Donald Trump has brutally ridiculed Gavin Newsom’s dyslexia — calling him unfit to be president due to his “learning disability” and “low IQ.”
“Honestly I’m all for people with learning disabilities, but not for my president. The president should not have learning disabilities, okay?” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday.
“I know it’s highly controversial to say such a horrible thing. The president of the United States, Gavin Newscum, admitted he has learning disabilities, dyslexia, everything about him is dumb,” he added, using a derogatory nickname for Newsom.
In response, Newsom mocked Trump for mistakenly referring to him as the “president of the United States.”
“NO THANK YOU, WE BELIEVE IN FAIR ELECTIONS!” Newsom wrote on X.
The California governor has publicly discussed his dyslexia diagnosis, writing about his struggles with the condition in his memoir, “Young Man in a Hurry.”
The neurodevelopmental condition, which can affect reading and spelling, caused him to doubt himself when he was younger, the governor writes in his book.
But it also afforded him “secret powers,” such as an ability to easily memorize facts and figures, he claims.
“I could read a room with the best of them. I’d walk in and immediately size up the faces, mood, and manners. On the spot, if pressured, I was able to come up with new talking points and one-liners,” Newsom writes.
The governor revealed that his school years were tortuous as he struggled with reading unaware of his diagnosis, leading his mother to once tell him, “It’s okay to be average.”
Trump’s comments echo insults he lobbed at Newsom last week, accusing him of having “mental problems” at an event in Kentucky.
“He’s unable to read a speech, he can’t read, and all of the other things he said. He said he has a lot of mental problems,” Trump said.”
“Grandpa’s talking about himself again. We wish him well — it’s never too late to seek mental treatment,” Newsom’s office hit back on X.
Trump also referred to Newsom’s SAT score, echoing critics who lambasted him as “racist” for quoting his 960 score to the black mayor of Atlanta, Andre Dickens, in a recent interview.
“I’ll tell you this, I think it was the worst interview I’ve ever seen of any human being,” Trump said.
