WHOEVER CAME UP WITH TRUMP'S LATEST NICKNAME INSULT JUST MADE LIFE VERY DIFFICULT FOR HIM

Donald Trump is said be a brilliantly caustic nicknamer, but if he was good at this in the past, he's been off his game lately. ("Sleepy Joe" Biden? "SleepyCreepy Joe"? Will it be "SleepyCreepyWeepyPeepyLeapy Joe" next?)

Give Trump a little credit, though -- this is a new direction for him:

President Donald Trump dismissed Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg on Friday in a single sentence.

“Alfred E. Neuman cannot become president of the United States,” the president told POLITICO in a 15-minute telephone interview, when asked what he thought of the South Bend, Ind., mayor. Neuman’s freckled, gap-toothed face and oversized ears have for decades graced the cover of the humor magazine Mad.

Trump on Buttigieg to @politico: “Alfred E. Neuman cannot become president of the United States." (I don’t know... do you see it?) https://t.co/i7s2X2gNoT pic.twitter.com/NDBNtSNGLx

— Ed O'Keefe (@edokeefe) May 11, 2019

Buttigieg trolled Trump back, subtly:

"I’ll be honest. I had to Google that," he said. "I guess it’s just a generational thing. I didn’t get the reference. It's kind of funny, I guess. But he’s also the president of the United States and I’m surprised he’s not spending more time trying to salvage this China deal."

Did Trump come up with this nickname himself? As I say, he's not very sharp these days. I think it was fed to him by a fellow senior citizen. (Giuliani?)

But here's the problem for Trump: If he wants to use the nickname again, especially in one of his campaign rallies, he'll have to remember it. It's Alfred E. Neuman. That's three elements. For Trump, that's a lot of memorization.

It's easy for me to imagine Trump saying to a crowd, "And then there's Mayor Pete -- or as I call him, Andrew F. Neuman."

Or he'll do that thing he does when he can't remember someone's surname:

Trump just called Apple CEO Tim Cook “Tim Apple” pic.twitter.com/gTHHtjWvc9

— Sean O'Kane (@sokane1) March 6, 2019

So maybe he'll say, "Mayor Pete -- the guy I call Alfred E. Mad."

There are so many ways he could mangle this:

President Trump plays "Name That Person!" pic.twitter.com/H38cZ8QqQz

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) January 30, 2019

No wonder they told him to test it out in a telephone interview. They knew he might flub it if he weren't reading it off a note card. He won't be so lucky if he tries it in front of a crowd.