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<\/p>\nWASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0President Trump has once again mocked Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s dyslexia as \u201cdisqualifying\u201d for leadership, marking at least the fourth time in a week that the president has targeted the California Democrat for being open about his diagnosis. <\/p>\n
In remarks Monday in the Oval Office, Trump said Newsom was \u201cdumb\u201d and should never be allowed to be president because he has \u201cadmitted that he has learning disabilities, dyslexia.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s how crazy it\u2019s gotten with a low-IQ person,\u201d Trump said. \u201cHonestly, I\u2019m all for people with learning disabilities but not for my president. … And I know it\u2019s highly controversial to say such a horrible thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
But in the course of his needling, Trump mistakenly elevated his political rival to the rank of commander in chief \u2014 repeatedly referring to Newsom as \u201cthe president of the United States.\u201d Newsom took the opportunity to turn the tables on the president.<\/p>\n
\u201cI, GAVIN C. NEWSOM, AM OFFICIALLY PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (THANK YOU DONALD!)\u201d he wrote on X Monday. <\/p>\n
The clash is the latest in a storied contest of chest-beating between Trump and Newsom, who have made sport of bad-mouthing one another across campaign rallies, interviews and social media. <\/p>\n
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A model stealth bomber sits in front of President Trump during an executive order signing in the Oval Office Monday.<\/p>\n
(Aaron Schwartz \/ Bloomberg via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The president has frequently cast Newsom as a symbol of the liberal governance he opposes, while the governor has leaned into the confrontations, often using them to elevate his national profile and position himself as a leading Democratic counterweight. His sparring with the president appears to be part of an aggressive strategy<\/a> to amplify his own messaging as he weighs a potential run for president in 2028. This time, Newsom used the spotlight to support young people with dyslexia. <\/p>\n \u201cTo every kid with a learning disability: don\u2019t let anyone \u2014 not even the President of the United States \u2014 bully you,\u201d Newsom wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cDyslexia isn\u2019t a weakness. It\u2019s your strength.\u201d<\/p>\n The insults first materialized when a video went viral of Newsom speaking at a book tour appearance<\/a> with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens during which he discussed his lifelong struggle with the learning disability. Since then, the president has repeatedly poked at the vulnerability.<\/p>\n Trump has brought up the governor\u2019s dyslexia at least four times in the last week. He mentioned it at a political rally in Kentucky last week, where he equated dyslexia with a \u201cmental lack of ability,\u201d and again during a Fox News Radio interview on Friday, in which he reiterated that \u201cpresidents can\u2019t have a learning disability.\u201d In a post on Truth Social, Trump labeled Newsom\u2019s admission a \u201cpolitically suicidal act,\u201d calling him \u201cdumb\u201d and \u201cA Cognitive Mess!\u201d<\/p>\n After the Kentucky rally, Newsom responded to Trump. <\/p>\n \u201cI spoke about my dyslexia, I know that\u2019s hard for a brain-dead moron who bombs children and protects pedophiles to understand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Dyslexia affects as much as 20% of the population, according to the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity. Despite affecting a such a wide portion of the population, the condition is widely misunderstood, according to dyslexia researcher Dr. Helen Taylor of the University of Cambridge. <\/p>\n \u201cIn some ways, Trump\u2019s awful comments are just a cruder version of assumptions that already run through our culture,\u201d she said. \u201cIf anything, [it\u2019s] the opposite. There is evidence of an overrepresentation of people with dyslexia in business leadership roles.\u201d <\/p>\n According to Taylor, there is a link between dyslexia and \u201cenhanced abilities\u201d in areas such as discovery, invention and creativity. <\/p>\n \u201cThe same cognitive trade-offs that can make routine tasks like reading more difficult support strengths in navigating complexity and guiding groups toward better future outcomes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Newsom often describes his early experiences with dyslexia as a source of insecurity when he was growing up. In his memoir, the governor writes about his mother, Tessa Newsom, attempting to help him with homework. The lessons ended with him \u201crunning out of the room screaming that I didn\u2019t know what was wrong with my brain.\u201d<\/p>\n Back when Newsom was a boy in the 1970s, dyslexia was recognized but still not fully understood. He recalls a day when his mother grew so concerned that she took a deep breath and told him, \u201cIt\u2019s OK to be average, Gavin.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI understood even back then that this, too, came from her deep reservoir of love for me,\u201d Newsom writes in his book \u201cYoung Man in a Hurry.\u201d \u201cBut I don\u2019t recall crueler words ever said about me.\u201d<\/p>\n The challenges from his learning disorder persist in his work at the state Capitol. Newsom finds reading off a teleprompter challenging. His aides describe days of painstaking preparation before major addresses to live audiences. Late edits to a speech, and the resulting changes to the words on the screen, threaten to throw off his delivery.<\/p>\n All memos in the governor\u2019s office are written in 12 point Century Gothic font with specific spacing between lines, formatting that his aides say helps him with his disability. <\/p>\n The governor reads his daily briefings a few times in the morning, underlines sentences and writes down notes to retain the information on yellow cards he keeps in his suit pockets.<\/p>\n The ritual, he has said, helps him compensate for his dyslexia and feel confident communicating. But it also adds to the public perception of Newsom as a smooth-talking, and at times rehearsed, politician. His excessive preparation has become a trait he considers a \u201csuper power.\u201d <\/p>\n His effort to thoroughly absorb reading material and desire to understand issues before he speaks about them means he\u2019s often well-prepared. In his perception, the learning disorder has brought out his grit and resilience, and helped him hone other skills, such as quickly reading a crowd. <\/p>\n It has also sharpened his memory.<\/p>\n