First posted on Instagram
Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed called President Donald Trump "an idiot" and "just a fool" during an interview with comedian Hasan Minhaj, arguing that the president's success at commanding attention should not be mistaken for intelligence or competence.
"We are being actively bullied by the dumbest people in the room. Donald Trump is an idiot," El-Sayed told Minhaj, according to the interview clip and reports of the conversation.
El-Sayed acknowledged that Trump possesses one particular political talent: an extraordinary ability to command public attention. "Whatever you think about him, he has one genius, which is the genius of getting attention, which is because, you know, his dad never gave him enough," he said.
"And so he, because he was a nepo baby, because he had resources, realized quickly that he just craved attention and then used the bullying tactics that he uses right now to get it," El-Sayed continued. "But the man is an idiot. I mean, just when it comes down to it, like just a fool."
El-Sayed, a physician and former public health official, also criticised Vice President JD Vance's character and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's leadership during the same interview, arguing that some of the most powerful people in Washington rely on bullying and intimidation to compensate for their own weaknesses. Of Vance, he said the vice president has "no actual soul."
The remarks were El-Sayed's personal assessment of the president, not an objective finding about Trump's intelligence or motivations. El-Sayed is running against Republican Mike Rogers for Michigan's U.S. Senate seat in the November 3 midterm elections.