Playing his nickname game with Harris is a serious gamble for Trump

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Like a high school bully, Donald Trump is fond of giving his opponents nicknames. Sometimes this childish tactic, an attempt to capitalize on someone’s actual weakness (“Low-energy Jeb”) or imply an imagined vulnerability (“Crooked Joe Biden”), works for him, and sometimes it backfires.

For example, the dig at former Florida Governor Jeb Bush was surprisingly effective and seemed to throw the former Republican Party front-runner off his game during the 2016 Republican primaries.

On the other hand, calling former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) a “bird brain” never caught on, and his chief foe said it reflected poorly on the former president.

“It says more about Donald Trump that he calls the last remaining candidate ‘birdbrain’ or ‘brain dead,’” Haley said earlier this year. “It says more about Donald Trump that everybody thinks it’s funny that he’s acting that way. I don’t think the rest of the world thinks it’s funny.”

While it’s probably true that Trump’s penchant for nicknames, and the Republican Party’s embrace of them, casts a negative light on all of them, it also seems like the former president can’t help himself.

And so last week at a rally in Michigan, he tried out a nickname for Vice President Kamala Harris, whom he will likely face off against in November.

“I call her Laughing Kamala. Have you seen her laugh?” Trump said. “She’s crazy. You can tell a lot from a smile. She’s crazy.”

In this case, the name is not only a failure, it also plays with fire.

Trump is already much less popular among women than among men.

In 2016, he lost that demographic group by 15 percent. In 2020, he managed to close that gap to 11 percent.

Recent polls show the former president has made further progress, trailing Joe Biden by just eight points among female voters before the president announced Sunday that he would not seek re-election.

Now that Trump is facing a female opponent for the second time, it may be wise to proceed with caution.

With perhaps the exception of Hillary Clinton, his insults toward women have not been well-received, and targeting Harris in this way may not sit well with a demographic that already dislikes him. This is especially true in light of Trump’s history of misogyny.

He admitted to sexually abusing women in the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape, was recently found guilty of sexual abuse, and has made derogatory statements about women on numerous occasions.

This is one reason why the former president is performing so poorly among suburban women, a key demographic he can’t afford to lose too much.

It seems doubtful that a nickname for Harris, especially one based on her appearance or a characteristic like her laugh, would help.

Moreover, Trump has also made some gains among black voters. However, calling out Harris could quickly reverse that trend.

Still, the former president, not known for his impulse control, likely won’t be able to resist yet another insult at his upcoming rallies.