Opinion column example

Add fat people to the growing list of people Donald Trump doesn't like.

Who knew?

He first called Mexicans "rapists." Then he associated Muslims with being terrorists. Women have been in his crosshairs for decades.

Now it's fat people.

Twice during the first presidential debate with Hillary Clinton, Donald (may I call you, Donald?) made disparaging remarks about fat people.

He alluded to a 400-pound computer hacker sitting at home getting fatter by the minute. Then came Miss Universe 1996 Alicia Machado who Donald called "Miss Piggy" because she gained weight after winning the pageant.

Machado says she has lived with humiliation, depression and shame for 20 years because of Trump's criticism. It doesn’t matter that she’s gorgeous today and has a Miss Universe title on her resume. She has felt like fat for 20 years because of Trump.

We already knew the groups Donald didn’t like—Mexicans, Muslims, the handicapped, women—so it should come as no surprise there are others such as fat people.

Donald doesn’t dislike everyone. He loves beautiful women, as long as they’re not fat. In fact, he loves beautiful women so much that he feels "compulsively drawn" to kiss them whenever he sees them.

Now Donald’s allowed to dislike anyone he wants. We all are. Everyone has people they don’t like for either logical or very random reasons.

The problem is Donald’s name-calling.

Donald feels like he needs to call everyone a name like we’re all back in third grade. Hillary’s “Crooked Hillary.” Ted Cruz is “Lying Ted.” Sen. Marco Rubio is “Little Marco” and Sen. Elizabeth Warren is “Pocahontas.”

Sadly, the name-calling seems to resonate with the Republican base. Anyone Donald dislikes or disagrees with is belittled and chastised with some tacky moniker Donald slaps on them.

Say something often enough and people start believing it. I guess that’s Donald’s thinking.

The problem with name-calling is that it hurts people and, as in the case of Machado, it leaves scars that makes a beautiful woman feel fat and ugly when she's not.

If Donald gets elected I hope he doesn’t start calling foreign heads of state names. Russian President Vladimir Putin might not like being called “Punky Putin.”

But Donald wouldn’t call Vladimir (may I call you, Vladimir?) names. He likes him. He even admires him.

As long as Vladimir doesn’t get fat.