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.
It’s little wonder that Trump’s designated nickname for Harris is not catching on with the MAGA faithful. Outside of the conference room at Mar-a-Lago, everyone seems to get that “laughing” is not a word associated with bad things.
Meanwhile, convicted felon Trump is the guy who put an image of his scowling mug shot at the center of his campaign.
Trump can muster a creepy grin when he thinks he’s gotten in a jab that might hurt someone. He can even summon up something truly disturbing when he’s hugging a flag. But when it comes to actual laughter, he can barely squeeze out a dry chuckle.
Harris’ laugh signals good humor, high spirits, and a zest for life. But there’s more to it than that, as she explained during an appearance on “The Drew Barrymore Show” that touched on her experience as the nation’s first female vice president—and criticism of her laughter.
“I have my mother’s laugh,” Harris said. “And I grew up around a bunch of women in particular who laughed from the belly … they would sit around the kitchen drinking their coffee, telling big stories with big laughs.”
Her message was simple.
“I think it’s really important for us to remind each other and our younger ones: Don’t be confined to other people’s perception about what this looks like, and how you should act in order to be.”
The right to laugh shouldn’t be a source of controversy. But as Sophie Gillis writes in The Atlantic, there have been men throughout history who have hated the sound of a woman laughing.
In many recent cultures, laughter for women has been an outright transgressive act. Under Taliban rule in Afghanistan, the former first lady Laura Bush noted in a 2001 speech, women faced beatings if they were seen laughing. And … the former Turkish deputy prime minister counseled women in 2014 not to laugh in public, lest they signal their “moral corruption.”
Those sound like the kind of men who Trump would get along with: in their dark place, where women are silenced and oppressed.
But that place isn’t America—not yet. So let’s give those guys a reason not to laugh for the next four years.
Help keep America in a happy place by donating $10 to Kamala Harris’ campaign!
