Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly referred to CNN’s openly gay anchor Anderson Cooper by a woman’s name as the Republican presidential nominee looks to appeal to conservative male voters in the final days of the race.
On Friday, on Trump’s social media site Truth Social, the former president called Cooper “Allison Cooper.” Later that day, the former president doubled down on the taunting during a rally in Traverse City, Mich., where he criticized a town hall Cooper hosted with Vice President Kamala Harris.
“If you watched her being interviewed by Allison Cooper the other night, he’s a nice person. You know Allison Cooper? CNN fake news,” Trump said, before taking a beat to add in a mocking voice: “Oh, she said no, his name is Anderson. Oh, no.”
Trump repeated the name during another Michigan rally Saturday, then again at a rally in the battleground state of Pennsylvania that night.
“They had a town hall,” Trump said in Michigan. “Even Allison Cooper was embarrassed by it. He was embarrassed by it.”
The move comes shortly after Trump appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” which is wildly popular among young men. That episode hit a whopping 20 million views on YouTube just 20 hours after it was released on Friday.
As of Monday morning, the episode garnered 33.5 million views. Rogan’s most popular episode ever featured Elon Musk smoking a joint, in 2018. That amassed 69 million views in the years since that viral moment.
For her part, Democratic challenger Harris has been trying to close the gap with male voters and just launched a trove of advertisements in battleground states targeting men.
The new ads began airing during sporting events on Sunday and will continue Monday in Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. One ad will run during the broadcast of the Pittsburgh Steelers game on “Monday Night Football.”
A CNN national poll of likely voters released on Friday found Trump has the support of 51% of men compared with Harris’ 45% support among male voters.
