Trump we are told is afraid we’ll find out what deep down he knows about himself – that he’s stupid. Really? It explains a lot about his actions but it’s more than a little worrisome he’s so delusional that he’s convinced himself we don’t already know he’s a dumbass. (That’s dumbass with a ‘b’ Donnie Boy!) It would be funny if the consequences weren’t so awful.
Trump is, and has been since he was a child a failure in many ways. He tries to bury this self-awareness but deep down he knows it and he’s filled with self-loathing. It’s not uncommon for people to sometimes overcompensate for shortcoming but Trump takes it to a level few people do. Since he holds the power of the Presidency he can feed his ego, try to convince himself and others he’s so much more/better than people (including him) in ways that are breathtakingly destructive. That’s why we shouldn’t shrug off, much less laugh at his efforts to delude himself. However we must face this truth because as his biographer Michael Wolff explained to Alternet Trump genuinely fears we will all find out what he knows about himself – that’s he’s freaking stupid:
President Donald Trump has a deep, dark fear, according to a journalist who has spent years studying the man — and it is that people will discover he is quite literally stupid.
“Trump’s fear of this is so great, Michael Wolff tells the Inside Trump’s Head Podcast that the president’s college transcripts may very well be what Russian President Vladimir Putin holds over him,” reported The Daily Beast’s Sarah-Jane Collins on Sunday. “Wolff says the theory is not just his, adding that former Trump adviser Steve Bannon raised the same possibility.”
During the podcast where Wolff spoke about this he referenced talking to Steve Bannon about it. Remember, there was a time when Wolff had tremendous access to Trump and those who were in Trump’s orbit. No doubt Trump thought he could sell Wolff on how awesome he was, and that everyone he gave permission to talk to Wolff would back him up. Bannon (a onetime Naval Officer) is bilge waste as a person but unfortunately both smart and ruthless. Bannon is out for Bannon and serving Trump was nothing more than a means to get things done Bannon couldn’t do without help. However the difference in intellect is likely what produced the on again – off again relationship between those two vile men.
It’s been noted countless times that bad as he was during his first administration, for much of it Trump had some ‘adults in the room’ that did manage to rein in some of his worst excesses. Trump isn’t smart but like any good con-artist he’s savvy. When putting together his second administration Trump strove for Cabinet picks (and most other advisors) who he knew were even dumber, or weaker (or both) than him. That’s why we have someone as halpless as “Little Marco” Rubio at State, ‘Warrior’ Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon and so on. Trump has put together a team of idiot-savant sychophants, mostly so he could be the smartest one in the room. Hegseth in fact is the poster boy for all this:
Also in September, Wolff said that Trump’s intellectual insecurities explain why he repeatedly hires incompetent people to staff his administration — namely, so that he won’t feel inferior to them.
“Speaking on the Inside Trump’s Head podcast, Trump biographer Michael Wolff said, ‘This is not a secret,'” reported The Daily Beast’s Erkki Forster at the time, noting of Trump’s Secretary of Defense that “Pete Hegseth is a… blithering incompetent… yes-man, a suck-up, a man who… knows nothing, and no logic would say he would know enough to run the military-industrial complex.”
Wolff added that Hegseth’s “primary qualification is that he was… a weekend television co-host. So what in the name of God would he know about running… the United States military… at a moment… in which we are in the middle of a, basically, a revolution in terms of munitions, logistics, and supply.”
He continued, “Pete Hegseth is in this job because Donald Trump is intimidated by competence. It’s not just that he doesn’t want to be bossed around by people; it’s that he can’t deal with people who know things because—for the obvious reason—because he doesn’t know things.”
Back in August Wolff stated that Trump has filled his administration with morons because he can’t go having people around who are clearly smarter than he is. There are as I said exceptions. I already mentioned Wiles. AG Todd Blanche also comes to mind. He was once a highly respected lawyer and associates who worked with him at SDNY say he was an excellent prosecutor. People wonder what happened to him. My guess is that much as he hated to Trump shelled out a TON of money in an upfront retainer. Blanche had a price for his blind loyalty not just then but forever after and Trump paid it. For reasons I won’t get into here Blanch might be headed for a reckoning with Trump. If the two do wind up having a falling out (as happened with Bannon) it will be interesting to be sure. Well, like I said that’s a different and complex topic all on its own.
What matters is that Trump had to go out of his way to staff so many crucial jobs with people even dumber and more incompetent than he is. Still, sometimes he can’t suppress the knowledge he’s actually dumb. The linked article talks about how reporters have failed, despite considerable effort to get ahold of Trump’s high school and college transcripts. It also notes how he frequently touts his intellect. You’ve head that bullshit for yourself. And that’s what it is – bullshit and given how he likes to boast it’s telling that he’s worked so hard (or more like paid so much, and threatened too – now with the power of the Presidency) to hide proof of how well (or poorly) he did back in school. Going back to Bannon saying perhaps transcripts are what Putin his holding over Trumps head:
Wolff’s co-host, Joanna Coles, pointed out that despite numerous efforts from journalists, the public has yet to see either Trump’s high school transcripts or his college transcripts.
“We haven’t seen his high school transcripts. We haven’t seen either of his college transcripts,” Coles told Wolff. “They have been so successful in locking that stuff down. And, you know, if they were good, he would have floated them out there immediately.”
Wolff continued, “I think top of his list, top of the things that plagues him is being seen as stupid, for one reason: Because he is stupid.”
Coles added that the purpose of this speculation is to understand Trump, not to shame him for his potential intellectual deficiencies.
Understanding Trump is I think a relative thing. This does however explain a lot when you look at the overall picture. Keep in mind Trump’s propensity for projection. More time than any of us can remember when he makes accusations he’s often admitting HE is the one who has done what he accuses others of. In that context it makes sense he’d belittle other’s intellect, often in blunt terms. He’s lashing out. I always assumed it was in shame, but given what Wolff is saying it makes sense FEAR is just a big a reason. Still, as I said earlier what’s truly worrisome is that Trump’s delusional enough to not realize we already know he’s stupid. Even worse is that many of us have long known (and sometimes said) he KNOWS we know it but he somehow frantically convinces himself he was mistaken and that we don’t actually think, much less know the truth.
Someone that delusional with the kind of power a President has should terrify us all. I know it scares the hell out of many elected Republicans. Infuriatingly they are so selfish and want so badly to hold on to the status quo they are scared to call Trump out. The only way to rein Trump in some will be a Congress with both chambers controlled by Democrats. IF we can make the margins large enough it might finally convince a small number of Republicans to join in the effort to politically neuter him. So work like the future of our country depends on a big Democratic victory in the midterms. Because it does.
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This reinforces why he touts his cognitive tests as IQ tests. They are the only tests he has completed successfully. He needs something to back up his bragging.
You know who is nothing but a giant dickhead that’s as dumb as a rock and deep as a birdbath. On the hotplate of politics he thinks he’s Tge Big Kahuna, but in reality he’s all sizzle and no steak. No wonder he can’t cope with the reality that his own reptilian rat-cunning does nothing but undermines his grossly incompetent ‘recruitment and retention practices and resulting dipstick governmenting style’ to the detriment of all, because of his myopic self-loathing stupidity.