Now is it Kamala or Harris?

ELECTIONEERING: TRUMP'S NAME GAME AIMS FOR CHEAP SHOTS AT THE VICE-PRESIDENT

What's in a name? For Kamala Harris, it's a way to assert her own authority, implicitly celebrate her identity, and blunt attacks by her White House rival, Donald Trump.

The former Republican president persists in calling Harris by her first name at his rallies - a contrast to how he referred to the former Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, either as "Biden" or sometimes "Sleepy Joe".

The 78-year-old billionaire also makes a point of mispronouncing "Kamala", telling a rally at the end of July that there were numerous ways of saying her name.

"I said, don't worry about it. It doesn't matter what I say. I couldn't care less if I mispronounce it," he continued.

On the surface, it's just another attack by a politician famous for his belittling nicknames.

But when it comes to a woman and a person of color, Trump's insistence on referring to Harris by her first name - and mangling it - takes on a more insidious tone.

"Calling women leaders by their first name is often done to undercut their authority," says Karrin Vasby Anderson, a professor of communications at Colorado State University.

As for the pronunciation, some believe Trump is attempting to "other" Harris - and remind his supporters that her father was from Jamaica and her mother emigrated from India.