Trump thinks mispronouncing Kamala Harris’ name is a good attack route.
Yea so… making fun of someone’s name is sophomoric. I’m sure some Trump folks love it but actual adults really don’t give a shit. I was even kind of annoyed years back when people were attacking Trump because of the Drumpf surname - as if half of America didn’t have their name butchered by Ellis Island.
The asshole doesn’t have any actual criticisms that will stick so he’s resorting to school yard bullying.
Not just sophomoric, as the article points out. Plain old bigoted.
“It’s one thing to mispronounce someone’s name on the first try, right? But to do it repeatedly and deliberately, it feels purposeful. It’s certainly done to make a point. It is othering, a way of saying you don’t belong here,” said Jean Sinzdak, the associate director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.
“I would describe it as a racist and sexist attack on her because she’s been the vice president for three and a half years,” Sinzdak said. “It’s not hard to say her name. It’s not complicated.”
It’s a lot simpler than that for psychopaths like Trump: it’s a simple cut that’s dehumanizing. It’s an easy way to say, “You mean nothing to me, and I know this hurts you, so I will keep on hurting you as much as possible whenever I can because I can, and that gratifies me.”
It’s one of the most effective trolling behaviors there is, because, no matter how big a person you are, it will always cut a little. And it is also one of the most obvious signs that someone is a psychopath. Because they hurt someone just because they can.
You see it all the time from trolls on the Internet.
I have a very common American name, but with a very European spelling. I’m 41 fucking years old. It gets under my skin at least a little bit when I see it misspelled, regardless of how understandable it is…
Is it something with like an “ou” instead of just “o”?
His name is Michael but it’s spelled Mouchel
I once met an American whose name was pronounced “Keevan”. His written name was Kevin…
American Football player Brett Favre pronounces his last name “farv” and I wish I knew why.
actual adults don’t really give a shit
From my experience most of Trump’s camp act like middle schoolers, so you’d be right
Yeah, also, I know Germany is like the one “okay” group to rag on in the US because of historical reasons, but like, what’s wrong with having a German last name?
It’s not like you get to choose your ancestry.
You do, however, get to choose whether you try to be a dictator.
This is just a dog-whistle for racism, right? Barely even a dog-whistle. Making fun of a name because it’s not european is pretty blatantly racist.
That’s exactly what it is. It’s saying, “white men like me know how to really pronounce your name and you don’t.”
I’ll admit to mispronouncing her name on occasion myself, but mostly because I associate it with two other figures who did/do pronounce it Ka-MAH-luh. I have to make an effort to get it right for her. But I am making that effort. And I have little doubt that these assholes are not.
I’m kind of afraid that I’ll mispronounce it in mixed company and make someone who doesn’t know me well think I’m one of those weird Republicans or something.
I actually said it wrong in that way the other day even though I usually get it right without having to think about it too much. It happens. Once we start hearing it all the time it’ll be easy, but in the meantime it may help to think of it as being “Kamla” which comes out sounding just the same.
I have a friend I’ve had since high school with that name and with that spelling who pronounced it a different way (closer to ‘camera’), so I go there for a second sometimes without realizing it, but correct myself quickly enough.
An honest mistake is an honest mistake you can always tell the difference
Seems like a regular whistle at this point.
You’re right of course it’s racism, he knows his audience. But his schoolyard bully tactics always make fun of the unfamiliar, perhaps you mean Anglo sounding?
Because I’m pretty sure he would make fun of his own family name (Drumpf) if it belonged to an opponent. And I can’t imagine it would be any better if they were named Nieminen (Finish) or Svobodova (Czech) or Nikolakopoulos (Greek) etc. Same with first names.
I guess “Hillary Clinton” and “Joe Biden” are hard to mispronounce without making it sound even more obvious than he likes to be, so he took the opportunity.
When Obama was running the right made a big point out of calling him Barack Hussein Obama.
I want her to treat this as if he is doing it on accident, and correct him like he is a little child. Really humiliate him.
Yup. Then, when he’s still mispronouncing it, pivot to him not being able to remember how to pronounce it correctly being another sign of his mental faculties failing.
Exactly. “Oh sweetie, are you having trouble remembering?”
We bullied a boomer who kept doing that at work.
Old fart kept mispronouncing staff member’s names thinking it was funny and workplace suddenly went passive aggressive on him.
All the way through this ordeal of Biden possibly, then actually, stepping down, I’ve been sort of lukewarm about the idea of Harris replacing him for one and only one reason - because I assumed that, since she’s the VP and the obvious first choice for a replacement, the Trump campaign would already have a complete hate campaign against her primed and ready to go, so could potentially catch her and the Dems flat-footed.
It’s astonishing how wrong I was.
Honestly, I think it’s because they underestimate black people and women. They would never have thought democrats would run a black woman, because they wouldn’t.
And it’s not like Sleepy Joe was a brilliant name either, it just stuck for the flag buying morons.
They have been making it up as they go since 2015. There’s no real plan other than win.
Which is why the Heritage Foundation made sure to spell out a 900-page plan this time.
Trump is such a narcissist that he cant actually comprehend someone not being selfish. Biden dropping out caught him completely off guard. It never occurred to him that a person would actually do that
All he’s doing is showing everyone how petty, spiteful, and bigoted he is - which is unintentionally honest of him.
The republican presidential nominee, ladies and gentlemen! Hope they are proud of this idiot.
The sad part is, they are.
Sadly, they unironically are.
I’m so fucking confused. Trump usually has good insults that actually stick. But literally nothing is sticking. All of Trump’s insults vs Kamala though are so lame.
I’m pretty happy about this though. Trump workshopping insults and shot gunning his incompetence and inability to actually pull Kamala down is great for everyone.
“Lying Ted Cruz” worked fine. Except “Lying Kamala” is obviously just recycling an old insult and speaks more to Trump’s limited vocabulary rather than something good. Etc. etc. etc. I’m sure Trump will eventually find something and run with it, but… crazy to see him fail at workshopping a response when he’s literally had years to prepare an obvious insult for Kamala.
Making fun of name pronunciation makes it sound like Trump is a 78 year old who can’t learn how to say a name. This is NOT the path Trump wants to go. Kamala isn’t even an exotic or difficult to say name.
I’m honestly surprised he has so little. I mean, not to give that piece of shit ideas, but “Commie Kamala” is right there. Even “Crooked Kamala” would work better than what he’s tried.
I saw a clip of him where he called her “Laffin’ Kamala” and then stopped to specify that he was spelling it L-A-F-F-I-N-apostrophe. It’s hard to remember last time I felt so much cringe.
As much as everyone was making fun of Bidens loss of function (which… Biden always tripped up over words. He always was a bad speaker)… Trumps wit has visibly declined over the recent years.
It’s possible that Trump just can’t come up with a reasonable insult due to his advanced age. IMO, Trumps signs of aging are worse than even Bidens.
Crooked was Hilary Clintons nickname. So same problem as Lying: it is proof of Trumps small vocabulary if he recycles an insult.
To be fair, he thought he was spelling it correctly.
Unfortunately the (lack of) cleverness matters little when his zealots/cultists started wearing adult diapers in public because “real men wear diapers” or something.
We don’t need to target the zealots.
All that matters is changing the mind of the 10% or so independents. And secondly, making sure there is enough enthusiasm for the Democrats to actually come out and fucking vote.
When asked why, the Trump campaign, in a statement to ABC News, said “race and gender have nothing to do with why Kamala Harris is the most unpopular Vice President in history.”
Citation, motherfuckers?
You kind of need to start assuming that anything coming out of his mouth is a lie. They are right less than 50% of the time.
I don’t get it. I mean shit, probably I pronounce it wrong, but then so does every other Minnesotan.
Why are they trying to be dumber than they are? That makes it like less weaponized stupidity and more… The stupidity that gets you in detention?
The guy whose surname is a synonym for “fart”…
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Comma Luh not Kuh Mah Lah
I guess I’ve also been saying it wrong, having read it much more than I’ve heard it. I honestly haven’t been paying much attention.
But, unlike you, Trump has heard it many times. He knows how to pronounce it properly, he just won’t because he’s a racist.
,la
Her name is a nod to her Indian heritage on her mother’s side and in her 2019 memoir, Harris wrote that she pronounced it “Comma-la” and that it means “lotus flower.” […] Still, Trump continues to say “Kah-MAH-la.”
I was sure this was going to be the other way around. Strange and less bad than I expected. It’s mostly just an accent thing, not a change in sounds.
Some people are suggesting Harris starts name calling in her campaign. I really think if she wants to slam him in a campaign, just list the issues Trump never wants to talk about. Even some conservative states were fighting for abortion. Stop making these elections a joke and the people will come.
Fight back by compromising less, not name calling.
I hope so too… unfortunately they probably get all their advice from people who ran the last couple complains. Plus, technically super PAC can’t have input from the politician I think.
Man, I really didn’t realize how bad people were butchering her name on purpose.
I’ve seen plenty of clarification on the subtleties of “kama-la” (correct) vs. “ka-ma-la” (incorrect) vs. “ka-mala” (incorrect), which helped me get her name right back during the 2020 primaries.
But these racist fucks are pronouncing it like “camel-ah”, “karma-la”, or just saying her name with a weird fake pseudo-african dialect.
They can say Barrack Hussain Obama again while they’re at it. For all the good that ever did for them.
It just proves them to be the racist party if they can’t even say a name right
Typical elementary schoolyard bully boy shit by Drumpf. Sadly his cult loves that type of low-hanging rotten fruit.
She should start calling him “Done-Old”
Kamala seems to be going with ‘weird’.
Which is… actually really good. It’s one word that works with Trump, JD Vance, Crypto ros, Elon Musk, and the whole slew of supporters / Trumps base.
