Ex-RNC chair Michael Steele slams Trump for flipping off Detroit heckler: ‘Put your big boy pants on’

DETROIT, MICHIGAN: Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele is once again unloading on President Donald Trump, this time over a crude gesture that Steele says debased the presidency itself.

The latest flare-up came after Trump appeared to flip the bird at a heckler during a Detroit appearance, where a protester shouted that the president was a “pedophile protector.”

That reaction set off Steele, now an MSNBC anchor, during a discussion with Rep Ro Khanna (D-CA) on Tuesday night’s edition of 'The Weeknight.'

Michael Steele blasts Trump over heckler incident and Epstein backlash

“So we all know we have a very, in my estimation, a very underdeveloped man sitting in the White House,” Steele told Khanna, who is one of the main sponsors of legislation aimed at releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Steele went on to blast Trump’s behavior as juvenile and beneath the office.

“That was just a punkish move,” Steele continued. “I don't know who he thinks he was impressing. I guess it's more impressive if the President of the United States flips you off. But put your big boy pants on, Mr President, the country is a big country, and we have opinions. We have opinions about you. We have opinions about your actions. So that's all I want to say about that.”

He also took aim at the administration’s response to the incident.

“The fact that the White House response was 'a lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage,' their overdramatization of stuff is another bit of crap we have to put up with," Steele added.

Khanna argued that the heckler’s accusation struck a nerve for a reason.

“Look, it's not a coincidence of what sets him off,” said Khanna. “What set him off is the heckler saying you're a protector. I was just on a podcast with Shawn Ryan. Shawn Ryan is the number two podcaster in the country. He was all in on Trump, and he said, what lost [him] is Trump is protecting, that's what this Epstein issue is about.”

Khanna claimed the issue is eroding Trump’s support among his own base.

“It has gotten under his skin because he knows he's losing the MAGA base on this,” Khanna said. “He was elected to expose the corruption, to hold these people accountable. Instead, every move they made is to protect people who raped underage girls.”

Khanna also pointed to a recent legal development.

“And now you have, today, a federal judge who responded to Marcy and my motion, quite a breakthrough, where he's now ordered the Department of Justice to brief him on whether he should appoint a special master to actually get these documents released,” said Khanna.

Michael Steele’s years-long criticism of Trump

Steele’s outrage is hardly new. He has been attacking Trump since his first term. In an October 2024 post just ahead of the election, Steele ripped into Trump’s rhetoric.

“At what point do we stop dumbing ourselves down with the mind-numbingly stupid crap that comes out of @realDonaldTrump mouth—the lies, the stunts, the othering of our fellow Americans,” Steele wrote at the time. “He is unfit to serve as our president. He IS a danger to the values we purport as a nation. NO GOOD will come from him sitting behind the Resolute desk again. None.”

Steele has also taken repeated shots at Trump’s intellect, arguing that the president lacks even basic self-restraint.

“That concept [thinking before speaking] is way above Donald Trump’s paygrade, or I think, intellectual capacity, because he’s a visceral animal, politically and in business,” Steele said. “He feels that what he says is truth, and I think that is part of the problem in this environment, is he thinks it’s truth what he’s saying.”

Last year, Steele was triggered yet again after Trump shared an AI-generated image of himself dressed as the Pope.

“Trump in his narcissism gets off on our being offended,” Steele wrote at the time. “More to the point, this affirms how unserious and incapable he is. At 78, he remains a 10yo child, emotionally scarred and broken while desperate to prove he could be somebody. His problem: he can’t grow up to prove it.”