Politics
Trump attacks Newsom again for having dyslexia, says it disqualifies him from being president
WASHINGTON — President Trump has once again mocked Gov. Gavin Newsom’s dyslexia as “disqualifying” 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.
In remarks Monday in the Oval Office, Trump said Newsom was “dumb” and should never be allowed to be president because he has “admitted that he has learning disabilities, dyslexia.”
“That’s how crazy it’s gotten with a low-IQ person,” Trump said. “Honestly, I’m all for people with learning disabilities but not for my president. … And I know it’s highly controversial to say such a horrible thing.”
But in the course of his needling, Trump mistakenly elevated his political rival to the rank of commander in chief — repeatedly referring to Newsom as “the president of the United States.” Newsom took the opportunity to turn the tables on the president.
“I, GAVIN C. NEWSOM, AM OFFICIALLY PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (THANK YOU DONALD!)” he wrote on X Monday.
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.
A model stealth bomber sits in front of President Trump during an executive order signing in the Oval Office Monday.
(Aaron Schwartz / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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 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.
“To every kid with a learning disability: don’t let anyone — not even the President of the United States — bully you,” Newsom wrote on X. “Dyslexia isn’t a weakness. It’s your strength.”
The insults first materialized when a video went viral of Newsom speaking at a book tour appearance 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.
Trump has brought up the governor’s 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 “mental lack of ability,” and again during a Fox News Radio interview on Friday, in which he reiterated that “presidents can’t have a learning disability.” In a post on Truth Social, Trump labeled Newsom’s admission a “politically suicidal act,” calling him “dumb” and “A Cognitive Mess!”
After the Kentucky rally, Newsom responded to Trump.
“I spoke about my dyslexia, I know that’s hard for a brain-dead moron who bombs children and protects pedophiles to understand,” he said.
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.
“In some ways, Trump’s awful comments are just a cruder version of assumptions that already run through our culture,” she said. “If anything, [it’s] the opposite. There is evidence of an overrepresentation of people with dyslexia in business leadership roles.”
According to Taylor, there is a link between dyslexia and “enhanced abilities” in areas such as discovery, invention and creativity.
“The 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,” she said.
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 “running out of the room screaming that I didn’t know what was wrong with my brain.”
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, “It’s OK to be average, Gavin.”
“I understood even back then that this, too, came from her deep reservoir of love for me,” Newsom writes in his book “Young Man in a Hurry.” “But I don’t recall crueler words ever said about me.”
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.
All memos in the governor’s office are written in 12 point Century Gothic font with specific spacing between lines, formatting that his aides say helps him with his disability.
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.
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 “super power.”
His effort to thoroughly absorb reading material and desire to understand issues before he speaks about them means he’s 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.
It has also sharpened his memory.
At a news conference revealing his budget proposal in 2020, a reporter asked the governor what he would do to address 500,000 housing units that had been approved by developers in California, but hadn’t been constructed.
Without missing a beat, Newsom directed the journalist to the exact page in his 246-page budget that touched on the issue.
“While people with dyslexia are slow readers, they often, paradoxically, are very fast and creative thinkers with strong reasoning abilities,” according to the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity.
The governor’s wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, discussed the president’s attacks Tuesday in a video on X in which she emphasized that “learning differences do not determine someone’s potential.” She listed a number of qualities she considered disqualifying for the presidency, including being a convicted felon, bankrupting businesses, having numerous associations with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and sending “masked extremists to terrorize Black and brown communities and rip kids away from their families.”
“Everything that Donald Trump represents is frankly beyond disqualifying,” she said. “Day in and day out, Trump says things that make him unfit for office. He degrades our vulnerable communities, our institutions, even the Constitution itself.”
Two of the Newsoms’ four children have also been diagnosed with dyslexia.
Quinton reported from Washington, D.C., and Luna from Sacramento.
Politics
Dem congressional candidate Bobby Pulido depicts lewd behavior in controversial music video for his song
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Latin Grammy-winning singer Bobby Pulido, now the Democratic nominee in Texas’ 15th Congressional District, appeared in a controversial music video depicting lewd behavior.
In a 2010 music video for his song “Dias de Ayer,” Pulido portrayed a character wrapped in a red blanket engaging in indecent acts and appearing to expose himself to a woman seated next to him on a plane.
According to the New York Post, Pulido faced questions from the Mexican press about his sexuality following the release of the video.
“People are opening up more. I can even tell you that when I started my career, I saw the whole situation (of gays) very differently. At first, they said I was gay; there were rumors that I was like that,” Pulido said in a 2010 interview with the outlet El Norte, translated from Spanish.
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Bobby Pulido, Democratic Congressional candidate for Texas, speaks during a “Take Back Texas” campaign event with State Representative James Talaricos in Edinburg, Texas, on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (Gabriel V. Cardenas/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Pulido responded to comments about sexuality in several posts, including a 2019 post on his personal X account: “Igualmente amigo, no homo.”
In a 2015 post, Pulido taunted pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli, who later served a seven-year prison sentence, writing, “Don’t drop the soap a–hole.”
After announcing his campaign last fall, Pulido faced scrutiny over resurfaced posts linking to explicit websites on his personal X account, as well as a post that appeared to show him urinating on President Donald Trump’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star.
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A resurfaced post appeared to show Bobby Pulido urinating on President Donald Trump’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star, prompting backlash. (Medios y Media/Getty Images and )
The Democratic nominee also drew backlash over past vulgar attacks against Trump, including posting the Spanish translation of “f— your mother.”
“I’d like to give you the biggest ‘f— you,’ you piece of s—, a–hole, d— head, son of a b—-,” Pulido wrote in another post.
Pulido also drew attention after previously describing himself as a “winter Texan” for spending much of the year in Mexico.
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Bobby Pulido holding his award at the Annual Latin Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony on Nov. 13, 2025, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Greg Doherty/Getty Images for The Latin Recording Academy)
Pulido is vying for the seat currently held by Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Texas, a two-term incumbent.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Pulido for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Leo Briceno contributed to this report.
Politics
Mamdani references Palestinian ‘genocide’ during St Patrick’s Day event
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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani referenced the “genocide” of Palestinians during a St. Patrick’s Day event Tuesday at Gracie Mansion.
Mamdani made the remarks at a breakfast honoring Irish New Yorkers, where he praised former Irish President Mary Robinson for her record on human rights and her support for Palestinians.
“I say this as over the past few years, as we’ve witnessed a genocide unfold before our eyes, there has been deafening silence from so many,” Mamdani said. “For those who have long cared about universal human rights and the extension of them to Palestinians, silence, however, is nothing new – for Palestinians are so often left to weep alone. Yet former President Robinson has never been silent.”
Mamdani tied Irish history to broader themes of solidarity, calling it “no coincidence” and asking, “Who can better understand those who weep than those who have been made to weep for so long?”
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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch and Cardinal Timothy Dolan participate in the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York on March 17, 2026. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)
“The story of the Irish, both in Ireland and in New York City, is at one time a story of oppression, of subjugation, and of discrimination,” the mayor told attendees.
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Irish and U.S. flags are carried during the 264th annual St. Patrick’s Day parade on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., on March 17, 2025. (Mike Segar/Reuters)
Robinson spoke after Mamdani, describing St. Patrick’s Day as a celebration of Irish culture, music and laughter.
She acknowledged the ongoing suffering in conflict zones around the world, including Iran, Lebanon, Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, saying the holiday is also a time to recognize those “living under the shadow of war and suffering.”
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Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, participates in a press conference with members of The Elders at the United Nations in New York City on July 28, 2025. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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“For many Irish people, these realities resonate deeply, as the mayor has said. Our own history holds memories of famine, exile and conflict,” Robinson added. “Perhaps because of that many recognize echoes of Ireland’s past and the suffering of others today and the pain of displacement and the enduring human longing for dignity, justice and self-determination.”
Politics
Iran’s top security official killed in airstrike, Israel says
BEIRUT — Israel said on Tuesday it had assassinated Iran’s top security official, Ali Larijani, a move that — if confirmed — represents a palpable hit to an Iranian leadership that has shown little interest in compromise after almost three weeks of war with the U.S. and Israel.
Killing Larijani, who led the country as de facto wartime leader after Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei died on the first day of the war, eliminates a veteran official seen as the consummate insider despite not having the religious credentials for the Islamic Republic’s highest offices.
For all his bellicose comments since the war began, Larijani was also seen as a pragmatist, and observers say his death might strengthen the resolve of what’s left of Iran’s leadership, rather than induce a willingness to compromise.
His post as secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council gave Larijani control of the country’s top security body, where he tasked government forces with deploying deadly force to subdue anti-regime protests in January.
Also killed in the strikes, according to the Israeli military, was Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani, the head of the Basij, the volunteer auxiliary wing of the Revolutionary Guards and an integral part of the state’s ability to keep order.
“Larijani and the Basij commander were eliminated overnight and joined the head of the annihilation program, Khamenei, and all the eliminated members of the axis of evil, in the depths of hell,” said Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz in a statement on Tuesday.
Israeli officials have employed “axis of evil” to refer to Iran and its allied paramilitary groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah.
Larijani had served as parliamentary speaker for 12 years and became the point man on the nuclear negotiations as well as relations with allies such as China and Russia. He often acted as the government’s representative in the media.
Iran’s government did not confirm he and Soleimani had been killed. But soon after Katz’s announcement, Iranian authorities released an undated note said to have been written by Larijani in which he honored Iranian sailors killed in a U.S. attack. The image of the note was also posted to Larijani’s account on X.
There was no explanation why the note was released and whether it is signified Larijani was still alive.
“We are undermining this regime in the hope of giving the Iranian people an opportunity to remove it,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement, adding that such an outcome “will not happen all at once, and it will not happen easily.”
“But if we persist,” Netanyahu added, “we will give them the chance to take their destiny into their own hands.”
Netanyahu and President Trump have repeatedly called on regular Iranians to topple the government.
Though assassinating Larijani counts as yet another intelligence coup for Israel and the U.S., both may come to regret the loss of a figure who, despite his defiant rhetoric since the war began Feb. 28, was considered a realist.
His killing adds to the evisceration of Iran’s upper echelons, raising the question as to who is left to negotiate an end of the war, but also who would have enough influence to make Iran’s deep state accept compromise.
Some observers say that’s the point.
“Why did the Israelis take out Larijani in this moment? Because Netanyahu is focused on blocking Trump’s pathways for a ceasefire and follow-up negotiations with Iran,” said Ellie Geranmayeh, a senior policy fellow at the European Council for Foreign Relations, adding that “Larijani would have been the man to get that job done.”
Khamenei’s assassination, Geranmayeh said, had already empowered more hard-line figures in government, and Larijani’s death “could act as an accelerator to that path.”
“Israel seems to be turning its attention to targeting those that could push for a political solution to the current crisis,” she said.
Larijani’s death would add to the murkiness surrounding Iran’s leadership. After Khamenei was killed and it remained unclear who would replace him, Trump added to the uncertainty by saying that the country’s new leader would need his approval, but also that the U.S. had killed many of the leaders whom he would have deemed acceptable.
After Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, was named the new supreme leader, Trump expressed his displeasure but repeatedly dodged questions about what the transition under the younger Khamenei would mean for the U.S. war effort and any potential path toward a resolution.
After the elder Khamenei’s death, Larijani emerged as a high-profile voice for Iran, saying that Trump must “pay the price” for the U.S. strikes on the country.
In response, Trump acted as if he didn’t know who Larijani was.
“I have no idea what he’s talking about, who he is. I couldn’t care less,” Trump told CBS News.
Benjamin Radd, a political scientist and senior fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations, said Larijani was perceived to be “the last of the competent bunch” within Iranian leadership — an intellectual who had a complex understanding of the geopolitical reality on the ground, who had negotiated with the U.S. in the past, and who was “adept at maneuvering” all the various parts of the Iranian power structure.
Radd said Larijani “lost that mantle of being the pragmatist” when he strongly backed the deadly January crackdown on protesters, for which he was “more responsible than anyone else.”
He “absolutely was responsible for a tremendous amount of carnage and death and destruction,” Radd said.
And yet, with his death, “all of that diplomatic, institutional experience” that he did have “is gone” from within Iranian leadership, Radd said.
Those left in power, he said, are “generally not the sharpest people, they’re not the people who understand the subtleties of diplomacy, of what negotiating with the U.S. is like.”
Bulos reported from Beirut and Rector from Washington.
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