Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Mnuchin Defends Trump’s Name-Calling After ‘Low IQ Individual’ Comment

Steve Mnuchin defended Donald Trump’s practice of insulting his opponents — and even people working for him — and giving them derogatory nicknames, Politico reported.

In an appearance on “Meet The Press” on NBC Mnuchin attributed Trump’s name-calling habit to the intensity of campaign rallies. The Treasury secretary’s interview came after Trump called Rep. Maxine Waters “a low IQ individual” at a rally in Pennsylvania.

“I’ve been with the president and at campaigns. You know, he likes to put names on people,” Mnuchin said. “He did that through the entire presidential election, including all of the Republicans that he beat. … These are campaign rally issues.”

Mnuchin was interviewed Sunday by Chuck Todd. At the same rally that Trump insulted Waters, Trump called Todd “a sleeping son of a bitch.”

Contact Ari Feldman on Twitter at @aefeldman or at [email protected]

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.