McMaster told Israeli tech CEO Trump is ‘an idiot’ — report

A report Monday claimed US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster disparagingly referred to President Donald Trump in a private conversation as an “idiot” and a “dope,” and said he had the intelligence of a “kindergartner.”

McMaster allegedly made the comments during a private dinner with the Israeli-born CEO of tech giant Oracle. according to Buzzfeed. The report was based on five sources who said they were told about the comments by Catz.

A sixth unidentified person told Buzzfeed that McMaster has separately made similar statements to him, claiming that Trump did not have sufficient brainpower to understand issued faced by the National Security Council.

Officials representing the administration and Oracle denied the report.

A spokesman for the National Security Council said “Actual participants in the dinner deny that General McMaster made any of the comments attributed to him by anonymous sources. Those false comments represent the diametric opposite of General McMaster’s actual views.”

And top Oracle executive Ken Glueck, who also attended the dinner, said “none of the statements attributed to General McMaster were said.” He said Catz denied they had been said as well.

In October reports emerged that US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had referred to Trump as a “moron” after a contentious meeting at the Pentagon in July. Tillerson first refused to say whether he had done so, and later had a spokeswoman deny he used such language.

Trump later suggested he was smarter than Tillerson, saying in an interview with Forbes magazine that if Tillerson had called him a moron as reported, the two should “compare IQ tests.”

NBC News has reported that Tillerson had been on the verge of resigning this summer amid mounting policy disputes with the White House. The network claimed Pence, along with Defense Secretary James Mattis, convinced Tillerson to stay.

Pence and Tillerson have denied the report.

AP contributed to this report