The Incredible Stupidity of Donald Trump
It’s official. President Donald Trump has passed a cognitive test with flying colors, thus putting the kibosh on widespread speculation that he is slipping into dementia. I am cynical enough to notice that he specifically asked to take the cognitive test, and that as a president with vast resources when he bothers to use them, he might have gone there already knowing the answers.
But let that go. Let’s assume it was on the up and up. That means that Trump’s incredible blunders can no longer be blamed on the sad decline of a self-reported “stable genius” who is “like, really smart.” No, it just means that he really is as dumb as a post.
Let’s look at his latest foot-in-mouth episode–or at least the latest as of this writing, since one doth tread upon another’s heels, so fast they follow. Trump was in a bi-partisan meeting on an immigration compromise bill when he blew it out of the water with some vile language about Haiti and Africa in general, and questioned why we don’t have immigrants from Norway instead. The bigotry was blatant and painful.
I’m not going to rage about the racism that emanating from our titular leader–enough people have already said plenty. I’m going to use the incident to prove just how stupid this guy really is. This was a bi-partisan meeting, which included Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin. That means Trump’s already out of his comfort zone of fawning Republicans. Also, one of the GOPers was Sen. Lindsay Graham, co-author of the bill that was being ripped to shreds, who has a history of bi-partisan cooperation, and who has been critical of Trump in the past.
In what universe did Trump think he could fling that kind of garbage around in the hearing of people who care and not have it flung right back at him? How could he not foresee that his words would be reported and that they would cover the news cycle for over a week, keeping him and his agenda on the defensive.
Some cynical and crass supporters argued that his words would resonate well with his “base,” which is a word that accurately describes the people that share his dark views about America’s place in the world. However that base is only one third of the nation, and it will vote for him no matter what. It’s the other two thirds he’d better worry about. He got in because too many people stayed home, allowing a minority to prevail. But he stirs them up every time he opens his mouth, and they will remember that at the polls.
We’ve seen it already in in deep red Alabama, where black voters roused themselves to turn back the Trump-supported candidate who spoke so nostalgically about the days when they were slaves. There’s more backlash where that came from. So, Mr. Stable Genius, just how is that “like, really smart?”