‘He should drop out. This is very sad’: ‘Kamabla’ reactions roll in as 78-year-old convicted felon Donald Trump tries to shimmy back into the spotlight

Even though the US presidential race has already included an assassination attempt, a historic withdrawal and the unprecedented ascent of a new candidate, it somehow still continues to heat up.

This time, the fans have been flamed by Donald Trump (who else?), who has begun using a new nickname for his opponent Kamala Harris, much to the internet’s dismay. For context, the former President and current GOP candidate repeatedly referred to Harris as “Kamabla” in a pair of posts on Truth Social on August 5. Over the course of the next two days, he used the term an additional seven times in the kind of posting spree that gives Marjorie Taylor Greene’s neverending X feed a run for its money. 

Of course, Trump is no stranger to the schoolyard tactic of nicknaming his opponents — having hurling terms like “crooked” at Hilary Clinton and “sleepy” at Joe Biden — but the origins, and indeed the meaning, of “Kamabla” are a little less clear. 

Trump’s new nickname for Harris received renewed attention when he used it in a particularly angered post that mentioned the Vice President in a post on Truth Social. “Kamabla has stated, over and over again, that she wants to DEFUND THE POLICE AND, WITHOUT QUESTION, BAN FRACKING,” Trump wrote on the platform, before adding that these policies would “quadruple the cost of energy in America.” 

Since he has developed a reputation for nonsensical ramblings — ranging from sharks and batteries to Hannibal Lecter — people haven’t so much focused on the content of Trump’s post as they have on the repeated mentions of “Kamabla”. 

It’s worth noting that Trump hasn’t yet spoken the word out loud or in public, so we don’t know the correct pronunciation. He has previously tried out a few other nicknames for Harris, like “lyin’” and laffin’” Kamala, but they haven’t quite stuck like “Kamabla”, at least in Trump’s mind.

Regardless of its origins, meaning, or whether it’s simply more evidence of Trump’s incoherence (at this rate, you could compile a gibberish word puzzle with his rants), the reaction to “Kamabla” has been decidedly mixed. 

Trump supporters have seemingly fallen in love with the phrase, and are consistently using it as a hashtag to share anti-Harris posts — in much the same way they did with “Sleepy” Joe. Elsewhere, however, the nickname has been taken as evidence that Trump is losing “his touch.”

“This b***h lost his touch,” one post on X reads, “kamabla is the best he has to call her.” The same post also calls for Trump to “drop out.” Other users criticized how Trump seems to be resorting to schoolyard name-calling, saying Americans are “tired of him” and his “stupid childish antics”, and lamenting the fact that Harris is “literally running against a kindergartener.” 

Much of the chatter online, however, has been attempting to figure out exactly what “Kamabla” means, which might be a useless exercise given Trump’s track record of not making much sense. The most prominent theory is that Trump is attempting to combine the words “Kamala” and “blah” (the H on his keyboard must be broken), to suggest that Harris is dull or uninteresting. If that’s the case, it’s a pretty weak burn, since uninteresting is far better than convicted felon.  

Others have suggested “Kamabla” is an attempt to combine “Kamala” with “Obama”, who is Trump’s ultimate nemesis, while some theories suggest the nickname is racially motivated. Trump has a history of othering his opponents of color, like he did with Nikki Haley, by misspelling their names, so “Kamabla” might be his attempt to suggest that Harris’ is so bizarre it’s impossible to spell correctly.         

In what is perhaps the most likely explanation, others believe “Kamabla” is an accidental misspelling that Trump has just decided to run with. He has a track record of sharing social media posts that not only contain unnecessary capital letters (why are we yelling?), but a slew of spelling mistakes, which have caught the ire of Mark Hamill and Stephen King.

Who could forget the great viral “Covfefe” furore of 2017, or more recently, the “insure” vs “ensure” debacle on Truth Social? 

Hey, Trump, I know words can be tricky, even when they barely stretch beyond two syllables, but please don’t repeat “Kamabla” to the point where my Dad thinks it’s a usable word in Scrabble. I can’t have that fight with him again.