backhanded compliment

Overturning Roe was one of the few campaign promises Trump kept during his administration, Buttigieg said — the ultimate backhanded compliment.

We all know what their backhanded compliment is coded to mean!

"I've been told that 'I'm one of the good ones' from the Lebanese community - a backhanded compliment that suggests that the rest of my community isn't good."

When Karl balks, she delivers a wicked backhanded compliment, saying: “You’re a corporate legend. What you did in the ’90s, with cable?

He viewed the comment as a backhanded compliment, and remembered thinking, “I wouldn’t even know how to write songs for a musical.”