President Donald Trump heaped insults on a longtime nemesis after the individual announced his retirement from Congress.
The president has sparred with Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) since the 1980s, first clashing over Manhattan development projects, and especially during his first term, when the veteran lawmaker helmed articles of impeachment through the House Judiciary Committee, and Trump laid into him in a Friday morning social media post.
"Jerry Nadler, one of the most disgusting Congressmen in USA History is, at long last, calling it 'quits' – He’s finally leaving Congress!" Trump posted on Truth Social at 6:15 a.m. EST. "I’ve been beating this bum for 40 years, first as a New York City developer, where he opposed me, for no reason, at every corner, but could NEVER stop me from getting the job done, and then, as your President, where this psychopathic nut job, together with Crazy Nancy Pelosi, Impeached me twice, AND LOST, wasting Millions of Dollars in time and taxpayer money."
Trump was ultimately impeached by the Democratic-led House in December 2019 over his Ukraine extortion scheme, but a Republican-led Senate declined to convict and remove him, and he was later impeached a second time over his role in fomenting the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, but a majority GOP Senate also declined to convict him and bar him from holding office in the future.
"It will be a great day for the U.S.A. when Nadler, a pathetic lightweight, is out of office and leaves our beautiful, and NOW VERY SAFE, Washington, D.C. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" Trump posted, adding his signature "President DJT" as a flourish at the end.
After announcing he would not seek re-election next year, opening up his seat in the heart of Manhattan for the first time in 34 years, the 78-year-old Nadler described Trump as an existential threat to our democracy.
“I am not terribly optimistic, I wish I could be,” Nadler said. “But this is the most severe threat we’ve had to our system of government since the Civil War, and unfortunately Abraham Lincoln is not the president.”