TOUGH TALK

Iranian President: Donald Trump’s White House Is ‘Afflicted by Mental Retardation’

He also called Donald Trump’s latest sanctions against the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader “outrageous and idiotic.”

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday that Donald Trump’s White House is “afflicted by mental retardation,” according to the Associated Press. Speaking during a live televised address, the Iranian leader said the Trump administration’s decision to sanction Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday was “outrageous and idiotic” and meant “certain failure” for the U.S. president’s policy on Iran. Rouhani also slammed the Trump administration for suggesting the next step is to sanction Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, which could prohibit him from engaging in future negotiations to find a peaceful solution to recent tensions. “You sanction the foreign minister simultaneously with a request for talks?” he said. Meanwhile, speaking at a security summit in Jerusalem on Tuesday morning, National Security Adviser John Bolton insisted that Trump really is open to meaningful negotiations and “all that Iran needs to do is walk through that open door.”