President Donald Trump has repeatedly taken aim at Democratic rival and possible 2028 presidential candidate Gavin Newsom. But recently, he has become obsessed with saying that the California governor cannot serve as president because of a “learning disability.”
Newsom has been vocal about his struggle with dyslexia.
“You know, we have a man with a low IQ because Gavin Newsom admitted he has a learning disability,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. “Honestly, I’m all for people with learning disabilities, but not my president. I don’t wish I thought the president shouldn’t have a learning disability, well, I know it’s very controversial to say such a horrible thing.”
“Everything about him is stupid,” Trump later added. This is at least the fourth time in less than a week that he has made comments about Newsom having a “learning disability.”
Trump and Newsom have repeatedly sparred over the years over a range of issues, including Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles to assist federal immigration enforcement and Newsom’s handling of the California wildfires. But Trump’s comments marked a new phase in an already tense relationship.
Trump first mentioned Newsom’s dyslexia during a speech in Kentucky last week, telling supporters that Newsom “admits he has mental issues,” before suggesting his dyslexia disqualified him from running for president. Newsom’s press office quickly responded that “Grandpa is talking about himself again” and encouraged him to “seek psychiatric help.”
Trump has since repeated those remarks at least three times, including on social media, in an interview with Fox News Radio and again on Monday when he signed executive actions.
Newsom also responded to Trump’s social media posts last week, hitting back at X, “I talked about my dyslexia. I know that’s hard for a brain-dead idiot who bombards children and protects pedophiles to understand.”
Newsom wrote in his memoir “A Young Man in a Hurry,” released last month, that he struggled academically as a child and was eventually diagnosed with dyslexia. In a February interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, Newsom described his dyslexia as a “superpower.”
“In hindsight, it was the greatest thing that ever happened to me,” Newsom said. “I mean, I have the freedom of not having to be tied to the written word and the freedom of having to work harder and do more reps behind the scenes. I’m doing — if you think you’re hard, trust me, I’m two to three times as hard.”
“It turned out to be a blessing, and politically it was a huge blessing,” he added.
Trump had previously been criticized for mocking a disabled reporter during his first presidential campaign in 2015.
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