President Trump turned an Oval Office press session Wednesday into an open-season roast of ex-special prosecutor Jack Smith and former Attorney General Merrick Garland, and he had a reporter to thank for handing him the microphone. LindellTV correspondent Cara Castronuova asked Trump about reports that Garland’s DOJ tracked phone calls and emails belonging to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, First Lady Melania Trump, and Trump’s son Barron, who was a minor at the time.
Trump’s first move was to thank Castronuova for the question. His second move was to light the whole thing on fire. “Merrick Garland and a whole group of thugs that preceded us, they weaponized government,” Trump said. “They were tracking my wife, my son, who’s a minor, a very young minor and a very good person. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it.”
He ticked through the grievances: the Mar-a-Lago raid, actions taken against people in his orbit, and what he called revelations that recently came out in documents. “It’s great that it came out,” Trump said, “so now people understand what we went through.” Hard to argue the man doesn’t have receipts at this point.
Then came the Jack Smith portion of the program, and Trump did not exactly send flowers. “Deranged Jack Smith, he’s a sick guy,” Trump said. “He lied before Congress. He lied all over the place. His whole life is a lie.” He went on to describe the broader group as “bad sick people actually, very sick people” before turning his sights on the man he says led them, presumably Garland. “Not smart, but mean,” Trump said. That’s a brutal two-word obituary for a legacy.
The backstory here matters. According to the Jack Smith surveillance report, Smith tracked calls and emails from Susie Wiles in 2024, and the operation reportedly extended to Melania Trump and Barron Trump as well. Republicans reacted with predictable fury, with one lawmaker calling it a bigger scandal than Watergate. That’s a high bar, but surveilling a sitting president’s minor child tends to move the needle.
Trump closed out his answer by circling back to Castronuova. “Thank you for the question, but it’s a shame,” he said. Nothing like a polite send-off after describing your political opponents as deranged, sick, and mean. The man contains multitudes.
Expect this to stay front and center as Republicans push for more information on exactly how far the surveillance reached and who signed off on it. If those documents keep coming out, Jack Smith may need a much bigger hiding spot. Drop your thoughts in the comments or share this on social media.
