Donald Trump is a wizard with childish nicknames for his many enemies, but for some reason he’s been shooting blanks when it comes to Ron DeSantis. His first taunt — “Ron DeSanctimonious” — was a bomb, though he’s stubbornly continued to use it anyway. The former president has been reportedly beta testing some new ones, but they’re not so hot either. (Okay, “Tiny D” is kind of good.) He allegedly had a good, albeit legitimately mean, one before: “Meatball Ron.” Alas, Trump has sworn he’ll never use it. Too bad because it has fans even on the left.
John Oliver devoted the most recent episode of Last Week Tonight almost entirely to DeSantis, who he painted as a petty autocrat who wants to tell Floridians — and maybe one day the entire nation — how to comport themselves. He spent part of the segment on Trump’s attempts to goad him, unsuccessfully, into one of his schoolyard fights.
“While Trump initially struggled to coin a damaging nickname for DeSantis, with his first attempt being the embarrassingly weak Ron DeSanctimonious, he later unveiled something with a lot more punch,” Oliver said.
He then brought up “Meatball Ron,” which Trump has denied he ever came up with. That’s a tragedy, according to Oliver.
“I hate to say it, but Trump’s still got it,” Oliver said. “It’s perfectly stupid, childish, and hurtful in a way that’s genuinely difficult to articulate. Also, it’s a pretty good name on its own.”
Oliver spent the majority of his DeSantis segment not discussing Trump, preferring instead to look at him as his own, darker clone of the 45th president, whom he once relied on for support. Trump’s a weird guy, but did he ever have a bizarre dating habit involving mispronouncing a Southeast Asian ethnicity? Because Meatball Ron sure did.
You can watch Oliver’s DeSantis segment above. The bit about Trump’s immature nicknames begins around the three-minute mark.