This article was originally published on Truthout.
In a Truth Social post last week, President Donald Trump referred to Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson as a “low IQ person.”
Trump repeated that line of attack in a separate post this past weekend, directed at former MAGA ally Candace Owens. His post included a doctored image of Time magazine labeling the conservative pundit as “Vile Person of the Year.”
Trump’s use of the insult “low IQ” to deride political rivals or people he considers enemies is not exclusive to people of color. But an examination of the president’s social media posts shows that he overwhelmingly uses the term to target nonwhite people — and communications experts say that the phrase serves as a racist dog whistle to members of his political base.
Using search tools available at TrumpsTruth.org, Truthout examined every Truth Social post by Trump that included the term “IQ” from January 20, 2025, through April 25, 2026. In total, Trump used the term “low IQ” or some variation of it in 24 posts.
Trump referred to a white person as “low IQ” in just 32 percent of those posts, while 84 percent of the posts were directed at Black or Brown people.
In his comments last Wednesday, Trump attacked the Supreme Court in general, whining that the liberal bloc of justices “ALWAYS vote as a group.” But he singled out Jackson as “that new, Low IQ person, that somehow found her way to the bench.”
Although Trump didn’t list her by name, the insult was clearly directed at Jackson, as he noted that the justice in question was appointed by former President Joe Biden. The post referred to the strong likelihood that the court will rule against Trump’s attempt to rewrite the 14th Amendment’s interpretation of birthright citizenship, an effort widely understood as an attempt to further codify white supremacy in the U.S.
In the first 10 months of his second term, Trump never once referred to a white person as “low IQ,” leveling that attack solely against nonwhite people. Although Trump has called figures like California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and actor Robert De Niro “low IQ” since then, most of his “low IQ” attacks on white people have been directed at former Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and conservative pundits like Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly.
Notably, the white people Trump most often refers to as “low IQ” are not his typical political adversaries (e.g. Democrats, progressives, etc.), but rather right-wing individuals who once endorsed him but have since criticized his actions in office.
Among the Black or Brown individuals Trump has targeted with the term are House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York), Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, hosts of the television program The View, Rev. Al Sharpton, radio host Charlamagne “Tha God,” and Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota), Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan), and Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), among others.
Trump has targeted Crockett with no fewer than eight separate posts, calling her “low IQ” in each of them.
Trump — never one to stray from name-calling his political opponents — appears to take a more hostile tone against Black and Brown people. Many of his posts describing Black or Brown individuals as “low IQ” contain additional negative monikers. In one, he described commentator Donna Brazile as “dumb as a rock”; in another, he described female members of the Democratic “Squad” as having “bulging, bloodshot eyes of crazy people,” calling them “LUNATICS, mentally deranged and sick who, frankly, look like they should be institutionalized.”
The president has also indicated that his hatred for people he deems to be “low IQ” is based on a bigoted understanding of genetics. In one post, for example, he states that he believes people with lower IQs are “born that way.”
Experts say Trump’s disproportionate attempts to associate the term with nonwhite individuals are intended as a signal for racists within his far right base.
“Trump’s characterization of people of color as ‘low IQ’ is a racist dog whistle with a long history in the U.S.,” said Karrin Vasby Anderson, communications studies professor at Colorado State University, speaking to AFP about the matter.
Trump and his audience can say that there’s nothing racist about ‘low IQ’ because that label could be applied to anyone. When Trump uses it primarily against Black people, however, and when it’s connected to this very specific history of how Black people have been framed in US culture since the 19th century, the white supremacists and casual racists in Trump’s audience will respond favorably.
Trump’s use of “low IQ” as a racist dog whistle is just one example of the president publicly expressing bigoted views. Over the past few years, Trump has:
- Posted a transcript of a far right podcast in which the host complained that immigrants from China and India aren’t “like the European Americans of today and their ancestors”;
- Shared a video on social media depicting former first lady Michelle Obama and former President Barack Obama as apes, a centuries-old racist trope against Black people;
- And repeatedly described immigrants as “animals,” saying they are “poisoning the blood of our country” during a 2024 presidential campaign event — commentary that echoes rhetoric by Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
