Trump Stands by Use of R-Word While Criticizing Tim Walz: ‘I Think There’s Something Wrong with Him’

Donald Trump is doubling down on his recent insult aimed at Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, brushing aside criticism of the language he used.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Nov. 30, as he flew back to Washington, D.C., from Florida, the 79-year-old president was pressed about his use of the R-word to describe Walz, 61, in a late-night Thanksgiving post on Truth Social.

In that post, Trump had been commenting on immigration and the Somali community in Minnesota when he used an offensive slur historically directed at people with intellectual disabilities to attack the state’s Democratic governor, writing, “The seriously retarded Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, does nothing, either through fear, incompetence, or both.”

On Sunday, a reporter asked Trump about the remark, saying, “You mentioned Tim Walz and you called him — what many Americans do find an offensive word — retarded,” and questioned whether he stood by the comment, according to a clip shared by the White House.

“Yeah, I think there’s something wrong with him, absolutely, sure,” Trump replied. “I think there’s something wrong with him.”

“Anybody that would do what he did, anybody that would allow those people into a state and pay billions of dollars [to] Somalia — we give billions of dollars to Somalia,” Trump continued.

“It’s not even a country, because it doesn’t function like a country. It’s got a name, but it doesn’t function like a country. Yeah, there’s something wrong with Walz,” he added.

A White House spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for further comment.

During the same gaggle with reporters, Trump also labeled Walz “incompetent” after being asked about the governor’s call for the president to release the results of his recent MRI scan, which Walz had referenced in an X post on Thursday, Nov. 27.

Walz had written, “Release the MRI results,” as he reposted Trump’s late-night Thanksgiving message on Truth Social, in which the president sarcastically criticized “patriots” for being “just plain STUPID” about immigration. In that post, Trump again spotlighted the Somali community in Minnesota before using the slur against Walz.

The Minnesota governor later addressed the remark on NBC News’ Meet the Press, calling the term “damaging” and “hurtful.”

“Donald Trump insulting me is a badge of honor for me, but I think we all know, as both as [an] educator for a couple of decades and as a parent, using that term is just so damaging. It’s hurtful,” Walz said.

When speaking with reporters on Sunday, Trump was also asked directly about Walz’s demand that he release the MRI results. Trump said he would gladly share what he described as the “perfect” findings from his last known physical exam, which he reportedly underwent during an Oct. 10 visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

“If you want to have it released, I’ll release it,” he said on Air Force One.

When a reporter asked if he could identify which part of his body had been scanned during the MRI, Trump told CBS News’ Weijia Jiang, “I have no idea … it wasn’t the brain because I took a cognitive test and I aced it.”

“I got a perfect mark, which you would be incapable of doing,” he added, continuing a recent pattern of personal attacks directed at women in the White House Correspondents’ Association (WCHA). Jiang, 42, is the current WCHA president.