Bill Barr endorsed Trump after years of criticism. Trump responded by brutally taunting him

Bill Barr, the U.S. Attorney General under former President Donald Trump — who once called his former boss "erratic" and "petty" and dismissed his false claims of a stolen 2020 election — told Fox News that he would still vote for the former president in November.

"The real danger to the country — the real danger to democracy, as I say — is the progressive agenda," Barr said, calling the prosecution of Trump for illegally covering up hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels a "perversion of justice."

Trump rewarded Barr's renewed allegiance with a mocking Truth Social post that doubled down on past name-calling. "Former A.G. Bill Barr, who let a lot of great people down by not investigating Voter Fraud in our Country, has just Endorsed me for President despite the fact that I called him 'Weak, Slow Moving, Lethargic, Gutless, and Lazy' (New York Post!)," he wrote. "Based on the fact that I greatly appreciate his wholehearted Endorsement, I am removing the word 'Lethargic' from my statement."

Before distancing himself from Trump, Barr was one of the administration's most prominent figures, using his position to protect Trump from legal probes, enforce his orders targeting anti-fascist protesters, and echo his inflammatory rhetoric on everything from pandemic restrictions to the security of mail-in ballots. But the fallout of the 2020 election persuaded Barr to jump ship, at least for a time, as he rejected Trump's false claims of mass fraud. When Barr published a book to defend his own reputation, Trump called him "a disappointment in every sense of the word."

The Fox News interview isn't the first time Barr has indicated that he remains a loyal soldier for the GOP. In 2022, he told NBC  that it was "inconceivable to me that I wouldn’t vote for the Republican nominee.”