It’s official. MAGA’s fondest, weirdest, most psychiatrically troubling nickname for the movement’s supreme leader appears to have finally and immovably stuck.
“We’ve got the Europeans to pony up on their NATO dues and everybody’s calling Trump ‘daddy,’” Fox News host Jesse Watters proudly proclaimed.
A few hours earlier, the Daily Beast received an email from one reader criticising a report about flaws in the design of the president’s East Wing ballroom. “DADDY HAS EXQUISITE- DECORATING-TASTE AND YOUR TRUMP-DERANGEMENT-SYNDROME (TDS) IS JUST ALL-TOO- BEAUTIFUL,” the message read.
At rallies, on social media, and even on merchandise, “Daddy” has increasingly become a favored term of endearment among the MAGA leader’s most loyal fans.
It was far-right pundit and noted conspiracy theorist Tucker Carlson who first helped popularize the term in October 2024 with a speech at a rally in Duluth, Georgia. “Dad comes home. He’s p—ed,” Carlson bizarrely told the crowd of how Trump would behave if elected to the White House a second time.
“You’ve been a bad girl, you’re getting a vigorous spanking right now,” he added of how the president would treat his opponents upon assuming office. The audience erupted, chanting “Daddy’s home!” as Trump later took the stage.
The president himself has leaned heavily into the nickname. At a June summit this year at The Hague, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte joked, “Daddy has to sometimes use strong language to get them to stop.”
Delighted, Trump later told reporters, “He likes me. He said it very affectionately. ‘Daddy, you’re my daddy.’” The following day, the White House shared a video of snippets from the summit set to R&B artist Usher’s song Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home). The clip swiftly went viral.
Not everyone is amused. Critics say the nickname reflects a cult of personality within the MAGA base.
Comparisons have been made to similar fatherly monikers assumed by despots Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Kim Il Sung, Mao Zedong, Francisco Franco, Nicolae Ceausescu, Muammar Gaddafi, Fidel Castro, and Saddam Hussein.
Deliberately or not, the term also carries explicit sexual overtones, echoing terms often used for men who assume dominant roles in the BDSM community. The Washington Post has previously described it as “a mix of admiration, irony, and kink.”
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