Savage is an idiot.
I think Savage is actually very intelligent. His Achilles heel is his ego, and anyone that might be thought of as another person with intelligence is a threat to him. Plus, there is no down side to his position. He tries to cast himself as an outsider, so being able to say that he didn’t like Newt from the start is valuable to him. He takes the whole “make the host look good” thing waaaay too far.