Ex-Donald Trump Adviser Calls Him a 'Lunatic' Over Pelosi Attack

A former adviser to Donald Trump called him a lunatic on Sunday over his recent social media attack on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The former president attacked Pelosi, a Democratic representative for California, after she said during an MSNBC interview on Friday that he looked like a "scared puppy" when he was arraigned last week.

The former president was arraigned in a Washington, D.C., court on Thursday on criminal charges stemming from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Jack Smith's investigation into his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Trump pleaded not guilty to four charges: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy against rights, and obstruction of an official proceeding. Trump and his supporters have long attested to his innocence, claiming that all the current criminal investigations against him are efforts to hurt him politically as he runs for president in 2024.

"I wasn't 'scared,'" Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform, on Sunday in response to Pelosi. "Nevertheless, how mean a thing to say! She is a Wicked Witch whose husbands journey from hell starts and finishes with her. She is a sick & demented psycho who will someday live in HELL!"

In his post, the former president also wrote: "I purposely didn't comment on Nancy Pelosi's very weird story concerning her husband, but now I can because she said something about me, with glee, that was really quite vicious."

That appeared to refer to the attack on Pelosi's husband, Paul, by an intruder who broke into the couple's San Francisco home last year. The incident sparked a series of right-wing conspiracy theories that were refuted by video and audio evidence.

Meanwhile, Trump's post was slammed by Alyssa Farah Griffin, who quit as White House communications director in December 2020. She has since been critical of Trump, and earlier this year said she thought the way the former president engaged with women in the White House was dangerous.

"Yo, GOP - we just going to keep pretending this is normal & okay?" Farah Griffin, now a co-host on ABC's The View, wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, alongside a screenshot of Trump's post about Pelosi. "I wouldn't let my family near the kind of lunatic that rants like this on the internet."

When asked for a response to Farah Griffin's comment, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung told Newsweek on Monday: "Yo, GOP - we just going to keep pretending Alyssa is normal & okay? I wouldn't let my family near the kind of lunatic that rants like this on the internet."

Newsweek contacted Farah Griffin for comment through ABC via email. The Republican National Committee (RNC) has also been contacted for comment via email.

Last week's indictment is the third Trump has faced this year. He is also facing federal charges by the DOJ that accuse him of illegally keeping classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, and state charges in New York that he falsified business records relating to hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. The former president has pleaded not guilty in both cases and maintains his innocence.

During her MSNBC interview on Friday, Pelosi, a longtime political opponent of the former president, said he appeared visibly concerned about his fate before his Thursday court appearance.

"I wasn't in the courtroom, of course, but when I saw [Trump] coming out of his car ... I saw a scared puppy," Pelosi said. "He looked very, very, very concerned about [his] fate. I didn't see any bravado, or confidence, or anything like that. He knows. He knows the truth: That he lost the election, and now he's got to face the music."

When asked for comment last week, Cheung told Newsweek: "Is Nancy Pelosi still in congress? Nobody's heard from her much these days. I thought she retired."

Update 8/7/2023, 9:45 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung.