A Third-Class Intellect, But a Fourth-Class Temperament

http://prospect.org/article/third-class-intellect-fourth-class-temperament

A Third-Class Intellect, But a Fourth-Class Temperament
Paul Waldman
January 7, 2018
He's the stablest, most geniusy stable genius, believe me.


After the 2017 we had, it seems completely appropriate that as 2018 begins, we're arguing about whether Donald Trump is an idiot or a genius.

Or perhaps "arguing" is the wrong word. It isn't like there's some kind of grand debate afoot, in which the two parties articulate opposing views, marshall evidence, and work to convince the public that their side is correct. You'd have a hard time finding a Republican not in Trump's direct employ who would say with a straight face that the president is an intelligent man, and with the release of Michael Wolff's book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, in which Wolff describes how the White House staff has to work to accommodate the fact that their boss is a simpleton, the president's insecurities have come bursting out yet again. Nobody's going to call him stupid without him hitting back!

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And we have been seeing it, let's remind ourselves, at least since Trump began his run for president. Not only was he the most uninformed candidate in memory, he had no evident interest in learning about any substantive issue—yet proclaimed himself to know more about everything than anyone.

Of all Trump's boasts, the ones about his intelligence have always been the weirdest, because no one talks that way. There are boastful people who might brag about being rich or having achieved professional successes, but no one—especially not an actual smart person—goes around telling everyone how smart they are. You probably know some smart people in your own life, so ask yourself: Have you ever heard any of them say, "I'm really smart"? Of course you haven't.

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President Trump recognizes no limits on himself, or at least that's what he says in public. Yet only someone with a deep insecurity about the quality of his mind would spend so much time insisting that he's "like, really smart." That insistence speaks of fear and pain, which can only be exacerbated by the fact that his own aides are so frequently quoted in the press (often anonymously, sometimes not) saying that their boss is a blithering fool.

The dramatic accounts in Michael Wolff's book—particularly the comments of Steve Bannon—brought it an unusual amount of press attention, every bit of which seemed to make the president angrier. It only reinforced what we've heard from many White House reporters, about the chaos of this White House and the president's erratic behavior and cognitive limitations. We've only begun to hear about those topics, not only because there hasn't yet been a true insider tell-all from a former Trump aide, but also because things are likely to get worse. Trump is not growing or changing, and the pressures of the presidency have only exacerbated his copious character flaws.

As a 71-year-old man who never exercises and subsists largely on junk food, the potential for Trump to experience a cognitive decline in the next few years is real. If you thought 2017 was crazy, just wait for 2018, 2019, and 2020.