Trump's Achilles' heel? He's wildly 'insecure,' Joe Scarborough claims

Donald Trump's frenemy number one is without a doubt former Florida congressman and Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough — at one time accused of being dangerously friendly with Trump, but now happy to reveal the deeply vulnerable side of America's foremost "bully."

"None of these guys knew how to get Trump at a gut level," Scarborough told Politico's "Off Message" podcast. "He is insecure. That's always driven him — I'll say it — batsh*t crazy."

Trump has fired back at Scarborough, saying he no longer watches the show as well as blasting it for having "small audience, low ratings!" But Scarborough claims Trump's paranoia over his numbers — and the possibility that he is not so exciting to Americans as he used to be — could be the chink in the candidate's armor.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"I made the mistake, in Donald Trump's eyes, of saying that actually Chris Christie… would out-rate Donald Trump. Bernie Sanders would out-rate Donald Trump [on Morning Joe]. You want to get to Donald Trump? That's how you do it," Scarborough claimed.

He said opponents would do well to return Trump's fire: "I think you'd just go to him. He's a bully, and you don't let bullies bully people. You just mock him, See, the one thing Donald Trump can't stand is people calling him out, and instead of becoming indignant about it, laugh at him," Scarborough said.

And therein lies his Achilles' heel, according to Scarborough: "Ratings, numbers. Saying that Bernie Sanders draws more people than him. Mocking him for only having 5,000 people at [a Washington D.C. rally over Memorial Day weekend] when he thought he was going to have 400,000." Listen to the full interview, below. Jeva Lange