After listening to Cohen...

[Trueblue Texan]

I've decided on something I could never quite be certain of: Donald Trump is not stupid. He is merely lazy and undisciplined in his thinking and intellectual development. He manages to be pretty shrewd about things when he wants to be, like ripping people off, shirking responsibility and bullying his way through life. But he wasn't born a moron. We all have potential to develop in any direction. Too bad he took a decent brain and developed only his criminal potential. And he was lazy even about that. But Putin sure knew who to peg to carry out his plan, didn't he? So when the whole truth comes out, I won't be wondering if he was just a patsy to Putin's master plan. He was a WILLING tool to gain as much advantage and power for himself as he could. Let him pay the full price for making that decision about his life. When Cummings says this may make Donald Trump a better person, I absolutely disagree. But it will make him a less destructive person.

[duforsure]

1. Well said!

Thank You. Putin took advantage and ran with it with trump, and probably suggested to his ego he could also be like putin if he did this, amassing huge amounts of wealth for himself , and by stroking his ego how really wealthy he could really be.

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

2. You lost me at "decent brain"

Trump isn't smart. If he wasn't born rich he'd be selling time shares or Amway. He's perfected a couple of tricks that have allowed him to accumulate some wealth. That's all they are. Tricks. I'm sure there are a number of people here on DU that have dogs that can do a couple of tricks. He's an amoral degenerate. He has always been an amoral degenerate. I do agree about making him pay the full price for his actions. He's got a lifetime of transgressions to pay for.

[Trueblue Texan]

5. Well, now...I never said he was smart!

But he got handed a functioning brain like most of us...maybe not the sharpest, but certainly lacking any serious developmental deficits. What he did with the intelligence he was born with is a totally different thing. He developed his skills at manipulation, bullying, lying, cheating, etc. He might have chosen other talents to develop, but he did not. He deserves what he gets. Or rather, he deserves the full weight of justice.

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

7. Fair enough!

[True Dough]

3. I essentially agree

So many of us underestimate Trump because he speaks like an ill-mannered 4th grader. But he's learned a lot of tricks over the years and knows how to use his power to manipulate sheep. He is also pretty good at covering his tracks, but nowhere good enough to stay clear of someone like Mr. Mueller.

[C_U_L8R]

4. Devious when it comes to self preservation & profit

But pretty stupid at the rest of existence. Especially anything that involves compassion, generosity or lifting global goodness higher.

[unblock]

6. i disagree. he isn't particularly clever in his methods.

he's willing and even eager to do things the rest of us consider unethical, unconscionable, and/or illegal. that's all there is to it.

he's not adept at covering his tracks other than by threatening and bullying people. there's no shrewdness or brains on display in doing that.

in fact, he's rather clumsy at it. look at the whole way he tried to buy stormy's silence. well, first off, there's no brains going on in getting himself into that expensive mess in the first place for two strokes of pleasure. then, he can't figure out how to pay her off without committing a campaign finance crimes. he leaves a paper trail that clearly ties him to the payments. as president, no less.


most of what he's done is:
a) exploiting defects in our court system that lets rich people bully others and get away with it and
b) exploiting defects in our media system that lets flagrant liars set create a circus environment where he can run from one scandal to the next, for some time at least. well, at least if you're a republican.


i will say that he knows what he's doing. i think he knows truth from fiction. he's a conman and has complete disrespect for the american people, seeing his loyal followers as dupes to be used for applause and credibility while he runs his other cons for financial gain.

but it's neither a smart business to be in, nor is he particularly smart about how he goes about doing it.

our systems just aren't set up to quickly punish someone for doing what he's doing, that's all.

[Trueblue Texan]

8. you nailed it, exactly

I've said all along Trump and the mob he leads will be finished off by their ignorance and arrogance. It's not a lack of intelligence. It's that misplaced sense of entitlement and superiority that will take them all down in the end.