Donald Trump has apparently chosen his nickname for Pete Buttigieg: Mad magazine mascot Alfred E. Neuman.
Said Trump to Politico: “Alfred E. Neuman cannot become president of the United States.”
Trump made his first public attack on Buttigieg on Wednesday night at a rally in Florida.
Said Trump: “We got some real beauties. We got a choice between Sleepy Joe and Crazy Bernie. I’ll take any of them, let’s just pick somebody please and let’s start this thing.”
“Pick somebody!” he demanded, looking into the crowd. “We have a young man, Butt-ig-ieg, boot-edge-edge, they say edge–edge,” said Trump.
“He’s got a great chance doesn’t he?” Trump asked dismissively. “He’ll be great. He’ll be great. Representing us against President Xi of China. I want to be in that room, I want to watch that.”
Buttigieg responded to the attack on Thursday, saying, “You can’t get too worried about the name calling and the games he plays. I was thinking of a Chinese proverb that goes, when the wind changes, some people build walls and some people build windmills. You gotta recognize that we need something that is completely different from what is in this White House. The negotiations that they are conducting, whether it’s on trade or things like North Korea, are usually a personal high-wire act with no safety net.”
