Former President Donald Trump has evidently had enough of the “weird” label that Democrats have used in recent weeks to attack both him and running mate JD Vance, seeking to put it back on his opponents in an interview.

What You Need To Know

  • Former President Donald Trump is attempting to hit Democrats back on the "weird" insult they've lobbed at him and running mate JD Vance in recent weeks

  • “They’re the weird ones,” Trump said in an interview this week. “Nobody’s ever called me weird. I’m a lot of things, but weird I’m not.”

  • Democrats have used the "weird" label emphatically in interviews and on social media recently, particularly as they try to characterize Vance's stances on abortion and women and families without children

  • Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is credited with coining the phrase as an insult for Trump and Vance last week; since then, Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrats have adopted that line of argument as Vance’s previous comments about “childless cat ladies” and his belief that Americans with children should have more voting power than those without have gained newfound attention

“They’re the weird ones,” Trump said on “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show” this week. “And if you've ever seen her [Harris] with the laugh and everything else, that's a weird deal going on there. They're the weird ones."

"Nobody’s ever called me weird. I’m a lot of things, but weird I’m not, and I'm upfront," he continued."

“And he’s not either, I will tell you” Trump said of his newly minted running mate. “JD is not at all. They are.”

Democrats have used the "weird" label emphatically in interviews and on social media recently, particularly as they try to characterize Vance's stances on abortion and women and families without children.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a progressive darling and a potential running mate pick for Vice President Kamala Harris, is credited with coining the phrase to describe Trump and Vance, calling them "just weird" in a recent interview on MSNBC.

“Listen to the guy. He's talking about Hannibal Lecter and shocking sharks and just whatever crazy thing pops into his mind,” Walz said of Trump on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Have you ever seen the guy laugh? That seems very weird to me, that an adult can go through six and a half years of being in the public eye — if he has laughed, it's at someone, not with someone — that is weird behavior, and I don't think you call it anything else.”

Walz made waves last week when he said of Republicans in another TV appearance “these guys are just weird” and that Trump and Vance seem like they are running for “He-Man Women Haters Club” of “The Little Rascals” fame.

Since then, Harris and Democrats have adopted that line of argument as Vance’s previous comments about “childless cat ladies” and his belief that Americans with children should have more voting power than those without have gained newfound attention.

"Donald Trump has been resorting to some wild lies about my record, and some of what he and his running mate are saying, it’s just plain weird," Harris, the leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, said at a fundraiser in Massachusetts last weekend.

Since then, it's caught on like wildfire among Democrats. "They’re just weird," said Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday; Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called Vance "weird" and "erratic" on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday; a statement from Harris' campaign responding to a recent Fox News interview with Trump called the ex-president "old and quite weird"; and Pete Buttigieg, the Transportation Secretary and another Harris VP hopeful, said Trump is "clearly older and stranger than he was when America first got to know him" on "Fox News Sunday."

Trump accused the "weird" label of being a "soundbite," adding: "And the press picks it up ... the evening news, every one of ‘em’s talking, they introduce the word ‘weird,’ and all of the sudden they’re talking about 'weird.'"

He also accused Democrats of having "weird" policies on immigration, the economy and transgender rights. "The whole thing is weird, and the way they do elections is weird. And they’re the weird ones."

Vance, for his part, told Fox News earlier this week that the label "doesn’t hurt my feelings" with a laugh, calling it "the price of admission" in American politics.