Donald Trump loves coining nicknames. Who could forget “Little Marco” Rubio, or “Lyin’ Ted” Cruz? Then there was “Birdbrain” Nikki Haley, and a real head-scratcher: “Meatball Ron” DeSantis. Sometimes they run to the racist, like “Peekaboo” for New York Attorney General Letitia James, or “Pocahontas” for Sen. Elizabeth Warren. More often, they sound like digs from a third-grade playground, as with “Sleepy Joe” or “Crooked Hillary.”
Now Trump is trying to tag Vice President Kamala Harris with one of his nicknames. And that nickname is … “Laughing Kamala.”
Trump clearly believes this is an insult that can draw attention to Harris’s boisterous laugh—and that people will find it odd. But that’s not the way it works. People like laughter. They like folks who are upbeat, positive, and joyful.
In Trump’s dark vision of American carnage, the only acceptable laughter stems from cruelty. But Harris radiates a genuine warmth. And nothing frightens the darkness more than light.
