'Kamabla'? Trump isn't just losing the election, he's losing his mind.
Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is barnstorming swing states with her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, looking downright joyous and sharing a positive message with massive crowds of supporters.
Meanwhile, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is doing none of those things. He has one campaign rally scheduled for this week, in deep-red Montana, and seems otherwise preoccupied with posting unhinged rants on social media and trying to get the vaguely racist-sounding nickname “Kamabla” to take off.
There’s a long way to go in this election, and much can and will happen. But right now, weeks after a Republican National Convention brimming with confidence, Trump, GOP lawmakers and right-wing pundits are all on their heels, seemingly incapable of pushing back against a Harris-Walz Democratic ticket.
Trying to make Tim Walz seem radical won't be easy for Trump
When Walz was named the VP pick this week, Trump suggested the humble Midwesterner would “unleash HELL ON EARTH.” Right-wing pontificators swung hard on the idea that Walz is some kind of radical antifa super soldier wearing a friendly 60-year-old-white-dad costume.
But there’s little sign anyone’s biting on that. Walz’s policies are broadly popular, his state is doing great and it seems more than a bit goofy to claim that a guy who looks like he’d be happy to give you a hand fixing your lawnmower’s carburetor is also a mendacious socialist tyrant.
Midwest dad takes on MAGA: Trump's about to learn voters like Walz's 'progressive' policies
And Trump's racist attacks like calling Harris 'Kamabla' won't work, either
Trump’s other-izing of Harris will continue apace, I’m sure, but his racist comment that she "happened to turn Black" was met with offense, ridicule and even exasperation among Republicans.
So Trump came up with “Kamabla.” Is that some combination of “Kamala” and “Black,” is it making fun of her name, is it just weird-old-man humor? Perhaps he's using the same lizard-brain thinking that went into the name-slurs he hurled against Nikki Haley in the Republican primary, twisting her given name Nimarata into “Nimrada” and “Nimbra.”
To make it a little more offensive, he has added “Crazy” in front: Crazy Kamabla. He is definitely the kind of thinker you want in charge of America.
Trump is clearly scared, and he's getting stranger and stranger
While workshopping stupid nicknames, Trump has been taking time to write rants like this one, posted Tuesday:
“What are the chances that Crooked Joe Biden, the WORST President in the history of the U.S., whose Presidency was Unconstitutionally STOLEN from him by Kamabla, Barrack HUSSEIN Obama, Crazy Nancy Pelosi, Shifty Adam Schiff, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, and others on the Lunatic Left, CRASHES the Democrat National Convention and tries to take back the Nomination, beginning with challenging me to another DEBATE. He feels that he made a historically tragic mistake by handing over the U.S. Presidency, a COUP, to the people in the World he most hates, and he wants it back, NOW!!!”
Trump seems confused: Has Harris finally broken Trump? He's flailing, glitching and running scared.
That kind of nuttiness would prompt most people to say: “I think we better have someone check in on Grandpa.”
I can’t even parse what he’s on about, and anyone who can read that aloud and say “At last, a presidential candidate who make sense!” needs to know there are people who love them and ways for them to get help.
GOP trying so hard to label the Harriz-Walz ticket, but ...
With polling swinging in Harris’ favor since she rose to the top of the ticket, Trump is not just losing the election. He’s losing his mind. And his campaign and the Republican Party at large seem helpless, for now, to change the perception of Democratic momentum and GOP discombobulation.
Grating right-wing podcaster Ben Shapiro posted a picture of Walz on social media and wrote: “Weird move for Kamala to select Marxist Don Rickles, but here we are.” A dated reference to a beloved comedian? Nailed it!
Far-right culture warrior Christopher Rufo, who helped Republicans turn the academic critical race theory into a political weapon, was flailing about to hammer the Minnesota governor, mocking him as “a white man with a plan.”
Rufo wrote of Walz: “He knows that the only way to defeat discrimination is through more discrimination. That's why he bravely downgrades and excludes whites from government programs. It's not ‘justice’ if it's ‘just us,’ he says whitely.”
Good ones! Those lines are totally relatable to normal voters and won’t be seen as weird.
Did you hear this great joke about Kamala and walls?
Former Republican Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee gave it a shot on Fox News, saying of Harris: “She has been against walls. She has finally found Walz that she likes. Tim Walz, not real walls.”
Hahahahah, we are laughing because that is a good joke! The youth vote will now come home to Republicans!
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung shared a social post from Trump running mate JD Vance, who was telling people Wednesday that he was on the tarmac in Wisconsin near Harris’ Air Force Two jet. Cheung added: “Make sure AF2 is deep cleaned because Lord only knows what @KamalaHarris and her team have done on there. The smell alone on that plane must be crazy.”
To which any normal person would say, “Dude, shut the (expletive) up.”
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So they’ve got “Kamabla,” some Joe-Biden-wants-revenge fan fiction, comedian comparisons, not-too-veiled racism and a wall joke. Perfect.
A positive, normal message is proving toxic to Trump's angry rhetoric
The Harris campaign is countering Trump’s bullying and perennially Trump-centric approach by focusing on a positive message of uniting Americans and working to protect and expand people’s freedoms. The message and the messengers are thus far effective.
'Tampon Tim'? Really Republicans, that's the best you can do? A compliment?
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, speaking to MSNBC, summed up the Trump campaign’s struggles:
“They cannot fathom a campaign or any leaders who are not about themselves. This campaign, as impressive and compelling as the ticket themselves are, they’ve also made it clear that this campaign isn’t about them. It’s about you, it’s about us, it’s about the future of this country.”
Impotently shouting “Kamabla!” isn’t going to halt the Democrats’ momentum. It only cements the belief that Trump is weird and people are tired of his schtick.
And that painful reality is causing the man in Mar-a-Lago to absolutely lose whatever marbles he has left.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump can't get Harris, Walz insults to stick. That's telling