(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Trump may be cooking up an insulting new nickname for DeSantis: 'Meatball Ron' [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-14 The Times: He has insulted Mr. DeSantis in casual conversations, describing him as “Meatball Ron,” an apparent dig at his appearance, or “Shutdown Ron,” a reference to restrictions the governor put in place at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump also has a long history of insulting women based on their physical appearance, including the term “horseface” to describe Stormy Daniels. Currently, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office is presenting evidence to a grand jury about whether Trump falsified records to hide hush money paid to Daniels just before the 2016 presidential election. One need only look at DeSantis’ head in the photo aboveto see what was on Trump’s mind. Of course, Trump’s image has launched a thousand unflattering nicknames in its own right. And we all know Trump would never use what might be construed as an ethnic slur as a moniker for one of his rivals. Oh wait: DeSantis is Italian-American. Trump is an equal opportunity offender when it comes to ethnic slurs. Now “Meathead” was already taken by Archie Bunker to refer to his liberal Polish-American son-in-law Mike Stivic (played by real-life liberal Rob Reiner) on All In the Family. And Meat Loaf, who opposed vaccine and mask mandates only to die of COVID-19 complications, did liven up the 2011 season of Celebrity Apprentice before getting fired. Thankfully, we have Trump’s word for it that he’s not testing out “Meatball Ron,” or any other nickname for DeSantis—even as he uses one in his Truth Social denial. “All of the Fake News is reporting that I spend large amounts of my time coming up with a good ‘nickname’ for Ron DeSanctimonious, who is obviously going to give the presidential ‘thing’ a shot. They are all 100% wrong, I don’t even think about it — A very unimportant subject to me!!!” Super unimportant, clearly. At least for now, the Florida governor is demurring from joining Trump in the name-calling gutter, even as the disgraced Florida Man insinuated on social media that DeSantis behaved inappropriately with high school girls when he was a teacher at a private school in Georgia in his early 20s. “Groomin’ Ron,” anyone? “I spend my time delivering results for the people of Florida and fighting against Joe Biden,” he said. “That’s how I spend my time. I don’t spend my time trying to smear other Republicans.” The Daily Beast suggests that Trump’s insulting nicknames proved to be an effective political tool against his rivals in the 2016 Republican primary campaign. One theory argued that our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, and Trump understood how to succinctly capture the most negative framing of a person’s fundamental nature. “Trump realizes campaigns, especially for president, aren’t about issues—they’re all about personalities, especially for independent voters,” Brad Bannon, a Democratic strategist, told Roll Call. Evan Siegfried, a Republican strategist, concurred, saying, “The bottom line is: Trump’s nicknames stick.” The 76-year-old Trump has largely shaped the GOP in his image, with an emphasis on performative politics and the airing of grievances. DeSantis, 44, who owes his victory in the 2018 Florida Republican gubernatorial primary to Trump’s endorsement, has burnished his image as a more effective heir to Trump by using Florida as a petri dish for implementing fascistic authoritarian culture war policies. But as columnist Matt Lewis writes in The Daily Beast, Trump might just be able to land some punches on DeSantis, who might turn out to have a glass jaw. He reminded readers of the petty way in which DeSantis went after Walt Disney World when Disney executives dared criticize Florida’s new “Don’t Say Gay” law. Lewis wrote:: Donald Trump has a way of destroying people, and minimizing their accomplishments. I can almost hear him now, “I oversaw the greatest economy in 50 years; ‘Meatball Ron’ fought against Mickey Mouse.’” We are still at the beginning of this incipient battle. DeSantis hasn’t even declared yet. Still, the floating of nicknames suggests to me that the gloves are coming off and things are going to get darker and more extreme. In the cinematic classic Rocky III, a professional wrestler dubbed “Thunder Lips” (played by Hulk Hogan) battles the “Italian Stallion” Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) in what is ostensibly an exhibition match pitting wrestler against boxer. Before the fight, Hogan’s character, who later goes berserk and throws Rocky out of the ring, describes the billing as “The ultimate male versus the ultimate meatball.” I thought about that this week when I heard that Donald Trump, who also postures himself as “the ultimate male,” described Ron DeSantis as “Meatball Ron.” Just as Stallone circled the ring, throwing perfunctory jabs before Hogan slammed him to the ground, we are now in the “circling the ring” stages of a heavyweight throwdown between Trump and DeSantis. It’s about to get ugly. Remember Donald Trump was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013. 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