Pointing once again to the dubiousness of his competence, another one of Trump’s advisors has reportedly expressed concern about his intelligence, i.e., called him an “idiot” in front of a group of people.
According to BuzzFeed, national security advisor H.R. McMaster tossed out that descriptor about the current president while at a dinner with Oracle CEO Safra Catz in July. This comes from “five sources with knowledge of the conversation,” four of whom claim they heard about the disparagement from Catz herself. Apparently, McMaster didn’t stop at “idiot”; he also called Trump a “dope,” who has the intelligence of a “kindergartner,” according to BuzzFeed’s sources. A separate source claims McMaster had previously made similarly belittling comments about the president, who he thinks “[lacks] the necessary brainpower to understand the matters before the National Security Council.” (Like so many other things we’ve written this year, that’s a sentence we can’t believe we’re typing about the leader of the free world.)
Michael Anton, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, denied that McMaster had made those comments in a brief statement.
Actual participants in the dinner deny that General McMaster made any of the comments attributed to him by anonymous sources. Those false comments represent the diametric opposite of General McMaster’s actual views.
Oracle’s DC chief Ken Glueck has also denied claims that McMaster regaled a tech leader with criticism of the president’s capabilities. Glueck tells BuzzFeed the July dinner in question “was about China,” and “none of the statements attributed to General McMaster were said.” Catz herself has not responded to BuzzFeed’s report, but Glueck assures the outlet that the CEO “concurs entirely” with what he says happened at the dinner. In the course of vetting the story, BuzzFeed learned from “two sources with knowledge of the situation” that officials in the Trump administration had threatened to retaliate against anyone who would corroborate McMaster’s slights. But when the publication asked Glueck if he’d been pressured to refute the story, he called that claim “ridiculous.”
McMaster didn’t just shit-talk the president at the dinner; he also reportedly insulted Rex Tillerson—his brother in epithet arms—Steve Bannon, co-president Jared Kushner, and defense secretary James Mattis.