Trump’s nine weirdest nicknames for his political rivals, from Wacky Jacky to Tampon Tim

Your support helps us to tell the story

Support Now

Find out moreClose

As your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.

Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn't have the resources to challenge those in power.

Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November election

Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Donald Trump loves to refer to his political opponents by a nickname.

Along with rambling speeches full of non sequiturs, demeaning monikers have been at the heart of the former president’s unique political brand since before he entered the White House in 2016.

Like a salesman, Trump’s unrelenting use of the names at rallies and in interviews strengthens them in association through repetition.

The Independent has rounded up some of Trump’s most bizarre names – and how they came to be.

First there was “Laffin’ Kamala”. Then there was “Lyin’ Kamala”. Now it’s simply “Kamabla” – and for a while, nobody had a clue what it meant.

Trump began intentionally butchering Harris’s name by place a rogue “b” in it during a flurry of Truth Social posts at the beginning of August.

“Kamabla represents all the hurt and misery the Biden-Harris administration has brought to every single American,” the Trump campaign told the Intelligencer last month.

A month later, finally revealed what Kamabla means. “Just a… mixed-up … pile of words,” Trump told the magazine. “Like she is.”

As Covid-19 ravaged America, then-President Trump mocked then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for wearing a face mask at a campaign event, as he observed social distancing measures.

“Joe Hiden’ gets off his airplane, grabs and shakes a rather stunned man’s hand (like in the old days), then touches his face and mask with the same hand. No crowd, no enthusiasm for Joe today. Law & Order!” Trump wote on X, then Twitter, in September, 2020.

He continued his tirade: “Have you ever seen a man who likes a mask as much as him? It gives him a feeling of security. If I were a psychiatrist, I’d say this guy has got some big issues.”

At the time Trump repeatedly accused Biden of “hiding” in his basement by observing Covid-related safety rules. By contrast Trump continued appearing at rallies and other well-attended events, some of which were dubbed Covid “superspreader” events as cases spiked after them.

Trump has also branded the president as “Crooked Joe,” “Sleepy Joe,” and “Slow Joe.”

After years of calling Hillary Clinton “Crooked” and “Crazy”, last year Trump decided it was time for the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate to be served up a new nickname: “Beautiful.”

“I will be retiring the name ‘Crooked’ from Hillary Clinton & her moniker & I’m gonna give her a new name –I don’t know – maybe ‘Lovely’ Hillary or ‘Beautiful’ Hillary,” he said at a New Hampshire campaign rally in April, 2023.

His rationale was simple: he wanted to reserve “Crooked” for Joe Biden.

Last month, Trump stamped Harris with the same epithet when the vice president appeared on the front cover of Time magazine – before saying she looked reminiscent of his wife, former first lady Melania.

A one-time ally, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis briefly became Trump’s arch enemy.

In late 2022, DeSantis was a man many Republicans eyed as a potential alternative to take on Joe Biden in 2024, and the former president didn’t like that one bit.

“Ron DeSanctimonious” was rolled out by Trump at a Latrobe, Pennsylvania rally in November 2022. And despite it being one of the most punny monikers, the crowd’s reaction was fairly muted.

DeSantis has also been labelled “Tiny D”, “Meatball Ron” and – it appeared Trump gave up here – “Rob.”

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was instrumental in passing a bill on free school menstrual product access to all students that needed them, starting in the fourth grade – with the law taking effect in January this year.

There was little public backlash to the legislation, but Trump elected to call the Democratic vice presidential nominee “Tampon Tim.”

The former president accused Waltz of placing tampons and pads in boys’ toilets — although the legislation does not specify gender, it just notes that sanitary items should be available for students in grade 4 to 12.

“[Kamala Harris’s] running mate approved – signed into legislation – tampons in boys’ bathrooms, OK,” Trump said in an X livestream.

After gushing over former Nevada Senator Dean Heller’s loyalty, he tarnished his Democratic rival Jacky Rosen – who eventually unseated Heller in 2018 – as “Wacky Jacky.”

“You don’t want her as your senator,” Trump said at a rally in Nevada in June 2018. “That’s a name that people have known because people that know her, that’s what they call her, Wacky Jacky, that’s what you want for your senator?”

Rosen later brushed off the jibe and called the former president “petty,” noting that she is “not afraid to stand up to him.”

As Trump’s attacks around the Biden administration’s border policy began ramping up in February 2024, he had an ancillary target: California Governor Gavin Newsom.

He claimed that Newsom was promising undocumented migrants “free education, free medical, free everything” and declaring he had “the blood of countless innocent victims” on his hands.

“I mean, you look at what this governor Newscum from California. Isn’t that his name? Newscum,” Trump said during a speech in Eagle Pass, Texas near the US-Mexico border.

“What he’s done to California is unbelievable.”

Once Trump’s United Nations ambassador, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley butted heads with the former president as she vied to be the GOP’s 2024 presidential nominee.

At a rally in Iowa last November year, Trump referred to Haley by the derogatory nickname “Birdbrain”.

The former president bemoaned that Haley had broken her supposed promise to him that she would not run against him for the Republican nomination if he decided to run in 2024 – which he did.

“‘Nikki “Birdbrain’ Haley is very bad for the Republican Party and, indeed, our Country,” he doubled down on Truth Social in January.

“Anybody that makes a ‘Contribution’ to Birdbrain, from this moment forth, will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp.”

Haley soon fell into line and endorsed Trump, although she has said she has not forgetten the “birdbrain” insult or Trump mocking her husband’s military service.

This one even had Elton John’s approval. “I laughed, I thought it was brilliant,” the “Rocket Man” singer told Variety at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this month.

Trump first dubbed North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un the “Rocket Man” in a scathing speech at the UN General Assembly New York in September 2017, as he announced new measures to curb those who do business with the tyrant.

“We can’t have madmen out there, shooting rockets all over the place,” he told the crowd.

“Rocket Man,” then became “Little Rocket Man,” but Kim allegedly had no clue of its background.

Trump apparently had to explain to the dictator about John and the famous song, according to former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s 2022 memoir Never Give an Inch.