'Idiot,' 'Dope,' 'Moron': How Trump�s aides have insulted the boss

�Fear: Trump in the White House,� by Bob Woodward, is the latest book to
detail chaos in the president�s immediate orbit. Excerpts were published
Tuesday and immediately brought to mind several disparaging comments that
Trump�s staff is reported to have made about the commander in chief:

� Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Trump had the understanding of �a
fifth- or sixth-grader,� according to accounts of Woodward�s book that
were published by The Washington Post. The comments came after a National
Security Council meeting on Jan. 19 in which Trump questioned why the
government was using resources to maintain a U.S. military presence on
the Korean Peninsula. Mattis told Trump that presence was necessary �in
order to prevent World War III.�

� White House chief of staff John Kelly called Trump �an idiot� and said
he thought the president was �unhinged,� The Post also reported.NBC News
first reported in May that Kelly had referred to the president as an
idiot multiple times, in addition to making several remarks �insulting
the president�s intelligence and casting himself as the savior of the
country.� Kelly has denied that he ever called Trump an idiot.

� Omarosa Manigault Newman, who was the highest-ranking African-American
staffer in the West Wing, claimed in a book published earlier this summer
that Trump is a �racist, misogynist and bigot.� In her book, �Unhinged,�
Manigault Newman said she witnessed Trump use racial epithets while
describing presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway�s husband, George
Conway, who is half Filipino.

� Earlier this year, Michael Wolff detailed in his book �Fire and Fury�
that a number of individuals in the Trump administration insulted the
president�s intelligence. Both Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and
former chief of staff Reince Priebus called Trump an �idiot,� Wolff
wrote. Former economic adviser Gary Cohn said Trump was �dumb as shit,�
and former national security adviser H.R. McMaster said the president was
a �dope,� according to the book.

� Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon said in November 2017
that Trump was �like an 11-year-old child,� according toVanity Fair. He
also said that Trump had �lost his step.� Bannon had left the White House
in August 2017.

� Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in July 2017 called Trump a
�moron,�NBC News reported. The comments came after Tillerson had a
meeting at the Pentagon with members of the White House national security
team and Cabinet officials.

� At a dinner in July 2017, McMaster mocked Trump, also calling him an
�idiot,�BuzzFeed News reported. At the dinner, which was with Oracle CEO
Safra Catz, McMaster also said Trump was a �dope� with the intelligence
of a �kindergartner,� according to that report.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/04/trumps-insults-idiot-woodward-
806455