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President Donald Trump appeared to push for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) to be criminally prosecuted on Thursday (May 7).
“This lunatic, Hakeem ‘Low IQ' Jeffries, should be charged with INCITING VIOLENCE! The Radical Left Democrats actually want to Destroy our Country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
An image shows Jeffries with the caption “Maximum Warfare” next to a photo taken during the recent shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on April 25.
Jeffires responded to the post in an Instagram video posted Thursday, calling it “another deranged rant from an out-of-control president” and questioning Trump’s intentions.
“What’s wrong with you, bro?” Jeffries asks.
“Why do I stay on your mind? You ain’t got nothing better to do? Gas prices are surging. Grocery bills are out of control. The American people are drowning in your failed economy, and you ain’t got nothing better to do but to think about me?”
The "maximum warfare" remark emerged after Virginia voters approved a Democratic-leaning new congressional map on April 21, which could have given the party up to four additional House seats in the midterms.
Jeffries was asked by a reporter at a press conference the following day about Florida’s redistricting plans, saying that we “are in an era of maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time,” and vowed to continue pushing back against Trump’s push for Republican-led states to redraw district lines before the midterms.
Following the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting three days later, several Republican leaders called Jeffries “maximum warfare” remark dangerous and accused him of intentionally stoking partisan resentment that led to the incident.
“So-called Hakeem Jeffries is a disgrace to the United States Congress. He is deranged, disgusting and violent," Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) to X on April 26. “It is unacceptable that House Democrats continue to remain silent in the aftermath of his call for “maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time” against Republicans. Their casual acceptance of hateful and divisive language enables this out-of-control behavior.”
Jeffries stood by his remark during another press conference on April 27, saying that he doesn't “give a damn about the criticism” and outwardly condemning the shooting.
Trump’s call for Jeffries to be criminally prosecuted for the remark comes days after his previous call for Jeffries’ impeachment over calling the U.S. Supreme Court “illegitimate,” even though members of Congress cannot be impeached.
Jeffores used the phrase in response to the Supreme Court’s April 29th ruling in Louisiana, striking down a majority-Black district and cutting back on a provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The post also marks the third time this year that Trump has referred to Jeffries as “low-IQ,” a phrase he has used in the past to predominantly refer to people of color and women, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas).
“Never allow the Traitor Democrats like Low IQ person Hakeem Jeffries, or Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, or the totally corrupt Fake News Media such as the phony and decaying Wall Street Journal, the Failing New York Times (Subscriptions way down!), or dying “60 Minutes,” to demean or criticize Operation Midnight Hammer,” Trump posted to Truth Social on April 22.
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