The harm it would pose to a politician is less clear. (Trump has spent years aiming a similar insult at NBC News host Chuck Todd.) Obviously, “Sleepy” is a somewhat damning description for anybody who works in television. It’s a default nickname Trump tends to use on generic white male Democrats, like Senators Bob Casey or Joe Donnelly. The “Sleepy Joe” label was likewise derivative. But then Trump either got bored or forgot, and began calling him “Little Adam Schiff” - recycling the name he used on Rubio – and then switched over again to “Shifty Schiff.” The nickname unveiling took on a celebratory air, with Trump’s surrogates quickly stamping the term on branded merchandise and sharing it eagerly on social media. Last year, Trump announced the nickname “Pencil Neck” for House Intelligence Committee chair and prime Trump nemesis Adam Schiff. After relentlessly mocking Elizabeth Warren as “Pocahantas” - itself a dumber version of the “Fauxcahontas” slur he stole from the conservative Boston Herald - he began calling her “Goofy.” He has affixed both “Crazy” and “Nervous” to the first name of the House Speaker. Trump’s taunts used to follow this rule, but in recent years his aim has wavered. Is he actually even good at giving people nicknames?Īny bully intuitively grasps the importance of thematic consistency. Trump throwing away the months of brand equity he invested in making “Sleepy Joe” happen is a sign that he is failing not only at his formal job but also at the one thing people give him credit for doing well. (You can’t handle a pandemic by giving it a mean name.) But given the almost mythical position Trump’s nicknaming power holds, the admission of defeat is telling. Obviously, no messaging technique could overcome the disadvantage created by Trump’s cascade of governing blunders. The nickname method seemed to demonstrate that the entire political Establishment had overestimated the intelligence of the average persuadable voter, and Trump struck it rich by discovering the correct level, which was approximately that of a seventh-grade cafeteria table. “Crooked Hillary” created a frame that fit every real and imagined scandal afflicting his opponent, including the publication of stolen emails from her campaign that should have registered as a Trump scandal. ![]() ![]() Labels like “Low-Energy Jeb,” “Lyin’ Ted,” and “Liddle Marco” seemed both to emasculate his primary rivals while establishing Trump as an alpha male. ![]() The power to define his opponents with belittling nicknames is perhaps Trump’s most distinctive and feared political skill. The president has settled, at least momentarily, on “Corrupt Joe.” Trump “has recently been asking advisers whether he should stick with his current nickname for Biden - ‘Sleepy Joe’ - or try to coin another moniker, such as ‘Swampy Joe’ or ‘Creepy Joe,’” reported the Washington Post this weekend. Unable to manage an escalating pandemic, an economic crisis, and social unrest, and finding himself sinking farther behind in the polls, President Trump has reexamined his operations and arrived at the Trumpiest possible conclusion: The nickname he uses for his opponent is not mean enough. Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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