Ann Coulter begins to sour on Donald Trump: “Our candidate is mental!"

There is apparently a low, too low even for Ann Coulter -- and Trump just reached it

By Sophia Tesfaye

Senior Politics Editor

Published March 29, 2016 5:15PM (EDT)

  (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst/AP/Carolyn Kaster/Photo montage by Salon)
(Reuters/Jonathan Ernst/AP/Carolyn Kaster/Photo montage by Salon)

If any shock jock on the right-wing radio and book circuit was most naturally aligned with a Donald Trump presidential campaign, it most certainly was Ann Coulter. And the controversial conservative talker has been a vocal and loyal supporter of her fellow blond, anti-immigrant firebrand longer and more aggressively than any other loud-mouth Trump backer -- until this week.

“Our candidate is mental," Coulter told Breitbart's Milo Yiannopoulos during the inaugural episode of his new podcast on Monday. "Do you realize our candidate is mental?” Coulter asked her fellow blond, controversial Trump backer.

“I am a little testy with our man right now,” Coulter admitted to Yiannopoulos, revealing the first cracks in her steadfast support for the blustery billionaire.

When Trump was criticized for encouraging violence from his supporters who encountered protesters at his campaign rallies, Coulter rushed to take credit for being the source of every Trump fan's anti-Mexican rage and called for a "little more violence." When Trump suffered a surprise defeat to Ted Cruz in Iowa, Coulter declared him the winner among those actually eligible to run -- a not-so-subtle dig at Cruz's Canadian birthplace.

Trump "has been more a victim than a victimizer," Coulter assured Yiannopoulos, arguing that she could defend all but two of Trump's past controversial statements and specifically shrugging off Trump's dismissal of John McCain as a war hero, before hitting Trump for his recent "half-baked tweets at midnight." Coulter, of course, was referring to Trump's election night tweet last week, threatening to "spill the beans" on Ted Cruz's wife, Heidi.

“This is the worst thing he’s done," Coulter said of Trump's retweet of a picture suggesting that Heidi Cruz is less physically attractive than Trump's wife, Melania.

"I just wish it would be a tinsy bit less lowbrow," Coulter said, arguing, “it’s like constantly having to bail out your 16-year-old son from prison.”

"No, you can't defend him," Coulter chided Yiannopoulos, who insisted that of course he could. "I think it is so outrageously funny," Milo said, cracking up at Trump's "amazing" attacks on a rival's spouse.

"Presidentially is in the eye of the beholder," Yiannopoulos argued. "You've got to understand that people are so sick of this sort of earnest pearl-clutching."

"The trashier he gets the more I love him," Yiannopoulos insisted.

A clearly frustrated Coulter settled on simply calling on Trump to "please stop testing our patience on the rest of this stuff," warning that she would insert electrodes into his "schlong" to shock him every time he says something she deems stupid.

"Let’s just talk about what he’s good on," Coulter insisted, attempting to move away from her futile attempt to critique Trump to an even more rabid Trump supporter. "He’s the only one who is going to build a wall."


By Sophia Tesfaye

Sophia Tesfaye is Salon's senior editor for news and politics, and resides in Washington, D.C. You can find her on Twitter at @SophiaTesfaye.

MORE FROM Sophia Tesfaye


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2016 Republican Primary Ann Coulter Donald Trump Gop Civil War Heidi Cruz Milo Yiannopoulos Video