Olympic troll-off as Trump gives Pete Buttigieg a new nickname

By J.E. Dyer
Olympic troll-off as Trump gives Pete Buttigieg a new nickname
Via Twitter

President Trump gave Politico a brief interview on Friday, and while he did say other things, the main thing anyone heard in the blah blah blah was “Pete Buttigieg” and “Alfred E. Neuman.”

This was probably because Politico titled the piece “Trump’s new nickname for Pete Buttigieg: ‘Alfred E. Neuman.’”

The exchange with Trump on Buttigieg was brief, but epic.

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

President Donald Trump dismissed Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg on Friday in a single sentence.

“Alfred E. Neuman cannot become president of the United States,” the president told POLITICO in a 15-minute telephone interview, when asked what he thought of the South Bend, Ind., mayor.

A million tweets were launched.  Politico went on to add helpful context:

Neuman’s freckled, gap-toothed face and oversized ears have for decades graced the cover of the humor magazine Mad.

Politico may have felt that was necessary because Mayor Buttigieg, advised of this new designation, essayed the counter-troll on this wise.

Asked about Trump’s put-down by POLITICO in San Francisco on Friday, the 37-year-old Buttigieg professed ignorance about the comic book character, whose fame peaked more than 20 years ago, while making a veiled reference to the 72-year-old Trump’s seniority.

“I’ll be honest. I had to Google that,” he said. “I guess it’s just a generational thing. I didn’t get the reference. It’s kind of funny, I guess. But he’s also the president of the United States and I’m surprised he’s not spending more time trying to salvage this China deal.”

Granted, it’s hard to come up with a really witty troll on short notice.  He did all right.  We award Mayor Pete the silver medal in this case.  (We’re overruling the East German judge on that one.)

Some opinion commentators didn’t bear up quite as well.

Some media were hopelessly outclassed.

A number of journalists weighed in for the purpose of pointedly weighing out.

There was a bit of peevishness.

And, of course, the obligatory spurious fact-check.

All went according to the script for hours.  At random, Dr. Sebastian Gorka showed up to wonder a few things.

Then the Bad and Dangerous to Know contingent finally arrived.

And we had our gold medalist at last.

J.E. Dyer

J.E. Dyer

J.E. Dyer is a retired Naval Intelligence officer who lives in Southern California, blogging as The Optimistic Conservative for domestic tranquility and world peace. Her articles have appeared at Hot Air, Commentary’s Contentions, Patheos, The Daily Caller, The Jewish Press, and The Weekly Standard.

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