President Donald Trump has launched fresh attacks on House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and conservative podcaster Candace Owens, branding them as “Low IQ” individuals. In a post on Truth Social on Friday evening, Trump wrote that Owens’ “stock, which was never very high, has fallen a long way” and called her “an extremely Low IQ individual.” He also criticised her for targeting France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron, with unsubstantiated claims that she is secretly transgender—allegations that have prompted a defamation lawsuit from the Macrons.
Seven minutes later, Trump turned his attention to Jeffries, whom he had previously derided as a “low IQ person” on Tuesday. The president wrote: “Hakeem ‘High Tax’ Jeffries is a Low IQ individual who is not smart enough to be ‘running’ the Democrat Party, and certainly not smart enough to be involved in running the United States of America.” He added that Jeffries would “forever be known as HIGH TAX.”
Trump routinely uses the “low IQ” label against opponents of all racial backgrounds, but has most often applied it to minority figures, including Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Representative Jasmine Crockett, Representative Maxine Waters, and former Vice President Kamala Harris. Karrin Vasby Anderson, a communications professor at Colorado State University, described the characterisation as “a racist dog whistle with a long history in the U.S.”
Both Jeffries and Owens, despite being on opposite sides of the political spectrum, have frequently criticised Trump. Owens, who endorsed Trump in 2024, recently accused him of being unable to “put together a coherent thought.” Jeffries has branded Trump a “wannabe king” and a “disaster for the economy.” When asked about the “Low IQ” remark, Jeffries responded: “It's extraordinary to me that Donald Trump keeps recycling [these] low IQ insults. This is from the dumbest president ever.”
