An already tumultuous week of news for the White House was capped off by a New York Times report on Friday that said President Donald Trump discussed his abrupt firing of James B. Comey as FBI director during an Oval Office meeting with Russian officials the day after the termination.āI just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job,ā Trump said, according to an account reported by the Times that was not disputed by the White House. āI faced great pressure because of Russia. Thatās taken off.āRead more: Trump told Russians that firing `nut job` Comey relieved āgreat pressureā on himThe new report ignited afresh the possibility that Trump had committed obstruction of justice.But it was also the reappearance of one of Trumpās preferred ways of insulting people: by suggesting that he is calling into question their mental stability. Itās unclear if Trump does this intentionally ā is this an instance where weāre supposed to take him seriously, but not literally? ā or if he uses such put-downs without giving a second thought to their association with mental health.Nevertheless, Trumpās reported verbal attack on Comey sparked an immediate spike in lookups Friday for ānutjobā (defined as āa mentally unbalanced person; a crazy personā), according to Merriam Webster.In the world of Trumpian taunts, itās safe to say ānut jobā falls somewhere on the second tier. A search of his Twitter account reveals the president lobs it with far less frequency than, say, āloserā (which has appeared 72 times in his tweets), ācrazyā (65 times) or ādumbā (95 times).In fact, Trump has only once called someone a ānut jobā on Twitter: Glenn Beck.(Beck refused to engage. āIt is beneath me to respond to this,ā he told The Blaze.)In person, Trump has labelled someone a “ ...
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