Dr. Phil struggled to keep a straight face as presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump ripped into Democratic California Rep. Adam Schiff in an interview that aired Thursday on “Merit Street” network.

Trump reflected on Schiff’s fervent promotion of “the Russia hoax,” telling Dr. Phil how the California congressman dragged his son, Donald Trump Jr., into the issue by suggesting his son would “go to jail” in front of the press.

“The whole system is rigged. I mean, it’s just a nasty system. Uh, the saddest is — I’ll give you one quick example. I have a son, Don, he’s a good kid. And he wants to help people. And they said he was involved with Russia. He knows less about Russia than that young person sitting right over there, who I’m sure knows nothing about Russia,” Trump said.

“Adam Schiff comes out and says, ‘Donald Trump Jr. will go to jail because of what he’s done with Russia.’ And it was Adam Schiff and Hillary Clinton and some others in the DNC that, they made up — think of how bad you have to be,” Trump continued. “You make up a phony story about Russia, Russia, Russia, the Russia hoax. You have the dossier, the whole thing, it’s all fake. They paid $12 million or something for the dossier, $12 million! They gave this guy, Steele, a fortune to do a fake story. It’s called the fake dossier, right?

Trump told Dr. Phil that he called Donald Trump Jr. after Schiff’s remarks and asked if he was “okay” and whether something occurred that he was unaware of. He slammed the Democratic representative for pushing a “fake” story. (RELATED: ‘She Has To Read All This Crap’: Donald Trump Tells Fox News Conviction ‘Very Hard’ On Wife, Children)

“How do you deal with that as a father?” Dr. Phil asked. “Because I’ve had that happen to me. I mean, you met my son Jordan. My other son, Jay. I’ve had stories about them and it infuriates me.”

“It’s, I mean I called him, I called him up. I knew it wasn’t true, but I said. This guy, these are not stupid people. I call him watermelon head! He’s got the thinnest neck I’ve ever seen. How it holds up that head? He’s got a neck that’s about a size six,” Trump told Dr. Phil, who appeared to be holding back a laugh.

“Very unattractive guy, both inside and outside. And people say, ‘Oh, that’s such a terrible thing to say.’ That’s okay. Very unattractive guy,” Trump continued as Dr. Phil appeared to be suppressing a smile.

“But here’s the thing, these are, these are bad people. And it’s not easy to deal with, you know, when you have your kids involved, or your family, your wife, and you read stuff, and most of it is untrue. It’s just totally untrue,” Trump said. “But think of that. They make up a story and say, ‘Your son’s going to jail’ for something that they know is false. These are bad people.”

The Steele dossier, the key source behind the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign for allegedly engaging in 2016 election interference with Russia, was debunked after it emerged that the FBI offered in Oct. 2016 to pay ex-British spy Christopher Steele $1 million for proof that he could corroborate claims made in it. Steele was unable “prove the allegations” in the dossier. Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) later paid a $113,000 fine for not reporting that the dossier was funded via the Perkins Coie law firm.