President Trump tore into House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff for his criticism of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, saying that the California Democrat couldn’t carry Pompeo’s “blank strap.”

Trump expressed his anger Wednesday after Schiff said he was “deeply concerned” with Pompeo’s “effort now to potentially interfere with witnesses” that Democrats want to testify before Congress as part of their impeachment inquiry.

The president used the expression “can’t carry his jockstrap” to compare Schiff to Pompeo but supplanted “jock” with “blank.” The phrase is an expression meaning that one person's ability to do something isn't as great as another person's.

“We don’t call him shifty Schiff for nothing, he’s a shifty, dishonest guy, who by the way, was critical of one of the great secretaries of states, graduated No. 1 in his class at West Point, graduated one of the top in his class at Harvard Law School — the most honorable person,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.

“You know, there's an expression, [Schiff] couldn't carry [Pompeo’s] ‘blank’ strap, I won't say it because they'll say it was so terrible to say, but that guy couldn't carry his ‘blank’ strap, do you understand that?” Trump added.

[ Related: 'We are not fooling around:' Adam Schiff outlines plan to expand impeachment investigation]

