Politics

Trump Dubs Buttigieg ‘Alfred E. Neuman’

Virginia Kruta Associate Editor
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President Donald Trump tested out a new nickname for 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg in a Politico interview published Friday.

“Alfred E. Neuman cannot become President of the United States,” Trump said of the South Bend, Indiana mayor, who is currently polling third, behind former Vice President Joe Biden and independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. (RELATED: Pete Buttigieg Says America Was Never That Great)

Alfred E. Neuman is the caricatured face of MAD Magazine, a humor publication that was initially launched in 1952 as a comic book.

Neuman, a cheeky and freckled redhead, made his first appearance on MAD’s cover in 1956 as a write-in candidate for president.

A spokesman for the Indiana mayor, who already goes by his own nickname “Mayor Pete,” did not offer any comment to Politico on Friday, but Buttigieg himself noted earlier in the week, “You can’t get too worried about the name-calling and the games he plays.”

From “Morning Psycho” Joe Scarborough to “Sleepy Joe” Biden, with Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren and others thrown in for good measure, the president certainly does have a penchant for giving out nicknames. And with more than 20 Democrats already in the 2020 presidential primary, it’s reasonable to guess that he might come up with a few more in the coming weeks.

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