White House Communications Director Steve Cheungexploded with rage over a report detailing what Donald Trump's closest associates have privately said about the president's intellectual capabilities — revealing a toxic dynamic that has defined Trump's political career.
According to the Daily Beast, former Trump biographer Michael Wolff recalled conversations with Trump allies who openly questioned his mental faculties.
Wolff, granted unprecedented access to the chaotic opening months of Trump's first administration, recounted a pivotal conversation with Sam Nunberg, a longtime Trump confidant and early political adviser known as the "Trump whisperer."
"I remember Sam looked at me and he said, 'You don't get it, do you?' And I was like, 'Tell me.' And he said, 'He's an idiot,'" Wolff recounted.
Nunberg, 44, attempted damage control when confronted with Wolff's recollection, telling the Daily Beast: "That was a long time ago and President Trump has certainly proved me wrong by getting [re-elected] in 2024."
But Nunberg wasn't alone in his private assessment. Steve Bannon, another senior Trump adviser and a key source for Wolff's explosive 2018 tell-all "Fire and Fury," held an identical view, according to Wolff. Bannon "absolutely" believed Trump was an "idiot."
Bannon offered a psychological explanation for Trump's stubborn resistance to expert input, linking it to deep-seated problems rooted in his school years.
"[Bannon] would say it was not only that Trump had problems with school—that he was a lackluster student—but he was so lackluster that he was always rebelling against school, so that his entire life after school then became resistant to anyone telling him anything, anyone suggesting that they had more expertise than he did," Wolff said.
"School was not only a bad experience for him, but it became the experience that made him reject all further learning," Wolff added.
When asked for comment, Cheung responded with characteristic venom, attacking Wolff rather than addressing the substance of the allegations.
"Michael Wolff is a lying sack ... and has been proven to be a fraud. He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain," Cheung complained.