I would argue that Trump was significantly smarter than the median GOP primary candidate in '16 and '24. A lot of folks love to pillar him as stupid, but he clearly has an ability to read a room and reflect those feelings back to a crowd in a way DeSantis and Huckabee and Jeb! did not.
He was a frequent guest on the Howard Stern show. He continually forced himself into the lime light every single chance he got. Even the stupidest of fools is bound to develop a skill or two along the way, and over time he did develop media skills and the ability to read a crowd. But he’s still as stupid as a bag of soup.
But I also think he’s a product of the historical moment. His popularity is largely a consequence of decades of political orthodoxy on Rich People Being Better Than You, hammered into the heads of his base voters.
I largely agree with you, but I think his stupidity is a selling point as well. It’s what endears him to “the base”. He thinks like they do: poorly, infrequently…stupidly.
He has what I’ve taken to calling “carnival barker energy”. Certainly not intelligence, and not quite charisma, but a particular kind of stage presence that for some inexplicable reason attracts vibes based morons like flies on shit. He’s basically Cocomelon for manchildren and racists.
Even the stupidest of fools is bound to develop a skill or two along the way
“He’s the worst chess grandmaster of the lot. Never stops playing, keeps ranking up, just coasting along on the sheer number of games he’s played badly and learned from. Hands down, dumb as shit, I would only lose to him 99.95% of the time.”
Again, I think the term “stupid” is just a pejorative at this point. If he was a democrat who kept winning upset elections and outfoxing supposedly superior opponents, what kind of liberal would talk about him this way?
I think his stupidity is a selling point as well
He’s not fixated on looking like a braniac, which means he’s not getting caught in the Tucker Carlson trap of “You don’t even know how many people are in Iran! How can you support bombing them?” Trump isn’t claiming he’s got the encyclopedia memorized. Much like Bush Jr and Reagan, he’s focused on what plays well with the audience, not what sounds “smart” to the debate judges.
Is that stupid? Not when it accomplishes your intended goals.
Incidentally, one of the “dumbest” things Trump did in the wake of his '24 win was that ridiculous cryptocurrency that let him take bribes openly from foreign governments. It quickly restored him from “billionaire on paper” to “real fucking billionaire”. Not because it was so insidiously clever or legalistic, but because the Biden DOJ never prosecuted him when he was out of office. What’s more, the courts that Democrats refused to stack when they had a majority, have given him a free pass on criminal misconduct.
You can give a lot of credit for that to Mitch McConnell, as he spent his whole Senate career carefully staking appointed positions and encouraging career hires with Federalist Society flacks. But Trump’s the guy who is going to capitalize on all McConnell’s hard work and Clinton/Obama/Biden’s passivity. So who really looks like the dumb-dumb here?
Again, I think the term “stupid” is just a pejorative at this point. If he was a democrat who kept winning upset elections and outfoxing supposedly superior opponents, what kind of liberal would talk about him this way?
For direct comparison, I agree that Biden is stupid. Though I do think he was less stupid at earlier points in his life.
He’s not fixated on looking like a braniac
He is not capable of even looking like a brainiac unless the audience is also stupid or easily fooled (which is basically being temporarily stupid).
So who really looks like the dumb-dumb here?
Trump still looks stupid. He definitely is opportunistic and he is surrounded by some people that think strategically and long-term. But he’s still the sloppy, stupid opportunist. He’s every bit the farcical version of Hitler that Marx’s quip predicts.
I feel like you’re reading into me saying he’s stupid and thinking that means I don’t think he’s dangerous. I think he’s plenty dangerous. I think he’s been continually written-off as a clown that nobody would approve of let alone vote for several times partially because of his stupidity and his seeming unseriousness. But he’s plenty serious and still plentifully, absurdly stupid.
His stupidity helped him on multiple fronts in US politics. It helped him create a frothing base of “supporters” (a term that I don’t recall many using prior to 2016), it helped his political opponents dismiss him as a serious threat, and it even helped him on the debate stage where if he could string together a series of loud words it was considered a victory for him.
I do think he was less stupid at earlier points in his life.
He rubber stamped Clarence Thomas through the judiciary committee and bought the Bush “WMDs” lie hook, line, and sinker. Also had his hands all over the Patriot Act of 2001 (and it’s iterative reauthorizations) and the Bankruptcy Bill of 2005, which accelerated us into our modern fascist state.
Evil or Stupid, take your pick. But the man who delivered Strom Thurmond’s eulogy was one fucked choice for party leader.
I think he’s plenty dangerous. I think he’s been continually written-off as a clown that nobody would approve of let alone vote for several times partially because of his stupidity and his seeming unseriousness. But he’s plenty serious and still plentifully, absurdly stupid.
I’ll spot you Trump as “useful idiot”, but he’s been very successful at getting what he wants (money, fame, power, a slavishly loyal paramilitary intent on ethnically cleansing the country).
Maybe the US is just predisposed to delivering those results and Trump was dealt a winning hand at birth. But you can only call the guy cleaning up all the chips at the table “stupid” for so long before you start looking like a sore loser.
He knows exactly what he needs to know in order to get what he desires. And they’re been nothing I’ve seen, to date, to suggest he’s less savvy than any of the “smart” politicians he crushed on the way to the top.
I’ll spot you Trump as “useful idiot”, but he’s been very successful at getting what he wants (money, fame, power, a slavishly loyal paramilitary intent on ethnically cleansing the country).
His success is on the back of 40+ years of the hollowing out of government by the duopoly of neoliberal politics. He stands on the shoulders of midgets…or weaklings, or corruption, or a pile of invertebrates or something.
Maybe the US is just predisposed to delivering those results and Trump was dealt a winning hand at birth. But you can only call the guy cleaning up all the chips at the table “stupid” for so long before you start looking like a sore loser.
Trump was absolutely dealt a winning hand at birth. He was born a rich heir to a real estate mogul in New York. He failsonned, grifted, and bullied his way through multiple (mostly failed) businesses, failed up, and lived his entire adult life during an era of rapid capital expansion.
Without his riches, as you concede, he would not have the juice he needed to make a splash on the political stage.
If you want to call me a sore loser for stating clearly the plainly visible fact that Donald J. Trump is stupid, then so be it.
The guy thought that annotations on an “explainer” photograph were tattoos despite some of the annotations floating off of the guy’s knuckles. He mused aloud in front of a national audience about injecting disinfectants to cure COVID. He’s a stupid fucking idiot.
His success is on the back of 40+ years of the hollowing out of government by the duopoly of neoliberal politics.
Like a Cordyceps, hijacking the brain of its host and spurring it on to engage in self-destructive activity. And you can reasonably claim that cordyceps is dumb as shit. But you can’t argue it isn’t getting what it wants.
Without his riches, as you concede, he would not have the juice he needed to make a splash on the political stage.
Right. Although I keep seeing liberals cling to the theory that a Gore Presidency or a Hillary win in '16 (or even '08) or a second Biden term would have somehow averted our modern moment, rather than getting here by other means. What it consistently overlooks is the habit of Democrats in leadership - even when they’ve got the supermajorities and the friendly courts and the big municipal governments and major businesses in alignment - tidying things up and then sitting on their hands until they can pass power back to the fascists.
FFS, Bush Jr had the entire finance system handed to him on a silver platter in 2008. He passed control over to Obama, who politely helps the biggest plutocrats in the country get their books back in the black, and then hands everything right back to the crooks who bankrupted the system. The '08/'09 handover set the stage for our modern economic moment. Guys like Theil and Musk and Bezos couldn’t exist in a world without Mega-Banks hyper-inflating tech sector asset prices. Tech monopolies are what created the social media that elevated Trump’s fascist movement. And here we are.
If you want to talk about a politician being a dumb-fuck, you have to wonder at what Barry was thinking when he got in bed with both the Wall Street scorpions (who would immediately stab him in the back in the mid-year cycle) and Silicon Valley (which twisted in the wind for another decade before firmly aligning with MAGA).
The guy thought that annotations on an “explainer” photograph were tattoos despite some of the annotations floating off of the guy’s knuckles.
Trump found some useful propaganda to circulate in order to get people to break his way. By the time he was done, it was the Democrats where trying to explain what an AI generated knuckle-tattoo looks like while Trump was happily cashing the checks Bidencrats signed to unleash his ICE paramilitary across the country.
And you can reasonably claim that cordyceps is dumb as shit. But you can’t argue it isn’t getting what it wants.
Totally agree.
If you want to talk about a politician being a dumb-fuck, you have to wonder at what Barry was thinking when he got in bed with both the Wall Street scorpions (who would immediately stab him in the back in the mid-year cycle) and Silicon Valley (which twisted in the wind for another decade before firmly aligning with MAGA).
I think he had a very common liberal, capitalism-sized blind spot. I’m willing to admit I had the same one at the time. He also was definitely beholden to interests and was 0% of the communist / socialist that everyone continually pretended (and still pretends) he was.
Trump found some useful propaganda to circulate in order to get people to break his way.
One of his team of lackeys presented him the annotated photograph and he confused it with reality. He’s oceans worth of stupid and there are countless examples of this.
He was a frequent guest on the Howard Stern show. He continually forced himself into the lime light every single chance he got. Even the stupidest of fools is bound to develop a skill or two along the way, and over time he did develop media skills and the ability to read a crowd. But he’s still as stupid as a bag of soup.
I largely agree with you, but I think his stupidity is a selling point as well. It’s what endears him to “the base”. He thinks like they do: poorly, infrequently…stupidly.
He has what I’ve taken to calling “carnival barker energy”. Certainly not intelligence, and not quite charisma, but a particular kind of stage presence that for some inexplicable reason attracts vibes based morons like flies on shit. He’s basically Cocomelon for manchildren and racists.
“He’s the worst chess grandmaster of the lot. Never stops playing, keeps ranking up, just coasting along on the sheer number of games he’s played badly and learned from. Hands down, dumb as shit, I would only lose to him 99.95% of the time.”
Again, I think the term “stupid” is just a pejorative at this point. If he was a democrat who kept winning upset elections and outfoxing supposedly superior opponents, what kind of liberal would talk about him this way?
He’s not fixated on looking like a braniac, which means he’s not getting caught in the Tucker Carlson trap of “You don’t even know how many people are in Iran! How can you support bombing them?” Trump isn’t claiming he’s got the encyclopedia memorized. Much like Bush Jr and Reagan, he’s focused on what plays well with the audience, not what sounds “smart” to the debate judges.
Is that stupid? Not when it accomplishes your intended goals.
Incidentally, one of the “dumbest” things Trump did in the wake of his '24 win was that ridiculous cryptocurrency that let him take bribes openly from foreign governments. It quickly restored him from “billionaire on paper” to “real fucking billionaire”. Not because it was so insidiously clever or legalistic, but because the Biden DOJ never prosecuted him when he was out of office. What’s more, the courts that Democrats refused to stack when they had a majority, have given him a free pass on criminal misconduct.
You can give a lot of credit for that to Mitch McConnell, as he spent his whole Senate career carefully staking appointed positions and encouraging career hires with Federalist Society flacks. But Trump’s the guy who is going to capitalize on all McConnell’s hard work and Clinton/Obama/Biden’s passivity. So who really looks like the dumb-dumb here?
For direct comparison, I agree that Biden is stupid. Though I do think he was less stupid at earlier points in his life.
He is not capable of even looking like a brainiac unless the audience is also stupid or easily fooled (which is basically being temporarily stupid).
Trump still looks stupid. He definitely is opportunistic and he is surrounded by some people that think strategically and long-term. But he’s still the sloppy, stupid opportunist. He’s every bit the farcical version of Hitler that Marx’s quip predicts.
I feel like you’re reading into me saying he’s stupid and thinking that means I don’t think he’s dangerous. I think he’s plenty dangerous. I think he’s been continually written-off as a clown that nobody would approve of let alone vote for several times partially because of his stupidity and his seeming unseriousness. But he’s plenty serious and still plentifully, absurdly stupid.
His stupidity helped him on multiple fronts in US politics. It helped him create a frothing base of “supporters” (a term that I don’t recall many using prior to 2016), it helped his political opponents dismiss him as a serious threat, and it even helped him on the debate stage where if he could string together a series of loud words it was considered a victory for him.
He rubber stamped Clarence Thomas through the judiciary committee and bought the Bush “WMDs” lie hook, line, and sinker. Also had his hands all over the Patriot Act of 2001 (and it’s iterative reauthorizations) and the Bankruptcy Bill of 2005, which accelerated us into our modern fascist state.
Evil or Stupid, take your pick. But the man who delivered Strom Thurmond’s eulogy was one fucked choice for party leader.
I’ll spot you Trump as “useful idiot”, but he’s been very successful at getting what he wants (money, fame, power, a slavishly loyal paramilitary intent on ethnically cleansing the country).
Maybe the US is just predisposed to delivering those results and Trump was dealt a winning hand at birth. But you can only call the guy cleaning up all the chips at the table “stupid” for so long before you start looking like a sore loser.
He knows exactly what he needs to know in order to get what he desires. And they’re been nothing I’ve seen, to date, to suggest he’s less savvy than any of the “smart” politicians he crushed on the way to the top.
His success is on the back of 40+ years of the hollowing out of government by the duopoly of neoliberal politics. He stands on the shoulders of midgets…or weaklings, or corruption, or a pile of invertebrates or something.
Trump was absolutely dealt a winning hand at birth. He was born a rich heir to a real estate mogul in New York. He failsonned, grifted, and bullied his way through multiple (mostly failed) businesses, failed up, and lived his entire adult life during an era of rapid capital expansion.
Without his riches, as you concede, he would not have the juice he needed to make a splash on the political stage.
If you want to call me a sore loser for stating clearly the plainly visible fact that Donald J. Trump is stupid, then so be it.
The guy thought that annotations on an “explainer” photograph were tattoos despite some of the annotations floating off of the guy’s knuckles. He mused aloud in front of a national audience about injecting disinfectants to cure COVID. He’s a stupid fucking idiot.
Like a Cordyceps, hijacking the brain of its host and spurring it on to engage in self-destructive activity. And you can reasonably claim that cordyceps is dumb as shit. But you can’t argue it isn’t getting what it wants.
Right. Although I keep seeing liberals cling to the theory that a Gore Presidency or a Hillary win in '16 (or even '08) or a second Biden term would have somehow averted our modern moment, rather than getting here by other means. What it consistently overlooks is the habit of Democrats in leadership - even when they’ve got the supermajorities and the friendly courts and the big municipal governments and major businesses in alignment - tidying things up and then sitting on their hands until they can pass power back to the fascists.
FFS, Bush Jr had the entire finance system handed to him on a silver platter in 2008. He passed control over to Obama, who politely helps the biggest plutocrats in the country get their books back in the black, and then hands everything right back to the crooks who bankrupted the system. The '08/'09 handover set the stage for our modern economic moment. Guys like Theil and Musk and Bezos couldn’t exist in a world without Mega-Banks hyper-inflating tech sector asset prices. Tech monopolies are what created the social media that elevated Trump’s fascist movement. And here we are.
If you want to talk about a politician being a dumb-fuck, you have to wonder at what Barry was thinking when he got in bed with both the Wall Street scorpions (who would immediately stab him in the back in the mid-year cycle) and Silicon Valley (which twisted in the wind for another decade before firmly aligning with MAGA).
Trump found some useful propaganda to circulate in order to get people to break his way. By the time he was done, it was the Democrats where trying to explain what an AI generated knuckle-tattoo looks like while Trump was happily cashing the checks Bidencrats signed to unleash his ICE paramilitary across the country.
Totally agree.
I think he had a very common liberal, capitalism-sized blind spot. I’m willing to admit I had the same one at the time. He also was definitely beholden to interests and was 0% of the communist / socialist that everyone continually pretended (and still pretends) he was.
One of his team of lackeys presented him the annotated photograph and he confused it with reality. He’s oceans worth of stupid and there are countless examples of this.