Trump attacks Newsom again for having dyslexia, says it disqualifies him from being president

WASHINGTON— President Trump once again mocked Gov. Gavin Newsom’s dyslexia as “disqualifying” for leadership; This marks at least the fourth time in a week that the president has targeted the California Democrat for being open about his diagnosis.

In a speech in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said Newsom was “stupid” and should never have been allowed to become president “because he admits he has a learning disability and dyslexia.”

“This is how crazy things get with a low IQ person,” Trump said. “To be honest, I’m for people with learning disabilities, but I’m not for my president… And I know it’s extremely controversial to say something that terrible.”

But during the jab, Trump mistakenly elevated his political rival to the rank of commander in chief and repeatedly referred to Newsom as “the president of the United States.” Newsom seized the opportunity to turn the tables on the president.

“I AM GAVIN C. NEWSOM, OFFICIAL PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (THANK YOU DONALD!),” he wrote on Monday X.

The confrontation marked the latest in a chest-beating contest between Trump and Newsom, who have made a sport of badmouthing each other at campaign rallies, interviews and on social media.

While the president has frequently portrayed Newsom as a symbol of the liberal administration he opposes, the governor has also leaned into the conflicts, often using them to raise his national profile and position himself as Democrats’ leading counterweight. His spat with the president appears to be part of an aggressive strategy to amplify his own messaging as he considers his potential to run for president in 2028. Newsom used this time in the spotlight to support youth with dyslexia.

“To every child with a learning disability: Don’t let anyone bully you, not even the President of the United States.” Newsom wrote about X. “Dyslexia is not a weakness, it is your strength.”

The insults first emerged when a video of Newsom speaking at a meeting went viral. book tour view He discussed his lifelong struggle with learning disabilities with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens. Since then, the president has repeatedly poked at the vulnerability.

Trump brought up the governor’s dyslexia at least four times last week. He mentioned this at a political rally in Kentucky last week, where he equated dyslexia with a “lack of mental ability,” and again in a Fox News Radio interview on Friday, reiterating that “presidents cannot have a learning disability.” In a post on Truth Social, Trump labeled Newsom’s confession a “politically suicidal act” and called him “stupid” and “A Cognitive Confusion!” He described it as.

After the Kentucky rally, Newsom responded to Trump.

“I talked about my dyslexia, I know that’s hard for a brain-dead idiot who bombs children and protects pedophiles to understand,” he said.

According to the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity, dyslexia affects 20% of the population. Dyslexia researcher Dr. from Cambridge University. Despite affecting such a large proportion of the population, the condition is widely misunderstood, according to Helen Taylor.

“In some ways, Trump’s egregious comments are a cruder version of assumptions already embedded in our culture,” he said. “If anything happens, [it’s] quite the opposite. “There is evidence that people with dyslexia are over-represented in leadership roles in business.”

According to Taylor, there is a connection between dyslexia and “enhanced abilities” in areas such as exploration, invention and creativity.

“The same cognitive trade-offs that can make routine tasks like reading more difficult support strengths in handling complexity and moving groups toward better outcomes in the future,” he said.

Newsom often describes his early experiences with dyslexia while growing up as a source of insecurity. The governor writes in his memoirs that his mother, Tessa Newsom, tried to help him with his homework. The lessons ended with her “running out of the room screaming in my brain that I didn’t know what was wrong.”

In the 1970s, when Newsom was a child, dyslexia was recognized but still not fully understood. He remembers a day when his mother was so worried that she took a deep breath and told him, “It’s okay to be average, Gavin.”

“I realized then that this, too, was because of his deep love for me,” Newsom writes in his book “Young Man in a Hurry.” “But I don’t remember a more cruel thing being said about me.”

Challenges arising from his learning disability continue in his work at the State Capitol. Newsom finds it difficult to read a teleprompter. Aides describe days of painstaking preparations before big speeches to live audiences. Late edits to a speech and resulting changes to the words on the screen create the danger of disrupting speech.

All memos in the governor’s office are written in 12-point Century Gothic font with regular spacing between lines, a format that aides say helps with his disability.

The governor reads his daily briefings several times in the morning, underlining sentences and writing notes to preserve information on the yellow cards he keeps in his suit pocket.

He said the ritual helped him compensate for his dyslexia and feel confident when communicating. But it also reinforces the public perception of Newsom as a smooth-talking and at times rehearsed politician. His extreme preparation became a trait he considered a “superpower”.

His effort to thoroughly absorb reading material and his desire to understand topics before speaking means he is generally well prepared. According to her, the learning disability revealed her courage and resilience and helped her develop other skills, such as quickly reading a crowd.

It also strengthened his memory.

At a press conference announcing the 2020 budget proposal, a reporter asked the governor what he would do to address the 500,000 housing units approved but not built by developers in California.

Newsom wasted no time in directing the journalist to the page addressing the issue in his 246-page budget.

“Although people with dyslexia may be slow readers, paradoxically, they are often very fast and creative thinkers with strong reasoning abilities,” according to the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity.

The governor’s wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, discussed the president’s attacks on Tuesday In a video on X here he emphasized that “learning differences do not determine someone’s potential.” He listed a number of qualities he considered disqualifying for the presidency; these included being a convicted felon, bankrupting businesses, having multiple relationships with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and sending “masked extremists to terrorize Black and brown communities and tear children away from their families.”

“Everything that Donald Trump stands for is clearly beyond disqualifying,” he said. “Every day, Trump says things that make him unfit for office. He demeans our vulnerable communities, our institutions, and even the Constitution itself.”

Two of the Newsom family’s four children were also diagnosed with dyslexia.

Quinton reported from Washington, DC: And Luna from Sacramento.