There are few sound bytes from Donald Trump these days that don’t go viral. When he spoke to the press at a New Jersey event about the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Trump actually admitted that “smart people” don’t like him. A clip of the event quickly went viral on social media, and in it, other reporters laugh at his claim instead of thinking harder about what it means.
Did Trump actually take a dig at his supporters? While that seems unfathomable, it also seems totally possible at this point. Again, most of what Trump says is out of pocket in some way. So for him to say, in a roundabout way, that people who do like him aren’t, well, smart, it isn’t that much of a stretch to believe.
@10newsau Trump has taken a swipe at his critics during a public event in New Jersey while talking about the suspect in the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The US President told attendees of the Hope Through Education gala at his Bedminster golf club on Saturday, “Smart people don’t like me, you know? And they don’t like what we talk about.” Republican strategist Nicole Kiprilov shared a clip of Trump’s speech online, showing the crowd chuckling at the remark. “It must have been traumatic because the parents are conservative people, supposed to be very nice people, living in Utah, and the father turns in the son,” Trump said. #10news #trump #charliekirk ♬ original sound – 10 News
The entire room laughed when Trump said “smart people” don’t like him.
It’s hard to understand what the joke was when Trump told the room of reporters and political officials that “smart people” don’t like him. Maybe it was sarcasm, or an actual dig at his supporters, who Trump has under his thumb in a way that is so hard to understand, I can’t even laugh it off anymore.
Either way, Trump’s comments about smart people not liking him caused those who, well, don’t like him to point out the irony.
“Smart people don’t like me, you know?” Trump says in the clip. “And they don’t like what we talk about.”
He then goes on to explain who the parents of the suspected shooter in Kirk’s murder is and the family he comes from. Trump says that the FBI told him a father “almost never” turns in a son for a crime like this.
As usual, Trump’s remarks go off on a tangent that everyone in the room hangs on to regardless.
Someone commented on the clip of the event on TikTok with, “Telling a room full of people and all his followers they are dumb without actually saying it.”
“He called them idiots to [their] faces and they just laughed and nodded,” another user wrote under the video.
Does this mean Trump has officially admitted that his supporters are unintelligent followers who don’t know what they are following at this point? Honestly, I’ve given up trying to understand.
Trump was accused of calling his supporters “disgusting” once.
Trump’s comments about smart people not liking him isn’t the first time he has spoken negatively about his supporters and still received just as much praise from them. In 2020, Trump was accused of referring to his supporters as “disgusting people.” While that has not been confirmed, former Mike Pence advisor Olivia Troye told CNN that she witnessed Trump’s comments at the time.
“I was in the room when [Trump] said ‘I don’t want to shake hands with those dirty people, those disgusting people’,” she told CNN in August 2024. She added, “What really breaks my heart is just how much they rally around someone who just doesn’t care about them.”
In July 2025, ABC News reported that Trump called his supporters “stupid people” for pushing for a release of the Epstein Files. He also posted on social media, per the outlet, that his supporters who criticized his handling of the files are “weaklings” and he didn’t want their support. For many Trump supporters, though, there appears to be little he can say or do to get them off the Trump train.
