paid off, and these weird tricks could help keep it viable in the long run.

Watch above via Pool.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.