'Donald Trump is an idiot': Michigan candidate Abdul El-Sayed tears into Trump, calls JD Vance 'soulless' and Pete Hegseth a 'bully'

Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has called President Donald Trump an ‘idiot’ and criticised Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, accusing them of using bullying tactics and power to influence others. During a lengthy interview with comedian Hasan Minhaj on his podcast, El-Sayed said Americans are being actively bullied by the dumbest people in the room, referring to Trump, Vance and Hegseth.

El-Sayed, who could become the first Muslim senator if he defeats Republican Mike Rogers next week, told Minhaj that he supports underdogs who are exploited by powerful people. “I don’t bully, but I bully bullies,” the Michigan Democrat said on the “Hasan Minhaj Doesn’t Know” episode released on Wednesday.

“And maybe it’s just because I understood quickly what the consequences of allowing bullies to persist would look like. And none of us, when you think about our politics, like we are being actively bullied by the dumbest people in the room. And I mean Donald Trump is an idiot. Whatever you think about him, he has one genius, which is the genius of getting attention which is because you know his dad never gave him enough,” El-Sayed said.

“And so because he was a nepo baby, because he had resources, realized quickly that he just craved for attention and then used the bullying tactics that he uses right now to get it. But the man is an idiot. I mean, just when it comes down to it, like just a fool,” he continued.

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El-Sayed criticises JD Vance and Pete Hegseth

El-Sayed also targeted other members of the Trump administration, questioning Vance's conduct and criticizing Hegseth. “And then you’ve got other people like JD Vance, who do this thing of just becoming curs to the dumbest person in the room,” El-Sayed said. “JD Vance is a smart person, but he has no actual soul, and he has no actual charisma. And so, his think is just to suck up to the strongest person in in the room to do their bidding. And then you got people like Pete Hegseth who are like, you know, minifool bullies around him. But like this whole coterie of the dumbest people, or the most cowardly people, are running the country. So, part of the responsibility I think we have is not to allow them to use their power to bend the rest of us to their will.”

The Michigan Democrat suggested he would take the same approach toward Trump if elected to the Senate, emphasising the importance of confronting people who use power to intimidate others. “And that means standing up. And the thing about it is if you ever stood up to a bully, you realize that they’re very fragile. Like, once you get past the immediate bullying and the fear that they strike in people, there’s no there there. And when you hit them back, they back off. So, you know, I’m not looking to bully anybody, but if you’re walking around bullying people and you are causing them harm as a function of it, I’m gonna show up and I’m going to do exactly to you what you do to everybody else,” he said.

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El-Sayed questions Democrats' response to Trump

During the interview, Minhaj asked El-Sayed why traditional Democrats were not taking the same confrontational approach toward Trump. “I think for a lot of folks, they’ve never been in a fight,” El-Sayed said. “And the thing about a fight is that a fight is not a pretty thing, right? And the logic of fighting is that once you get into a fight, like you’ve got to be willing to end the fight. And they have more power."

“And so, for a lot of folks, they’ll look at what their resources and say, ‘Maybe it’s not worth it.’ But what they don’t realize is that for people who’ve set the culture of the debate around power, if you let them take what you have, you won’t have anything. And so that I think is part of it,” he said.

El-Sayed also rejected the idea that Trumpism would disappear once Trump leaves office, arguing that confronting bullying was necessary to prevent the continued abuse of power. “I think the other part of it is people think that this will go away and the only way to beat a bully is to beat a bully and then you get to decide what happens next. We don’t want a world where people bully each other. We don’t want a world where might makes right. We don’t want a world where the most powerful in the room gets to take whatever they want from anybody else because of power. But when somebody violates that norm, you have a responsibility to stand up to them and take power back and then decide that we are not going to continue to live like this. And I think for a lot of the Democratic Party, it’s some combination of lack of courage and lack of understanding,” he said.