Actually
Sigh.
CNN:
President Donald Trump stepped up attacks on his handpicked Federal Reserve chairman on Wednesday, claiming Jerome Powell has “low IQ” and suggested that he has narrowed down the list of potential replacements to three or four people.
“He’s an average mentally person…Low IQ for what he does,” Trump said of Powell during remarks at a press conference at the NATO summit in the Netherlands Wednesday. “I think he’s a very stupid person, actually.”
Well which is it? Average or very stupid?
Tell you what: only a very stupid person starts with “average” and then pivots to “very stupid” and tries to get away with it by adding “actually.”
But really. Trump is horrifyingly successful, obviously, but not because he’s intelligent. He’s successful in part because he’s stupid – because people feel boosted by his success: if a fool like him can do it then anyone can.
It turns out that intelligence, thought, study, knowledge, understanding don’t succeed the way determined greed and rage and envy do.
If Powell is so thick, why did Trump appoint him? Didn’t Trump promise to appoint only the very best people? Was Trump fooled by Powell into thinking that Powell was intelligent? If so, what does that say about Trump’s intelligence, that a stupid person could fool him?
Of course, the way Trump speaks is like a primary school kid justifying aloud his own bad behaviour to himself, not even considering for one second whether anyone can overhear him. As what is left of Trump’s mind unravels, there’s nothing left but self-justifying narcissistic rage and humiliating meltdowns.
And the launch codes. Don’t forget them.
Anyone remember those kids in grammar school who were never able to keep up with reading and writing, and became angry at the other kids who mastered it easily? I’m sure a portion of those kids became lifelong illiterates, but I never expected one would be elected president, much less twice.