Trump had a new offensive nickname for Biden. Staffers begged him not to use it

Ever since his political career began, Donald Trump has been passing out nicknames like a fifth-grade bully: .

There's actually a list on Wikipedia.

The ex-president — who has referred to Joe Biden, who beat him in the 2020 election , as Sleepy Joe, Slow Joe, Crooked Joe — had a new label for the president back in June, according to The Atlantic , in a report released on Saturday:

"The guy's a retard. He's retarded. I think that's what I'll start calling him," Trump declared aboard his campaign plane, en route to a rally that evening, according to three people who heard him make the remarks: "Retarded Joe Biden."

The staffers present — and, within hours, others who'd heard about the epithet secondhand — pleaded with Trump not to say this publicly. They warned him that it would antagonize the moderate voters who'd been breaking in their direction, while engendering sympathy for a politician who, at that moment, was the subject of widespread ridicule. As Trump demurred, musing that he might debut the nickname at that night's event, his staffers puzzled over the timing. Biden was on the ropes. Polls showed Trump jumping out to the biggest lead he'd enjoyed in any of his three campaigns for the presidency. Everything was going right for the Republican Party and its nominee. Why would he jeopardize that for the sake of slinging a juvenile insult? (A campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, said the nickname "was never discussed and this is materially false.")

Trump never used the nickname in public, and, of course, the election has turned since June , and Trump now finds himself trailing in most polls to Vice President Kamala Harris , who jumped into the race, with Biden's endorsement, when the president withdrew in July.

More from The Atlantic:

Maybe that's why Trump is unraveling as election day nears on Tuesday. He has threatened his political opponents , including fantasizing about having former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney shot ; staged a hate-filled rally at Madison Square Garden that insulted Latinos, Blacks, Jews and others; and most recently pantomimed performing oral sex on his microphone at a rally in Milwaukee.

And finally from the piece:

N.J. town could be the newest to allow weed sales if voters approve referendum

Why did Donald Trump simulate oral sex with his microphone at Milwaukee rally?

How is N.J. coping with election anxiety? Tuning out, calming down — even stocking up on weed

Friendly Fire: Adieu to the Star-Ledger, Bramnick's courage, and the great garbage debate

A lawman's change of heart?