How Trump is referring to Harris now that she's the presumptive Democratic nominee — and how her campaign is hitting back

Former President Donald Trump said Thursday that he expected Vice President Kamala Harris would eventually become the Democratic nominee after President Biden’s halting performance in last month’s debate.

"I knew there was a palace coup going on, and I assumed that she'd be probably getting it," Trump said in a phone interview on Fox & Friends. "She had the advantage."

This was the Harris campaign’s rapid response

Following the interview, the Harris campaign sent out a statement on what it called "a 78-year-old criminal's Fox News appearance."

“After watching Fox News this morning we only have one question, is Donald Trump ok?” the statement said before listing its takeaways. Among them: “Trump is old and quite weird” and “this guy shouldn’t be president ever again.”

Trump is workshopping his nicknames

At a rally last Saturday, a day before Biden announced his decision to drop out of the race and endorse Harris, Trump riffed on Harris's laugh.

“I call her 'Laughing Kamala,'" Trump said. "You ever watch her laugh? She's crazy. You can tell a lot by a laugh. No, she's crazy. She's nuts."

In the days since, Trump has trotted out other various disparaging nicknames for her — “lyin’” and “crooked,” to name two — and tried painting her as an “ultra-liberal.”

"Kamala Harris has been the ultra-liberal driving force behind every single Biden catastrophe," he said at a rally in Charlotte, N.C., on Wednesday. "So now we have a new victim to defeat, Lyin' Kamala Harris."

But Trump — whose use of nicknames for his political opponents is well documented — has yet to land on a consistent one for Harris, who on Monday said she had secured enough delegate support to be the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

In a fundraising email sent this week by the Trump campaign, the former president referred to Harris as “COMMIE-LA” and falsely claimed the vice president is “serving as the FAKE Commander-in-Chief.”

Then there’s the debate over the debate

In a separate email blast, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, the Republican vice presidential nominee, insisted he is “furious” he won’t get to debate Harris, who he called the “WORST Vice President in this country’s history.”

“Instead, I’ll go up against whomever the Democrat elitists anoint in their smoke-filled back room,” Vance said. “But no matter which far-left radical they trot out to take me on … I will WIPE THE FLOOR with them.”

On Truth Social earlier this week, Trump said he is willing to debate Harris, but suggested the event be hosted by Fox News instead of ABC.

"ABC Fake News is such a joke, among the absolute WORST in the business," Trump wrote in a post that was filled with disparaging nicknames. "They try to make Crooked Joe into a brave warrior because he didn't have the 'guts' to fight it out — He quit! They then tried to make 'Sleepy' look like a great President - he was the WORST, and Lyin' Kamala into a competent person, which she is not. ABC, the home of George Slopadopolus, is not worthy of holding a Debate, of which I hope there will be many! MAGA2024.