Subject: NY Times - Donald Trump Shares His Opponent-Branding Secrets
From: "Paustenbach, Mark" <[email-masked]>
To: "Miranda, Luis" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 9 May 2016 12:01:37 -0700

Not everyone can do this. On Friday, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee tried to brand Trump with the name "Dangerous Donald."<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/05/06/we-got-the-list-of-names-for-donald-trump-the-democratic-national-committee-rejected/> Lame effort, in my view (or "sad!" as the Donald would say). Trump could do much better. But after I hung up with Trump, I immediately regretted that I had not thought to ask him an obvious question: What would he call himself? Damn. I keep failing.

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Donald Trump Shares His Opponent-Branding Secrets<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/09/magazine/donald-trump-shares-his-opponent-branding-secrets.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0>

By MARK LEIBOVICH<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/mark_leibovich/index.html>

MAY 9, 2016

Get used to "Crooked Hillary,"<http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/04/16/donald-trump-in-upstate-new-york-tries-another-label-for-hillary-clinton/> for better or worse. That's Donald Trump's comic-book villain name for Hillary Clinton. It's gaining traction on Twitter and in other forums across the virtual schoolyard. Soon it will be chanted at Trump's rallies, painted on posters and deployed as a heckling epithet against the probable Democratic nominee. Trump is confident the name will stick, and he's usually right about these things.

"I feel it, it's an instinct," Trump told me over the phone. He envisions "Crooked Hillary" as the latest triumph in a series, after "Lyin' Ted," "Liddle Marco" and "Low Energy Jeb," the nicknames that he affixed to his vanquished Republican rivals, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush. Trump has a knack for coining just the right moniker, the perfectly dismissive and catchy thing. "It works, it flows," Trump said, admiring his latest work.

It was nice of Trump to talk to me, given that this is The New York Times, or as he calls us on Twitter, the "Failing New York Times." To be more precise, actually, Trump wants me to include that not only is this the "Failing New York Times," but also that the "Failing New York Times" should also be followed by the tagline "one of the most dishonest newspapers anywhere in the world." This was becoming a mouthful, but Trump was not done. "And then I'll go, it's truly one of the great disasters. It's sad what's happened to the Failing New York Times." But again, it was nice of Trump to call.

When I was writing about Trump<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/magazine/donald-trump-is-not-going-anywhere.html> last fall for this magazine (he did not specify whether The Times Magazine was also failing), I asked him if his campaign ever conducted focus groups. His face contracted into a smirk. "I do focus groups," he said, pressing both of his thumbs to the front of his head, "right here." He does not seek suggestions or spitball ideas with his staff, though sometimes he'll test-drive a name at a campaign rally and see how it goes over. If he mentions say, the name Ted Cruz, and a "Lyin' Ted" chant erupts, he smells victory. "The whole place would be going 'Lyin' Ted, Lyin' Ted,' " Trump says, "thousands of people, 25,000 people."

Once an opponent drops out of the race, Trump told me, his or her nickname dies, at least as far as he's concerned. He goes back to using the actual name, although he reserves the right to bring the nickname back if he ever feels disrespected. "With Jeb, I just said he's a low-energy individual, but I don't mind talking about it now," Trump said. "Jeb has said he's not going to the convention. You know, he's just a spoiled guy."

Like Trump himself, these monikers have a tabloid-ready directness. They can feel almost old-fashioned, like the professional wrestling shows of days gone by. (When Trump kept calling Rubio "Little Marco," I kept thinking of"Little Louie.<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9QhGm_PUjM>"<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9QhGm_PUjM>) No deep thought or nuance or hand-wringing goes into his coinages, which should come as no surprise. As he has demonstrated with his mastery of Twitter, punchiness is crucial to the Trump playbook. Spelling counts, however. It was important that "Lyin' Ted" be rendered with an apostrophe (no "G"), and "Liddle Marco" with D's.

"It matters," Trump said of the spellings. "It matters as to the look and feel and touch."

Not everyone can do this. On Friday, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee tried to brand Trump with the name "Dangerous Donald."<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/05/06/we-got-the-list-of-names-for-donald-trump-the-democratic-national-committee-rejected/> Lame effort, in my view (or "sad!" as the Donald would say). Trump could do much better. But after I hung up with Trump, I immediately regretted that I had not thought to ask him an obvious question: What would he call himself? Damn. I keep failing.

Mark Leibovich is the chief national correspondent for the magazine.