- Trump referred to Jeff Sessions as the "the first mentally retarded attorney general" in history, per a new book.
- The former president's frustrations stemmed from Sessions' recusal from DOJ's Russia investigation.
Former President Donald Trump was known to use an ableist slur to refer to Jeff Sessions, his first attorney general, according to a new book by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman.
In "Confidence Man," Haberman writes that Trump would "rant" that he deserves credit for nominating "the first mentally retarded attorney general in history" when the topic of Sessions was brought up by other White House officials — who often did so to redirect Trump's ire away from themselves.
It's the latest detail to surface about one of the longest-running feuds of Trump's presidency.
Trump has a history of using ableist insults to describe those who he believes have wronged him. At a 2015 rally, he mocked New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has arthrogryposis, a condition that causes joint contracture.
Sessions, who served in the US Senate from 1997 until joining the Trump administration in 2017, was the first senator to endorse Trump. Stephen Miller, the hardline immigration hawk who served as a senior advisor to Trump during his presidency, had previously served as Sessions' communications director.
But Trump grew furious with Sessions after he recused himself from all matters involving Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, particularly as Special Counsel Robert Mueller investigated the campaign's ties to Russia.
That conflict often played out in public, with Trump publicly pressuring Sessions to halt the Russia investigation.
After Trump claimed in an August 2018 interview that Sessions "never took control" of the Department of Justice, Sessions issued a statement pushing back on Trump, saying that department "will not be improperly influenced by political considerations."
Sessions later resigned as attorney general on November 7, 2018, one day after that year's midterm elections in which Republicans lost over 30 seats, costing them the majority in the House of Representatives.
Sessions did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
In 2020, Sessions sought to mount a political comeback, running for his old US Senate seat. But after he portrayed himself as a strong supporter of Trump, the former president's campaign called Sessions "delusional" in a letter accusing him of trying to "misleadingly promote your connections to and 'support' of Trump." Sessions later lost to former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville, now the state's junior US senator.
And it's not the first time Trump has used ableism to go after his perceived foes.
At a campaign rally in 2015, he mocked New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who suffers from arthrogryposis, a disease that visibly inhibits the functioning of his joints.