Speaking at a campaign rally in Miami, Florida, on Sunday, Donald Trump’s eldest son, 44, said the lieutenant governor had “mush for brains” following his stroke in May.
Trump Jr. began his attacks by saying that Fetterman, who is running against Dr. Mehmet Oz in the tight Senate race, should not be allowed in office as he doesn’t have “basic cognitive function.”
Trump Jr. said that if Fetterman does become Senator, he will merely “vote however [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer tells him to,” adding the Democratic Party will “pull the strings, raising the hand one way when it matters.”
“We’re up against a Democrat Party today that doesn’t believe that a United States senator should not have mush for brains, mush for brains should be 100 percent fine,” Trump’s son said. “That should be the Democrat slogan for 2024.”
A number of social-media users have condemned the former president’s son for his comments regarding the health of a recovering stroke victim.
“This is disgusting, but the cruelty is the point,” tweeted former senior executive at NBC Universal Mike Sington while sharing a clip of the remarks.
Andrew Feinberg, political reporter for U.K. online newspaper the Independent, described the comments as a “vile attack” on Fetterman.
Twitter user Alicia Givens wrote: “Don Jr stood up there earlier calling Fetterman brain dead and mush for brains and now Trump is referring to Nancy Pelosi as an animal?,” in reference to remarks the former president gave at a rally in Dayton, Ohio, on Monday.
“Is there ANY decorum left in this party? Vote BLUE if you have any respect for America.”
Elsewhere, a highly editorialized article in Vanity Fair discussing the comments at the Florida begins: “No one has ever accused Donald Trump Jr. of being a decent human being, but over the weekend, he went from ’not a good person’ to “despicable piece of s***’ when he used his time at a Florida rally to mock Senate candidate John Fetterman for having had a stroke.”
The health of Fetterman in the wake of his stroke has been one of the main talking points in the Senate race.
Fetterman has said he still has issues with auditory processing on the campaign trail, and used a captioning system during the sole televised debate with Oz on October 25 during which the Democrat gave a faltering performance.
In October, Fetterman released a medical report in which doctors said that he is recovering well from his stroke and “has no work restrictions and can work full duty in public office.”
Newsweek has contacted Fetterman’s office for comment.
