Evidently, HuffPost's White House correspondent is as befuddled as I am about the Republican presidential nominee's new name for the Democratic nominee.
"[Trump] has been calling VP Kamala Harris 'Kamabla,'" noted S.V. Dáte on Tuesday in obvious wonderment. So the seeker of knowledge put the question to people in the know, as any good reporter would do. Well, he put the question to people who are supposed to be in the know: Trump campaign staffers.
The campaign personnel that Mr. Dáte initially addressed, Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, ignored his questions, possibly because they didn't know what "Kamabla" means either. The non-answers he did get, above, came from campaign spokesman Steven Cheung.
Refreshed and undeterred, Dáte tried again the next day. And again he got Cheung.
Even in the pursuit of enlightenment, you're better off giving up when you're addressing rude, boorish, inconsiderate blockheads like people Trump would hire. Having given up, Dáte was left with just taking a guess at the meaning of the insult — or what's clearly intended as an insult, even if the insult is unclear.
"Trump has of late focused on racist disparagement of Harris," he wrote in HuffPost, "so the misspelling may be an attempt to make the Oakland, California, native seem more foreign."
A racist slur was my natural presumption, everyone's presumption, all along. What muddled things is that Trump ordinarily is a slanderous, bigoted guttersnipe in the most highly transparent ways, since his base is even more blockheaded than the people he hires.
Keep the racist malevolence on a 6th-grade level so the unlettered rednecks can "get it," that sort of thing. Hence an obscure slur of uncertain meaning is out of overtly malicious character for Trump. So I suspect "Kamabla" will soon be retired, notwithstanding its characteristic Trumpian malice.
But there's something else that LaCivita, Wiles or Cheung is going to have to explain someday — there's no way around this one. Because this one is really unclear.
President Donald J. Trump appointed the following individuals to be Members of the Council of Governors for terms of two years:
- Governor Steve Bullock of Montana
- Governor Douglas A. Ducey of Arizona
- Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio
- Governor David Ige of Hawaii, designated Co-Chair
- Governor Edward Miner Lamont, Jr., of Connecticut
- Governor J.B. Prizker of Illinois
- Governor Michael Lynn Parson of Missouri
- Governor Pete Ricketts of Nebraska
- Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota
- Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, designated Co-Chair
The nation meeds to know why Trump, when in the Oval Office, chose to appoint a radical leftist Marxist communist to one of his advisory boards. Someone must answer for this — this inviting "the enemy within" to weirdly creep inside his White House.
"Kamabla" sounds like how a drunk person would say her name. Is Trump an obnoxious drunk or does he just act like one, minus the booze? Which would actually be much worse.
Posted by: Anne J | August 08, 2024 at 10:12 AM
He's trying to pull off some kind of "KamaBlah"-type thing. Get it, she's not exciting, she's "blah"? He's just not adroit enough at his own stupid game
Posted by: bill | August 08, 2024 at 11:31 AM
Nice aliteration P.M.
Posted by: Tracks | August 08, 2024 at 12:09 PM
Bill, that's astute. I don't know if it's correct, but it makes sense and it hadn't occurred to me.
Posted by: PM | August 08, 2024 at 12:26 PM