When US Vice-President Kamala Harris began to be touted as President Joe Biden’s likely successor, Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump and his team wasted little time calling her “laffin’ Kamala Harris” on social media.
Subsequently, at a rally in Michigan on July 20, Trump used a similar formula: “I call her Laughing Kamala. You ever watched her laugh? She’s crazy. You know, you can tell a lot by a laugh. No, she’s crazy. She’s nuts.” The incontinent joy of this woman was, Trump and his people surely wanted to suggest, the mark of her lack of authority, a clear sign of her incompetence.
It is not just Trump and his team who have associated wisdom and authority with gravitas, or the absence of laughter: the link between seriousness and authority has a long history.
