Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., center, Reps. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., and Pete Aguilar, D-Calif. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., challenged President Donald Trump to a debate on Thursday.
“If Donald Trump wants to debate me anytime, any place, in the Oval Office, publicly, on camera, I’d be happy to do it,” the Democrat said at a press conference. “We’ll see who’s intellectually superior.”
Jeffries’ remarks came after Trump called the minority leader a “low IQ individual” earlier in the week.
“I watch this low-IQ guy, Hakeem Jeffries — he’s a totally low-IQ person — and he’s always ranting and raving, ’Oh, this war is so terrible,’” Trump said. “They shouldn’t be saying that when we’re in the midst of a negotiation because it does hurt us somewhat. It gives the other side some hope, and I don’t want them to have hope.”
In a Truth Social post, Trump trolled “Traitor Democrats” and the “totally corrupt Fake News Media” for criticizing Operation Midnight Hammer, which he said “totally obliterated the Nuclear Dust locations to the point where bloodthirsty Iran has been unable to get to it or dig it out.”
Midnight Hammer was a 37-hour precision Air Force attack on Iranian nuclear facilities carried out June 21, 2025. Not one of the participating 125 U.S. aircraft was destroyed.
“Instead of insulting people all over the world — and I’m not really worried about what he has to say about me — but he’s insulting our allies,” Jeffries continued. “He’s worsening the United States’ security posture in doing so. He’s fighting with his own MAGA base. The economy is collapsing. It’s a train wreck, which is why it’s going to take Democrats to get back on track.”
Jeffries said momentum “is clearly on the side of House Democrats.”
“Are we going to become a country where lies and propaganda is the order of the day?” Jeffries said to reporters.
