List of nicknames used by Donald Trump
became widely known during his political career for using nicknames to criticize, insult, or otherwise express commentary about media figures, politicians, and foreign leaders.
Domestic political figures
Foreign leaders
| Nickname | Personal name | Notes |
| Animal Assad | Bashar al-Assad | 18th president of Syria |
| President B | Nayib Bukele | 81st president of El Salvador |
| Mr. Japan | Shigeru Ishiba | 80th prime minister of Japan |
| Rocket Man | Kim Jong Un | 3rd supreme leader of North Korea |
| Little Rocket Man | Kim Jong Un | 3rd supreme leader of North Korea |
| Juan Trump | Andrés Manuel López Obrador | 65th president of Mexico |
| Governor Trudeau | Justin Trudeau | 23rd prime minister of Canada |
| Governor Carney | Mark Carney | 24th prime minister of Canada |
| My Favourite Field Marshal | Asim Munir | 11th Chief of the Pakistan Army and 1st Chief of Defence Forces (Pakistan) |
Media figures
| Nickname | Personal name | Notes |
| Liddle' Peter Baker | Peter Baker | Chief White House correspondent for The New York Times |
| Crazy Mika Brzezinski | Mika Brzezinski | Co-host of Morning Joe; wife of Joe Scarborough |
| Dumb as a Rock Mika | Mika Brzezinski | Co-host of Morning Joe; wife of Joe Scarborough |
| Low I.Q. Crazy Mika | Mika Brzezinski | Co-host of Morning Joe; wife of Joe Scarborough |
| Kooky Tucker Carlson | Tucker Carlson | Former host of Tucker Carlson Tonight; Host of The Tucker Carlson Show podcast |
| Dopey Graydon Carter | Graydon Carter | Former editor of Vanity Fair |
| Allison Cooper | Anderson Cooper | Host of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360° |
| Fredo | Chris Cuomo | Former host of Cuomo Prime Time on CNN; Host of Cuomo on NewsNation |
| Maggot Hagerman | Maggie Haberman | American journalist, White House correspondent for The New York Times. |
| Crazy Megyn | Megyn Kelly | Host of The Megyn Kelly Show, former host of The Kelly File and Megyn Kelly Today |
| Marble Mouth Meyers | Seth Meyers | Host of Late Night with Seth Meyers |
| Washed Up Psycho Bette Midler | Bette Midler | Film Actress |
| Sloppy Michael Moore | Michael Moore | Filmmaker and political documentarian |
| Morning Psycho | Joe Scarborough | Co-host of Morning Joe; former U.S. representative from Florida; husband of Mika Brzezinski |
| Psycho Joe | Joe Scarborough | Co-host of Morning Joe; former U.S. representative from Florida; husband of Mika Brzezinski |
| Lil' George | George Stephanopoulos | Chief anchor and chief political correspondent of ABC News; former White House communications director and senior advisor to President Bill Clinton |
| George Slopadopolus | George Stephanopoulos | Chief anchor and chief political correspondent of ABC News; former White House communications director and senior advisor to President Bill Clinton |
| Fake Tapper | Jake Tapper | Host of The Lead with Jake Tapper on CNN |
| Sleepy Eyes | Chuck Todd | Former moderator of Meet the Press |
| Little Katy | Katy Tur | Correspondent for MSNBC; author |
| Lyin' Brian | Brian Williams | Former anchor of NBC Nightly News; former host of The 11th Hour |
| Little Jeff Zucker | Jeff Zucker | Former president of CNN Worldwide |
Groups of people
Other people
Organizations
| Nickname | Official name | Notes |
| Americans for No Prosperity | Americans for Prosperity | Libertarian conservative political advocacy group |
| Globalist's Club for NO Growth | Club for Growth | Conservative organization |
| Clinton News Network | CNN | Multinational cable news channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery |
| Fake News CNN | CNN | Multinational cable news channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery |
| Low ratings CNN | CNN | Multinational cable news channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery |
| Democrat Party | Democratic Party | American political party |
| Radical Left Democrats | Democratic Party | American political party |
| Lincoln Pervert Project | The Lincoln Project | Political action committee working against the reelection of Trump, which targets conservatives |
| Failing Forbes Magazine | Forbes | American business magazine |
| MSDNC | MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) | American news-based pay television cable channel owned by Versant |
| Failing New York Times | The New York Times | Newspaper |
| Amazon Washington Post | The Washington Post | Newspaper owned by Jeff Bezos, founder and former CEO of Amazon |
| The Washington ComPost | The Washington Post | Newspaper owned by Jeff Bezos, founder and former CEO of Amazon |
| Unselect Committee | United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack | A select committee of the U.S. House of Representatives to investigate the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 |
| Concast | Comcast | American multinational telecommunications and media conglomerate |
| ABC Fake News | ABC News | News division of ABC owned by the Walt Disney Company |
Television programs
| Nickname | Official name | Notes |
| Deface the Nation | Face the Nation | A weekly political talk show on CBS |
| Meet the Fake Press | Meet the Press | A weekly talk show on NBC |
| Meet the Depressed | Meet the Press | A weekly talk show on NBC |
Other
| Nickname | Common name | Notes |
| A very stable genius | Donald Trump | Self-epithet, antonomasia. Trump repeatedly described himself as "a very stable genius" from 2018 through 2019. A Very Stable Genius, a 2020 book by Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig about Trump's first presidency used the nickname. |
| Green New Scam | Green New Deal | A congressional resolution sponsored by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey that addressed climate and economic policy. |
| The N-Word | Nuclear power and nuclear weapons | The use of nuclear fission or nuclear fusion as an explosive device, or to generate heat and electricity; typically referred to as simply "nuclear" by Trump. |
| Kung Flu | SARS-CoV-2 | A virus whose first case was diagnosed in China. |
| Chinese Virus | SARS-CoV-2 | A virus whose first case was diagnosed in China. |
| China virus | SARS-CoV-2 | A virus whose first case was diagnosed in China. |
Sleepy Joe
Sleepy Joe is a nickname describing Joe Biden, the 46th president of the United States, coined and used by those who opposed his presidency, which became an Internet meme. The nickname was originally coined in 2019 by Biden's predecessor and successor, Donald Trump. It appeared after the publication of a number of media memes, where Biden allegedly falls asleep during a television interview. The nickname hints at Biden's possible physical and mental inability to perform the duties of president.History
On April 25, 2019, United States president Donald Trump tweeted, "Welcome to the race, Sleepy Joe." Biden responded by calling Trump a "clown". During the 2020 presidential election, including the final campaign debates, Trump generally mocked his opponent Biden repeatedly, calling him "Sleepy Joe".During the 2020 presidential election, including the final election debate, Trump repeatedly referred to his opponent Joe Biden as "Sleepy Joe". Thus, in one of his pre-election speeches in Wisconsin on November 2, 2020, Trump referred to Biden as "Sleepy Joe" and "Sleepy Biden".
In June 2020, reports surfaced that Trump had recently asked advisors whether he should stick with his current nickname for Biden, "Sleepy Joe", or try to come up with another nickname, such as "Swampy Joe" or "Creepy Joe". It has been noted that Trump is not convinced that "Sleepy Joe" is particularly "dangerous", and some of his advisers agreed and urged him to stop using the nickname. In one tweet, Trump stated another nickname for Biden: "Corrupt Joe".
Trump has criticized Biden, saying he "has been in politics for 40 years and done nothing", describing him as "politically weak" and stating he had done more in 3.5 years for black people than Biden did in 43 years. Reinforcing his war against "radical left Democrats", Trump seized on popular calls to "protect the police" and falsely attributed them to "Sleepy Joe". He also said that Biden "doesn't know where he is or what he's doing", "he's asleep", and that Biden held a rally that "hardly anyone showed up for".
According to Google Trends, the nickname "Sleepy Joe" was quite popular in 2020-2021.
Analysis
The nickname "Sleepy Joe" is a pejorative anthroponym. It is used by Trump to create a "political boundary of antagonism against Biden". The adjective "sleepy" also demonstrates the same process of modifying the noun "Joe Biden" in a political, rather than semantic or pragmatic, way. The phrase "Sleepy Joe Biden" does not refer to Joe Biden still being sleepy due to lack of sleep; rather, it is a core structure of antagonism that creates the meaning "Joe Biden is unworthy of being President of the United States". This form of constructing political and antagonistic meaning is common to various core structures of antagonism in Trump's political discourse. In his antagonistic discourse, Trump demonstrates a process of cognitive control.In The Lancet magazine, academics and doctors drew attention to the fact that the nicknames "Sleepy Joe" and "crazy" demonstrate how mental health problems can be misinterpreted and used as a tool; this is especially true in the Americas, where stigmatization of such diseases exists.
Trump likely used this nickname because, at the time, Biden was very old or because Trump considered Biden to be slow and mentally impaired, incompetent, or prone to uncontrollably falling asleep during events. The nickname may imply the nominee's slowness and mental lethargy, his inability to think and react quickly.
"Sleepy Joe" might also allude to a song of the same name, where the hero is gently chastised for his laziness. It can be classified as a personal attack. Trump may be attempting to weaken Joe Biden's character by depriving him of the ability to speak normally due to a speech impediment. This is more of an emotional appeal than an appeal to character, because Trump's goal may be to create humor.