GOP strategist compares Trump team to ‘monkeys hurling their excrement at each other’

A GOP strategist lambasted President Trump on Thursday, saying that members of the president’s team couldn’t be less professional if they were monkeys “hurling their excrement at each other.”

In an interview on MSNBC’s “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell,” Steve Schmidt accused Trump’s closest aides of “vile” behavior, referencing the “chaos and incompetence” detailed in Michael Wolff’s newly published book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.”

“We see in this book the chaos, the incompetence, the recklessness, the unpreparedness for duties and responsibilities around the most powerful person in the world of this entire menagerie,” Schmidt said. “Truly, when you look at their comportment in this majestic place, the West Wing of the White House, they couldn’t be more vile than if they were monkeys hurling their excrement at each other in a cage.”

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Schmidt is a top critic of the Trump administration on the right, and has frequently attacked the president’s top aides in the past. The MSNBC contributor formerly served as Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) campaign manager during his unsuccessful 2008 presidential bid.

In December, Schmidt accused Trump and Republicans of passing the GOP plan to reform the tax code based on a “foundation of lies,” arguing that no true conservative could vote for the bill. No GOP senators voted against legislation, and only a few Republican defections occurred in the House.

“This tax bill demonstrates, once again, the total collapse of all and any rigor around the policymaking process in the GOP Congress,” Schmidt said last month. “It is built on a foundation of lies. It adds more than a trillion to the debt. No real conservative should vote for this.”

Schmidt also accused the president of assaulting “the dignity and the majesty” of his office last month with his attack on Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), when he tweeted the senator “would do anything” for campaign donations.

“It bears mentioning just for a moment how abnormal this is,” Schmidt said in December. “The assault, the constant assault on the dignity and the majesty of the office of the president of the United States.”