Georgia Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff hit back at President Donald Trump after Trump branded him "Jon Os(jerk!)off" in an unhinged post following the Republican runoff results.
In this year's midterm election, Ossoff will face Representative Mike Collins, Trump's preferred candidate, after Collins defeated fellow Republican Derek Dooley in Tuesday's GOP runoff.
Collins' campaign has faced controversy before. Earlier this year, the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Conduct reported allegations that Collins' former chief of staff, Brandon Phillips, hired his romantic partner as a district intern in 2023 and 2024 despite claims that she “never worked a day in the district office,” according to a complaint submitted to the agency.
Phillips was later fired in May after posting a message on X targeting the wife of an adviser to a pro-Dooley super PAC. The post came after the adviser argued that Dooley would have been a stronger general-election candidate against Ossoff.
None of this means anything to Trump, of course, who celebrated Collins' win in a post attacking Ossoff as "a pathetic failed Dumocrat":
“So happy for highly respected Congressman Mike Collins. He will win his Senate Race in Georgia against a pathetic failed Dumocrat Senator, Os(jerk!)off, who is a joke in D.C. Nobody even knows who he is!!! I’ll be doing Big TRUMP Rallies for Mike in Georgia!"
You can see Trump's post below.
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social
Ossoff was unimpressed and also took the opportunity to criticize Trump for his "failed war."
Ossoff, asked to respond to Trump's new nickname for him, said:
"I didn’t think it was his best work as nicknames go. But more to the point, he is increasingly unstable. And I think that it flows from the fact that he is globally humiliated from this failed war.”
“This is a debacle for our national security. It is a debacle for the Trump presidency. And we see him lashing out and behaving erratically in ways that put the nation at risk.”
"I want to remind everybody again that he is going to be all-in to elect Mike Collins, his puppet, to the United States Senate in Georgia. And right now... national Republican groups, allied with Donald Trump, have hundreds of millions of dollars more than the national Democratic party."
Ossoff stressed that these groups "will be using those resources... to attack me and try to install this Trump puppet in Georgia" and urged viewers to donate to his campaign "so we can win decisively."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
When approached by TMZ, Ossoff gave similar remarks, saying in part:
“He is a disgraced president, humiliated on the world stage by his failed war. Raking in billions for himself and his family while he makes you pay more for gas, for groceries and for health care.”
Ossoff merely said "I'm good" when asked if he wanted to respond with a nickname for Trump.
Many concurred with Ossoff's remarks.
Ossoff faces a difficult reelection race in a state won by Trump in 2024, making his seat central to Democrats’ hopes of regaining Senate control.
Collins, who represents Georgia's 10th Congressional District, has closely aligned himself with Trump's political agenda. He was the lead sponsor of the bipartisan Laken Riley Act, legislation named after a Georgia nursing student killed by a Venezuelan migrant that increased detention and enforcement requirements for certain undocumented immigrants accused of crimes.
Securing Trump's endorsement became a central focus of Collins' Senate campaign. The president withheld his support until after Representative Buddy Carter, another Trump-aligned candidate, was eliminated from the race last month when he failed to finish in the top two during the primary. Trump ultimately backed Collins and joined him for a tele-rally on Tuesday ahead of the runoff election.
@JamesTate121/X
