Donald Trump has picked a new nickname for Kamala Harris, but nobody knows what it means

Donald Trump has adopted a new nickname for his election opponent. There’s one problem though: no one has any idea what it means.

Donald Trump has adopted a new nickname for his election opponent, Kamala Harris. There’s one teensy problem though: no one has any idea what it means.

Since Monday Mr Trump, the Republican Party’s nominee for president, has been referring to the Vice President and Democratic nominee, Ms Harris, as “Kamabla”.

It appears to be his latest attempt to find a moniker for Ms Harris that will actually stick, having previously trialled “Lyin’ Kamala” and “Laughin’ Kamala”. The latter was a reference to her distinctive, enthusiastic laugh; the former a callback to his old name for Senator Ted Cruz, against whom he ran for the Republican nomination in 2016.

“People vote with their STOMACH, and food is now at an highest because of Kamabla/Biden INCOMPETENCE. With them in charge, IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE!” the former president wrote in his first post featuring the new nickname on Monday.

“Kamabla has stated, over and over again, that she wants to DEFUND THE POLICE AND, WITHOUT QUESTION, BAN FRACKING. ‘NO MORE FOSSIL FUEL.’ This will quadruple the cost of energy in America! DEPRESSION ANYONE!” he added in a second post.

Donald Trump. Picture: Nick Oxford/AFP

Kamala Harris. Picture: Brendan Smialowski/AFP

Mr Trump has used the name more than half a dozen times since then, throwing in the occasional variant “Crazy Kamabla”. We have yet to hear him say it out loud; his public appearances have been sparse.

During a phone interview with Fox News’ breakfast show Fox & Friends on Wednesday, Mr Trump referred to Ms Harris merely as “she” and “her”.

Mr Trump’s pick for the vice presidency, Senator J.D. Vance, was of little help when asked about the nickname later on Wednesday.

“I think the president, obviously, he loves to give people nicknames, and I think that he’s going to keep on doing that,” Mr Vance said.

“I would be shocked if it’s the last nickname he gives her before the end of the election.”

Mr Vance indicated he did not intend to use “Kamabla” himself. He either chose not to elaborate on its meaning, or was unable to.

Mr Trump at an event last week. Picture: Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, who was also on Mr Trump’s vice presidential shortlist, was also asked about the name during an interview on CNN.

“This is something I’m personally curious about. Donald Trump has been referring to Harris on social media as ... Kamabla? Do you know where that came from and what that nickname means?” host Kaitlan Collins asked.

“I can’t comment on that,” Mr Burgum replied.

“I do know that when voters are making a decision, they’re going to end up voting, in many ways, on their pocketbook. And if you go to these swing states, those suburban counties, voters are going to say, ‘Am I better off today than I was four years ago?’ And they’re going to have to say, ‘No.’”

“OK, but you don’t know where the nickname came from either. Because it’s a mystery to us,” Ms Collins said.

We asked Doug Burgum about why Trump keeps referring to Harris as "Kamabla," which he's done multiple times since Monday. pic.twitter.com/JrFShIE2Hh

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) August 7, 2024

Asked directly for an explanation by New York Magazine, the Trump campaign itself offered this explanation: “Kamabla represents all the hurt and misery the Biden-Harris administration has brought to every single American.”

It did not elaborate further.

So what is “Kamabla”? Is it a typo Mr Trump has decided to double down on? A purposeful misspelling of Ms Harris’s name just for the heck of it? Some type of attempt to combine her name with Barack Obama’s? The mystery remains.

Perhaps, when Mr Trump next emerges from Mar-a-Lago, he will at last explain.

Awkward new Trump recording emerges

The dominant political story in the US this week has been Ms Harris’s selection of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her vice presidential nominee.

Mr Walz, a former teacher and military veteran, was relatively unknown on the national stage before President Joe Biden announced his decision to withdraw from the race.

After that, potential VP picks did a flurry of TV hits, as though auditioning for the job. Mr Walz was among them. During one interview, he became the first Democrat to call Mr Trump and Mr Vance “weird” – a line that has come to permeate the party’s strategy since.

Ms Harris announced him as her pick at a joint rally in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, and the pair are now doing a whirlwind tour of key swing states.

Mr Vance has also been crisscrossing the country this week, holding multiple campaign events per day. Mr Trump has not been seen out and about, though he has continued to post on social media, and did phone into Fox News for that aforementioned interview.

Tim Walz on stage with Kamala Harris. Picture: Matthew Hatcher/AFP

A potentially fruitful line of attack on Mr Walz is his handling of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, which erupted across the US in response to the murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin.

Local authorities asked the Governor to deploy the National Guard to help them control the protests two days after Mr Floyd’s death. Mr Walz didn’t issue the order until a day later – too slowly, according to Republicans.

“You think the black business leaders in Minneapolis are grateful, the working class business leaders are grateful, that Tim Walz allowed rioters to burn down their business?” Mr Vance said on Wednesday, for example.

Senior House Republicans Steve Scalise and Elise Stefanik both accused Mr Walz of letting rioters “burn Minneapolis to the ground”.

Inconveniently, though, a recording has emerged of Mr Trump, who was president at the time of the riots, praising Mr Walz’s handling of the situation.

“I know Governor Walz is on the phone, and we spoke, and I fully agree with the way he handled it the last couple of days,” Mr Trump said in a phone call with a group of governors on June 1, 2020.

“I was very happy with the last couple of days, Tim. You called up big numbers and the big numbers knocked them out so fast it was like bowling pins.”

In a statement responding to the audio, the Trump campaign downplayed Mr Trump’s praise.

“Governor Walz allowed Minneapolis to burn for days, despite President Trump’s offer to deploy soldiers and cries for help from the liberal Mayor of Minneapolis,” it said.

“In this daily briefing phone call with governors on June 1, days after the riots began, President Trump acknowledged Governor Walz for FINALLY taking action to deploy the National Guard to end the violence in the city.”