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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 22, 2024

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A bit of heat generated by Trump dubbing Nikki Haley "Nimbra", a butchering of her Indian birth name:

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4420434-trump-on-mocking-haleys-birth-name-its-just-something-that-came/

I'm not sure who the media controversy is aimed at. His base is absolutely going to love it, the normal Repubs have no choice but to vote for him, and his enemies can't hate him more than they already do.

I predict if her numbers continue to climb, he's gonna mention her daughter's married to a black guy. Way too tempting for a guy like Trump.

On that, a surprising number of the establishment Republicans have kids married to black people. Haley, McCain, Boehner, etc. What's with that?

  • -11

Haley, the daughter of immigrants from India, was born in South Carolina as Nimarata Nikki Randhawa. She has always gone by her middle name, “Nikki.”

The Hill liked this line so much they copied it verbatim from their last article on this. But the article prior to that was different:

Haley, the former South Carolina governor, was born in Bamberg, South Carolina, as Nimarata Nikki Randhawa. She has always gone by her middle name, “Nikki.”

It's a good thing The Hill is here to remind everyone of the racial angle, since Haley so stubbornly refuses to.

I’m rather surprised, if this was him trying to find an insult rather than him just screwing up her name, that he didn’t just go for the obvious “Nimrod Nikki Haley” which sounds very Trumpy.

He's called her "Nimrada" before. It's clever, but not actually effective, and didn't stick, which is why nobody remembers it.

Yeah nimbra seems kind of weak for Trump, it sounds like he flubbed the line even. And nimrod would have been great. I think any appearance of hostility between them is just campaigning - Haley isn't going to be president and wants in on the administration and Trump may or may not want her back, but he knows she's a good politician and wants her on side.

Trump is too well versed in Greek mythology to make such a low brow reference.

Nimrod is probably the biblical name for Sargon of Akkad and has nothing to do with Greek mythology.

He probably is vaguely aware that "Nimrod" is not an insult, or maybe he was going for that and misremembered the word.