Just about every day since he became president, Donald Trump has started his morning by taking to Twitter.
Trump’s messages to his nearly 33 million followers are frequently hostile and confusing, but the president may have topped himself with today’s shocking and seemingly unporvoked attack on Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski.
With no context provided, Trump launched a tirade against Brzezinski and her co-host, Joe Scarborough, claiming that the MSNBC personalities unfairly criticize him on air as a result of a social grievance:
“I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don’t watch anymore),” Trump tweeted.
“Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came…..to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!”
What Brzezinski’s possible plastic surgery procedure has to do with Morning Joe’s coverage of the Trump presidency is anyone’s guess, but the baffling nature of the tweet hasn’t stopped … Sarah Huckabee Sanders from defending the president’s actions.
Sources who have spoken to Sanders report that she’s arguing the tweet was part of Trump’s effort “to push back” and “fight fire with fire,” adding that the president “won’t be bullied by liberal media.”
For her part, Brzezinski responded with a reference to Trump’s most famous anatomical shortcoming:
The 50-year-old political commentator posted the above photo sans caption … and obviously, this is a case in which no explanation is necessary.
But while Brzezinski effectively clapped back at the president without using words, many others have come to her defense with scathing condemnations of Trump’s appalling tweet.
“It’s a sad day for America when the president spends his time bullying, lying and spewing petty personal attacks instead of doing his job,” reads a statement issued by MSNBC.
“Mr. President, your tweet was beneath the office and represents what is wrong with American politics, not the greatness of America,” tweeted Senator Lindsey Graham.
Speaking through her press secretary, Melania Trump defended her husband with an argument similar to Sanders’, claiming that the president is under constant attack and is merely responding in kind:
“As the First Lady has stated publicly in the past, when her husband gets attacked, he will punch back 10 times harder,” Stephanie Grisham stated on the first lady’s behalf.
This is far from the first time that Trump’s Twitter account has been a source of controversy, but such a brazen personal attack on a media personality from a sitting president is thoroughly unprecedented.
Trump has yet to personally respond to the uproar over his latest insult.
