The Emperor of Insult

The only Trump talent is to insult others, and particularly his opponents. We’ve all heard him calling Biden “Sleepy Joe”, Sanders “Crazy Bernie”, Clinton “Crooked Hillary”, Pelosi “Nervous Nancy”, etc.

If I were the victim of his name-calling mania, my gut reaction would be to find one that fits the man and his crime, but most smart people say not to give energy to the other side by responding to the author of the insult as it’s not worth to expand energy into a style of communication we don’t believe in.

Being insulted is certainly not pleasant, but it quickly become dependent on how we react. If the person attacked takes the bait, Trump wins.

Under other circumstances, and insult style, there might be an an opening, exemplified by former Defense Secretary James Mattis who was qualified as “overrated” by Trump: "I’m not just an overrated general. I am the greatest, the world's most overrated general," Mattis said during a speech at the white-tie Al Smith Dinner. "I'm honored to be considered that by Donald Trump because he also called Meryl Streep an overrated actress. So I guess I'm the Meryl Streep of generals, and frankly, that sounds pretty good to me. And you do have to admit that, between me and Meryl, at least we’ve had some victories.”

Mattis doesn’t have to defend his record because it speaks for itself and this enabled him to ridicule Trump’s nasty attack...