So Donald Trump hires only the best people, and yet he regularly and viciously insults nearly all of them on the way out the door.

According to several accounts of Trump’s Velveeta meltdown in the White House yesterday — during which he called Nancy Pelosi a “third-rate politician” — Trump also disparaged his former secretary of defense Gen. James Mattis as “overrated.”

The Hill:

During the meeting, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) read a quote from Mattis’s appearance Sunday on “Meet the Press,” where he warned that “ISIS will resurge” if the U.S. does not keep the pressure on in that region. Trump cut Schumer off, according to two Democratic aides, and said that Mattis was “the world’s most overrated general.” “You know why? He wasn’t tough enough,” Trump said, according to the aides. “I captured ISIS. Mattis said it would take two years. I captured them in one month.”

Calling a highly respected person “overrated” is the go-to insult for Trump whenever he can’t think of anything else, which is always.

This tedious “slam” was never more risible than when Trump attempted to “I’m-rubber-and-you’re-glue” Meryl Streep after she called Trump out at the 2017 Golden Globes.

Meryl Streep, one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood, doesn't know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes. She is a….. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2017

Hillary flunky who lost big. For the 100th time, I never "mocked" a disabled reporter (would never do that) but simply showed him……. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2017

"groveling" when he totally changed a 16 year old story that he had written in order to make me look bad. Just more very dishonest media! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2017

So in three tweets, Trump proved he doesn’t know great acting when he sees it, doesn’t know what “groveling” means, and for some reason likes to lie about 16-year-old news stories.

And so today, Gen. Mattis hearkened back to Trump’s idiotic Meryl Streep tweets with his own response:

General Mattis says he’s honored to be considered “the most overrated general.” “…he also called Meryl Streep an overrated actress. So I guess I'm the Meryl Streep of generals, and frankly that sounds pretty good to me." — Michael Del Moro (@MikeDelMoro) October 18, 2019

Well done, Gen. Mattis. But, hey, you saw the cray-cray up close. How about some detailed testimony instead of just a few random bons mots?

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