President Donald Trump has singled out House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and conservative podcaster Candace Owens as “Low IQ” in his latest attacks against prominent people of color.
Trump's Remarks on Truth Social
“Candace Owens’ stock, which was never very high, has fallen a long way,” the president wrote on Truth Social on Friday evening. “I believe, in this case, without verification, she is an extremely Low IQ individual!”
He further slammed Owens for targeting France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron. The podcaster has repeatedly, and without evidence, claimed Macron is secretly transgender — allegations that prompted an unprecedented defamation lawsuit from her and husband President Emmanuel Macron.
In the post, Trump shared a doctored image portraying Owens as Time magazine’s “Vile Person of the Year,” accompanied by taglines accusing her of “using rich white men” and protecting “sex offenders.”
Attack on Hakeem Jeffries
Seven minutes later, he turned his attention to Jeffries — who he previously derided as a “low IQ person” on Tuesday.
“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,” the 79-year-old Republican president wrote.
“It’s people like this who almost destroyed our Nation with their High Tax, Open Border Policies,” he continued. “In the future, Hakeem, a fine American name, will forever be known as HIGH TAX!”
Pattern of 'Low IQ' Insults
The president routinely labels opponents and critics of all racial backgrounds as “low IQ” — a term he also used this month to describe Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly. Yet he has most often applied it to minority figures, including Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, Rep. Maxine Waters and former Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Trump's characterization of people of color as 'low IQ' is a racist dog whistle with a long history in the U.S.,” Karrin Vasby Anderson, a communications professor at Colorado State University, told the AFP.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, previously observed that the president uses the term liberally and across racial lines. “It’s just who Donald Trump is,” he said. “But you know, he calls other people that, too.” Trump has often insisted that he is the “least racist” president. In 2017, he told an interviewer: “The first thing they do, with the Republicans or conservatives, is the racist card. They pull out the racist card. They always do that, not just me. They do it with everybody.”
White House Response
In February, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt lashed out at reporters who she said falsely “smeared” the president as a bigot. Her response came after Trump posted a video depicting the Obamas as primates, which drew bipartisan condemnation. Trump claimed he did not see that part of the video, which occurred at the very end, and it was later taken down.
According to a YouGov poll conducted the same month, 47 percent of Americans said they would use the term racist to describe Trump, while 24 percent said they would not and 29 percent expressed no opinion.
Reactions from Jeffries and Owens
Both Jeffries and Owens — who hail from opposite sides of the political spectrum — routinely lambaste the president, including over the Iran war. Earlier this month, Owens, who endorsed Trump in 2024, accused him of being unable to “put together a coherent thought,” declaring that “MAGA is no longer committed to you — and you know it.”
Jeffries, the highest ranking Democrat in the House, has branded Trump a “wannabe king,” labeled him a “disaster for the economy” and denounced the Iran war as “reckless.”
When asked about the president’s “Low IQ” remark on Thursday, Jeffries said: “It's extraordinary to me that Donald Trump keeps recycling [these] low IQ insults. This is from the dumbest president ever.”
