Trump flails for a schoolyard taunt that’ll work against Harris

Donald Trump loves to brand his opponents with nicknames. But he hasn’t been able to settle on one for Vice President Kamala Harris.

The former president, who rarely mentioned Harris until after President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance, tried out “Laffin’ Kamala” before pivoting to “Lyin’ Kamala,” then jettisoned that for “Crazy Kamala,” which he interspersed with misspellings of her name.

In the last few days, he has abandoned those monikers — even as he continues to use nicknames for other adversaries.

Demeaning nicknames have been core to Trump’s political brand since he first jumped into the political scene, a tool he has leveraged against both Republicans and Democrats to humiliate his opponents and rile up his supporters. But he’s struggled to adjust to run against Harris, even as he has leaned into personal attacks .

“What you're starting to see is the panic of, ‘We're in these 80-something days, I don't have enough time to learn a new trick. So what do I do with the tricks in my bag to at least throw her off her game?’” said Michael Starr Hopkins, a Democratic strategist. “But at this point, you've seen him so much, and he’s oversaturated himself that nothing shocks anybody anymore.”

Trump has long used nicknames for many of his political opponents, including “Crooked Hillary” for 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton, a moniker he tried to replicate with Biden — and has recycled in recent weeks against Harris. He has used name-calling against Republican opponents too, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley in this year’s GOP presidential primary.

But Trump rarely mentioned Harris in speeches or on social media for most of her tenure as vice president — he did not clash with her directly, and she did not get a nickname.

After Biden’s shaky debate performance — and as calls grew for a replacement at the top of the Democratic ticket — Trump debuted the moniker “Laffin’ Kamala,” echoing conservatives who had compiled videos of the vice president laughing, seemingly in an effort to discredit her. The subject line of a Trump campaign fundraising email the day Biden dropped out: “Hello Laffin' Kamala... BYE BYE BIDEN!”

But Trump quickly abandoned the nickname, switching first to “Lyin’ Kamala” — reusing the tag he used to use for onetime rival Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

But even that name was short-lived: After calling the vice president “Lyin’ Kamala” five times at a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, on July 24 and four more times on Truth Social the following day, Trump jettisoned it, too.

A few days later, he picked up “Crazy Kamala,” cribbing the adjective he has also used for former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), among others. He stuck with that moniker for Harris for the longest, although he has backed off in recent days. He also tried “Kamabla” and “Crazy Kamabla” a few times.

Trump most frequently refers to her just as “Kamala,” without a nickname. In recent news conferences, he has pronounced her name correctly, although at rallies he has thrown out several different pronunciations or joked about how to pronounce it. At an event in south Florida last month, he said he “couldn’t care less” whether he said it correctly.

Of course, Trump still criticizes Harris plenty. He has derided her as the “border czar” — a line of attack frequently used by Republicans , and a label she and Democrats say inaccurately characterizes her role in addressing immigration. And he frequently describes her as “dangerously liberal” or derisively references the city of San Francisco, where she served as district attorney.

But those descriptors are different from the personal nicknames Trump likes to use, and his cycling through them for Harris underscores the differences in how he talks about her and Biden, the latter of whom he still frequently goes after. At a recent rally in Bozeman, Montana, Trump made one reference to a nickname for Harris early in his prepared remarks, promising supporters he would “evict Crazy Kamala.” But that was minor compared with an extended riff debating which nickname was best for Biden.

“Doesn't matter anymore, but what do you like better: Crooked Joe or Sleepy Joe?” Trump asked his supporters. “Sleepy Joe, Crooked Joe. OK, ready? They're both correct. I think Crooked Joe is more correct to say.”

His struggle to find a lasting nickname for Harris also reflects just how much Biden’s departure upended the presidential race. Trump used nicknames for the Democratic president for years; he has faced Harris for only a few weeks.

In a Truth Social post on Thursday, Trump again used nicknames for Biden and Pelosi, but not Harris.

“Kamala Harris wants NOTHING TO DO WITH CROOKED JOE BIDEN,” he wrote on the social media platform. “They are throwing him out on the Monday Night Stage, known as Death Valley. He now HATES Obama and Crazy Nancy more than he hates me!’”

In fundraising emails, Trump’s campaign has used “Crooked Kamala” to describe Harris since shortly after Biden dropped out, copying the phrasing he long used for both Biden and Clinton in messaging aimed at his most ardent supporters. But Trump himself has not used that name publicly or on Truth Social.

When Trump first used the nickname for Clinton, it was shocking, said Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist and co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. But no matter how he characterizes Harris, the effect is unlikely to be the same, he argued.

“He was humiliating and debasing his opponents by abusing them in a way that was completely unconventional for American-style politics,” Madrid said. Now, eight years later, “the fact that he’s dragged us down to that low level of discourse makes the attack ineffective anyway.”