We must face reality. Trump is not a stupid man. Far from it.

[Irish_Dem]

Trump is not an educated man, not an intellectual, not intellectually curious in the least.

However he is a cunning, street smart, ruthless sociopath.
He is very very dangerous, and not to be underestimated.

ETA He has no shame, no morals, no concern for anyone else but himself.
He will destroy as much of this country as necessary to get what he wants.

Trump has aligned himself with other evil, powerful and smart leaders who mean us harm.

Trump has conned his huge adoring cult, the GOP congress, and is doing rope a dope with the US court system.
And has the US Supreme Court in his pocket.

The US media is his propaganda arm.

He has other people pay all of his court costs, fines, and attorney fees.

The US courts are afraid of him.
The GOP congress is afraid of him.
Anyone who crosses him soon becomes afraid of him.

He was installed into the most powerful position on the planet, POTUS.
And has a good chance of stealing the next election as well.

A stupid man could have not done all of this.

ETA He has an animal cunning, and knows how to work the system to his advantage.
This is one of his talents.

As long as we continue to underestimate Trump, he will always be one step ahead of us.

Trump is very slimy, slippery, devious. And knows how to play all the angles.
Last time was a dry run.
Now he knows how and when to press the levers of power.

(My credentials to make comments about intellectual functioning: PhD from a large public university.
Ph.D. in a mental health field with specialty area in the intellectual and personalty assessment of adults
and children. Retired as a mental health professional with 40 years clinical practice conducting extensive
individual psych evaluations for courts, police, schools, employers, etc.)

[All Mixed Up]

1. No. He's dumb.

[Irish_Dem]

7. This man is very dangerous.

He will burn it all down to get his way.
He will sell out this country to get his way.

He has placed himself in a position of great power.

This is far from a dumb man.

[All Mixed Up]

10. No. He's dumb.

Had Trump not been born to a rich father, he'd be dead or wasting away in prison for his multiple scams.

The problem with people like you is that you equate financial resources with smarts. It's not the case.

Give a lowlife, low-IQ scammer the money Trump has to perpetrate his scams, pay people off and get lawyers who are smart, and they'd probably be "successfully dangerous" too.

[dchill]

76. "...people like you ..."

Uh huh. And people like you who are just wrong.

[All Mixed Up]

102. Because I think Trump is dumb?

lmao okay my dude.

Trump is dumb.

He's not where he is because he's smart. The dude is where he is because he was born wealthy. He's a guy who has had gift after gift handed to him, including a slam dunk reelection campaign in 2020, and time after time has pissed it away. Why?

BECAUSE HE'S DUMB.

[Demsrule86]

169. I think Trump is dumb too...you mistake cunnine for brains.

[dchill]

170. I just think his survival instinct is remarkable.

That and his sociopathy are substitutes for intellect.

[Demsrule86]

178. I went to High School and college in Connecticut... Trump is an absolute pig. and

he got away with much...the Roy Cohn fix type crap. But eventually Cohn went down and Trump will too. I really believe this is Trump's last stand and in the end, maybe not everything will stick but much will. Also, I do not think he has a chance to win the election in November either.

[Woodwizard]

150. Agree

If he had not had the advantage of money to be surrounded by sycophants he would just be one of the regular village idiots.

I know many people like trump but their manipulation and toxicity does not spread besides a small circle, usually family.

[oldsoftie]

181. No, they'd more likely blow the money and have to start over. Trump IS different.

They also wouldnt work day & night to destroy everything for power; they'd just want to scam more money.

[Scrivener7]

251. "The problem with people like you." You know that poster well enough that you can tell them their problems?

That's a pretty ignorant approach.

[AZ8theist]

41. DOTURD IS AN IMBECILE

If you want to claim he's some kind of "idiot savant" when it comes to conning people out of money, so be it.

But he is INCREDIBLY STUPID. His own (former) SoS called him "fucking stupid"....

[COL Mustard]

80. His cult members think he

Plays 47-D chess. He only poops his pants and smells bad.

[AZ8theist]

116. Exactly:

[ShazzieB]

83. I agree that he is stupid.

The fact that he refers to himself as "a very stable genius" and continually brags about how smart he is, his "very large brain," his "acing" a senility test, etc., is proof enough for me. He doesn't act like someone who has confidence in his own intelligence. He acts like a dumb guy who wants to be seen as smart and is obsessed with convincing himself that he is.

[Irish_Dem]

118. He most certainly is not an "imbecile."

He is a cunning con artist and quite dangerous.

[NanaCat]

146. Cunning does not require intelligence

Over the imbecile range.

Exhibit A: Komodo dragons.

[AZ8theist]

163. Yeah, cuz most intelligent people suggest drinking bleach....

[Bengus81]

223. Or sticking a light down into your lungs...........

[AZ8theist]

225. Down your lungs??! Don't be ridiculous.

He suggested shoving it up your nether region. THAT ....was real intelligent medical advice.

[Ray Bruns]

53. Dumb as a rock

[pwb]

2. He is a rich child man who used money and lawyers to bully

everyone. He is a dumb fuck IMO.

[Irish_Dem]

4. Someone stupid does not rise to his high position of power.

And have half the US government afraid of him.

[pwb]

11. He has people for everything.

He looks like a clown and doesn't know it. I haven't learned anything from trump so far. He is dumb.

[Irish_Dem]

120. Michael Cohen says Trump is IN CHARGE.

All roads lead back to Trump authorizing all the crimes.

And he is smart enough to make others take the rap for him.

[MadameButterfly]

15. Despotic behavior with no shame, with advice from Putin may get one far at first

Last edited Fri Mar 22, 2024, 11:37 AM - Edit history (2)

but someone smart wouldn't have undermined his strategy with 91 indictments and financial vulnerabilities. Despots generally fall eventually because of their limited thinking. Hitler for example, after wielding enormous power destroyed himself with stupid bungles like attacking Russia. He was much like Trump in thinking he was smarter than others and didn't need to listen to advice.

I think the poster knows of what he speaks, but I'm not talking about IQ here. A person with no moral compass doesn't make decisions even in his own interest. However things turn out, power won't make him happy, he won't have the love he seeks, and the emotional shutting down he must do to overlook the destruction he wages will destroy him mentally and physically. He lives in fear and will until the day he dies. Which won't be so far off.

[ECL213]

162. Yeah! And George W. Bush was a regular Alfred Einstein!

[forgotmylogin]

192. He's a narcissist with money.

He can pay people to tell him what he wants to hear - or until recently he could. Narcissists are smart and skilled at manipulation, which needn't reflect on their actual intelligence. We've been told Trump is incurious about anything that doesn't involve himself, and had to be tricked into reading PDBs by dropping his name in them, and he would rarely read past bullet points. I think what people see as "smart" is more opportunist. He doesn't want to learn and do the work so much as he wants to support what makes him and his "brand" look good. That's different from a wise person who understands their own personal shortcomings and will rely on and trust experts in fields where they are not experts.

In the past he had a degree of charisma and fame and a "luxury brand" that also drew people to him (Stormy Daniels totally did what she did because she wanted to be on a reality show and "in" with the country-club crowd.) When he became president by failing upward he then had political influence everyone wanted, and he thought that type of transaction was the "job" of being president. He wanted to be a king, and the closest to that is the dictator club he sucks up to that views him as a useful idiot because now he has classified intelligence he can barter to feel the power he craves being in that club.

The minute you stop flicking the narcissist's bean in the manner they like, they have no use for you. The narcissist needs to find another source to feed their ego. That's smackingly easier if you're a billionaire with property and toys and influence so you already have an orbit of people ready to say whatever will twiddle that bean and keep themselves in there maintaining the narcissist's fantasy world which the narcissist starts believing is sincere and not due to money/attention whoring at all, so when it crashes down it's a major meltdown and not just self-realization.

Trump is no longer young-ish and charismatic, he's got public lawsuits he can't hide, and now he's set to have ridiculous cash-flow problems. We'll see how long Lara Trump can hire people to cheer at his rallies if he doesn't just decide that post-trial press-gaggles are his discount campaign trail now.

[JohnSJ]

3. Every single one of the issues he is being charged on were caused by HIM. I

don’t think that is particularly smart.

[a kennedy]

5. and it's about DAMN time he pays for it all

🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬

[JohnSJ]

16. ABSOLUTELY

[0rganism]

148. And it looks like he's going to delay all the criminal cases until after the election

He might not be smart, but his legal strategy appears to be working well enough.

[brush]

6. Oh, he's stupid all right as he's a criminal defendant out on bail on multiple felony charges...

and twice impeached, owes over half a billion dollars and has been publicly deemed a rapist by the judge in the E.Jean Carroll case. He's also an insurrectionist traitor trying to save his ass.

Ya don't see smart people caught up in such a deep, criminal cesspool.

[Irish_Dem]

12. Someone stupid would have been in jail a long time ago.

Someone stupid would not have gotten others to pay all his legal bills.

That is a fact.

But Trump is slippery and slimy, and is playing the US court system like a fiddle.

The court fines mean nothing to him.
As Andrew Weissmann says, Trump has a sugar daddy paying his bills.

Stupid people end up in jail. So far it does not look like Trump will ever go to jail.

He doesn't even have to pay his own legal bills.

Doesn't sound stupid to me.

And he has a good chance of cheating his way back into the WH.
And he can drop all charges against him.

Doesn't sound stupid to me.

[ProfessorGAC]

25. Let Me Fix That For You

"Someone stupid poor would have been in jail a long time ago.

[MorbidButterflyTat]

28. Yep

[Tree-Hugger]

34. This right here. nt

[orangecrush]

71. Liberty and Justice

For all them that can afford it.

[Paladin]

157. Bullseye. Thank you, ProfessorGAC. (nt)

[hurple]

73. That is not a fact

Trump is an absolute idiot.

But, he is also a bully. A terrorizing bully. He has bullied his way through life and continues to bully anyone and everyone he comes in contact with... except the bigger, louder, more successful bullies.

The people who worship him are bully wannabes. They defer to him for the same reason he defers to bigger, badder bullies.

The people who kowtow to his every whim are those afraid to stand up to the bullies.

The only reason he is successful is because his entire life he has had the money and/or power to be able to use the press as his terror bully tool.

The press fawn on him because... ratings... because he is so outrageous and such a loud, terrorizing bully. They gravitate to that instead of the quiet, thoughtful types because... rubbernecking car wrecks is such a thing. And he gives them what they want; loud, angry, nasty, over the top antics everyday.

[Irish_Dem]

121. It is a fact that most of us would be in jail right now

if we had committed a fraction of Trump's crimes.

[Paladin]

174. Thank you for that badly-needed comment. (nt)

[TSExile]

8. He's not smart, but he's shrewd.

He does surround himself with people who are smarter, or who at least know better.

[Irish_Dem]

13. Yes this is my point. He has an animal cunning.

And knows how to work the system.

[brush]

17. All he knows how to do is sic sycophants and attorneys on problems he himself has created.

Again, problems he himself has created.

And that's only because he has money which he inherited...correction...some he and his sister stole from his dead brother's estate.

Evil, yes. Genius, NO.

[whopis01]

35. That maybe true to an extent

But another factor is that people who are looking for wealth and power ingratiate themselves to him. They recognize that his perceived wealth and power combined with his stupidity and narcissism make him an excellent target. Not a target to rip off or steal from directly but one that can be manipulated easily for someone else’s benefit.

It is a strange game of doing that at so many levels all the way down to his MAGA supporters.

Trump wouldn’t be anywhere near the threat he is if it were not for all of those that he empowers or those that empower themselves through him.

[TSExile]

49. Absolutely.

He wouldn't be such a threat if certain people would stop enabling him. You're totally right.

[Irish_Dem]

66. Manipulating people into taking care of him is one of his talents.

None of this is by accident.

Yes he is easily manipulated, most narcissists are.

But the con job is a two way street.

His minders help install him into office and pay his bills.

[Auggie]

159. +1

I'd add to your excellent comments that he has learned the value of being of a celebrity and how to use it.

[spanone]

9. K&R

[stopdiggin]

14. the man has a thoroughly mediocre record

following him throughout his life. Please don't try to convince me of some stripe of superior acumen or IQ. It just simply doesn't exist.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

[Irish_Dem]

134. Becoming President of the United States is NOT mediocre.

Running again when he has a criminal record, is NOT mediocre.

Controlling the US congress, the Supreme Court and many judges is NOT mediocre.

Committing so many crimes and evading justice is NOT mediocre.

[stopdiggin]

165. George W., Ronald Reagan

(and according to historians Harding, Coolidge and Taylor) - and of course our own Donald John Trump - who thought it would be a good idea to explore nuking a hurricane, and bleaching Covid (while staff recoiled in horror around him).

But you're right of course - intellectual giants all of them!

[Irish_Dem]

215. Being elected POTUS is no small feat.

It is not the sign of someone stupid.

[stopdiggin]

219. and yet I just listed a number of definatively mediocre intellects that did -(nt)-

[MFM008]

201. Trump never won

The popular vote, he accidentally is the luckiest bastard alive.

[appmanga]

18. Of course a stupid man could have done this...

...because a stupid man has.

Trump has done what he's spent a lifetime doing: being so utterly audacious, people who rely on logic, rules, order, and propriety have stood no chance against him because they operate within those frameworks. A person who has no constraints when it come to their behavior, who's bereft of concern or shame, is even more perplexing than the Kamikaze or the suicide bomber. "Grab 'em by the pussy" or a rape in broad daylight in the public venue of a department store is so far to the outer end of effrontery it makes sense his victims wouldn't immediately know how to react because such things are so far afield of conventional behavior.

Trump isn't just a tax cheat, he may well be the most prolific tax cheat in modern American history, lying without reservation about facts easily proved by the most rudimentary investigation, and yet he got away with it for years. The outrageous lies like Mika Brezinski bleeding from a post-surgery bandaged face, or seeing Arab-Americans cheer the destruction on 9/11 are without parallel from any other public figure. The outrageous insistence in public that COVID was no more serious than the flu while acknowledging its danger privately to Bob Woodward because of what he'd been told by the medical professionals around him; but couple that with the ostentatiously ignorant musings about injecting bleach and inserting UV light into body cavities while those same professionals cowed within in his eyesight, despite knowing what they were hearing was pretty damned batshit crazy. Trump, as usual, went unchallenged by authorities equipped to do so.

I respect your credentials and your expertise, but I know a moron when I see one. This is no evil genius, but it's also no garden variety sociopath. What Trump has is spades is the quality common to history's most well known, most dangerous, and most vicious dictators: naked, unbridled, unchecked, audacity.

And he has yet to be stopped.

[Irish_Dem]

94. A stupid man would have been in jail by now.

The best sociopaths don't break the law, they make the law.

[Kaleva]

19. The people who have worked for him disagree

Trump has been called many things by those who worked closely with him and smart or cunning is rarely on any of their lists.


The two justices on SCOTUS that TFG could and can rely most on were not selected by him. Thomas and Alito . The 3 Trump did select (vetted and approved by McConnell), have not always sided with him . Particularly during his attempts to challenge the outcome of the election .

Trump lives in a world of make believe and because of that, is incapable of formulating plans that could succeed in the real world. It's not a sign of intelligence or cunning when dumb and/or deluded people vote for one of their own kind.

Frankly, I don't think Trump expected to win in 2016. I think he figured that by losing to Hillary, he'd make boatloads of money playing the victim and making paid speeches and selling books while living a very comfortable life.

[Silent Type]

23. +1. I'm convinced trump ran in 2016 strictly for publicity. He was surprised as anyone we gave

him the election.

[Kaleva]

30. Trump's transition efforts were sloppy

"The Trump transition has been assessed by some as having been a troubled transition, with many calling it "chaotic". The chaotic nature of the transition has been largely attributed to Trump's decision making, including his firing of Chris Christie and scrapping of the pre-election planning which Christie had undertaken for the transition, which meant that the transition had to start their planning from scratch.[94][95][96][97]

In 2020, Tom Wheeler wrote for the Brookings Institution that "the Trump presidential transition in 2016-17 proved that a transition delayed is a transition denied", arguing that the Trump transition's delay in placing transition teams at federal agencies was ultimately damaging to the Trump administration.[98]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_transition_of_Donald_Trump

"Christie: “He became convinced that he had to do this legally and he just tried to stay as far away from it as much as he could. The only time I ever really spoke to him about it…was on rare occasions where he read something in the news about the transition and he would then call and give me some reaction to it. Each time he called, he’d say to me, ‘Chris, you’re wasting a lot of time on this. You and I are both so smart, if we win this thing, we can do the entire transition if we just leave the victory party two hours early.’” "

https://presidentialtransition.org/blog/chris-christie-on-trumps-transition-to-power/

A couple of things I takeaway from the above is that Trump wasn't sure he'd win. The second is that he thought his chances of winning were low enough that the transition team didn't need to make much of an effort preparing or he had deluded himself into thinking that he was so smart that if he did win, the transition would be a breeze.

[Tree Lady]

50. I think so to but once he had the power

it went to his narcissistic head and he wanted to keep it, especially when he knew they would come after him for doing illegal things. I think he is only running now to escape jail, we all know this. He only cares to win to pardon himself.

[Silent Type]

58. Totally agree.

[Irish_Dem]

103. The people who worked for Trump were stupid enough to fall for the con job.

The people who worked for Trump were willing to break the law and go to prison.
Lose their law licenses, etc.

These people believe they are smart, but a clever sociopath got them to take the fall.

I call that pretty darn clever of Trump.

[Kaleva]

114. Many didn't commit crimes and go to jail

McMasters, Allen, Tillerson ( who allegedly called Trump a stupid fuck or something to that effect), Bolton, Mattis, Haley, Esper, Barr, Mulvaney, Spencer and the list goes on.

[Irish_Dem]

137. The point is that Trump is clever enough to get others to commit crimes for him.

And some in your list may end up in jail before this is over.

[Kaleva]

198. If he was smart, he wouldn't be doing that

Getting others to commit crimes for him.

I will agree that Trump has talent as a carnival barker, snake oil salesman , TV evangelist, and con man but I'll continue to argue that many who did work for him in some capacity now have a low opinion of him, especially concerning his intelligence.

[crim son]

20. He is just smart enough to hire people who will tell him what he wants to hear.

Those smart people have been able to make things happen for him, but have been unable to save him from his own significant shortcomings. I agree with the poster above, who said that a smart person would have done better than he has, given his privilege. He is a sociopath, with no moral code and no empathy. In his world, he is always right, so he has no fear. These people are pretty common in government and business. If you have no fear and don't give a crap what you do to other people to get what you want, this makes you dangerous. He does not, in my opinion, have the intelligence to take care of himself, so if his support system is removed, he's done. We must keep chipping away at his support.

[Irish_Dem]

104. I agree with some of your points.

The next con artist will be smarter.

They will be successful in turning our democracy into fascism if we do not fight back hard.

[betsuni]

21. He's stupid. Lots of Americans love outrageously confident bullshitters and he's the best, totally mindless. That's all.

And his international organized crime connections are really scary,

[MorbidButterflyTat]

29. And...

...soulless.

It doesn't take genius to hire corrupt and compromised attorneys.

[magicarpet]

40. Daddy trump (Fred) had his lawyer Roy Cohn mentor widdle Donnie.

Roy Cohn was the lawyer for Mafia underworld figures. Donnie was elbow to elbow with Roy Cohn learning the ropes to negotiate his way through the court system to generally come out on top. Donnie knows how to manipulate the judicial system by making an utter nuisance of himself. Prosecution teams are in utter turmoil dealing with him with his endless court maneuvers and techniques of delay, delay, and delay some more. They often just fold their tents and let him off just to finally get rid of him. His father or his lawyers would find a compliant palm to grease and his legal problems would magically fade away into oblivion.

He is not Teflon - he is unscrupulous to the tenth degree. He is a cheap Thug who is capable of inciting bodily harm to those who deny him total fealty and utmost blind respect.

If Democracy is your game - he should be construed as the epitome of evil and among your worst enemies.

[Irish_Dem]

119. Underestimating Trump is dangerous, because he is dangerous.

[betsuni]

171. He's stupid and dangerous. Up to the American people if they want stupid and dangerous.

Those are the ones underestimating Trump, not Democrats.

[cachukis]

22. He is a reactionary transactionalist with years

of experience. He has had the financial wherewithal to escape the judicial system because our rule of law has advanced beyond statute and fallen into case law. Deep pockets wear out the opposition.
He is very practiced at his game. Fifty years of unscrupulous behavior has honed his skills.
The rule of law provides innocence until determined guilt.
The average bank account cannot afford his bluster.
Sadly, he has supporters who continue to think they can ride his coattails. "I'll be the one to go down in history to save his greatness."
Psychologists know the game.
Trump is a rarity. He sucks up all the oxygen in our world now affected by the pursuit of easy entertainment.
Think of how many people want, I say want, to vote against Biden over TikTok.
We have allowed our individual selfishness to rule.
Laws! We don't need no stinking laws.

[Irish_Dem]

123. Trump is a typical sociopath in some ways.

But yes a rarity in that he has been able to perform the con artist job of a life time.
Grift his way into the White House.

Good comment.

[no_hypocrisy]

24. What did you expect? He's Roy Cohn's foster son.

[Irish_Dem]

122. Yes Trump was raised by two clever sociopaths.

His father and Roy Cohn.

[ThoughtCriminal]

26. IN the Country of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is King

Trump is 100% dependent on the stupidity of his base.

[Irish_Dem]

92. Even smart people are stymied by him.

They don't know how to handle someone who refuses to follow the rules or the laws.

[elleng]

27. Right, ruthless sociopath.

[Irish_Dem]

93. Yes a very dangerous, ruthless sociopath who will stop at nothing to get what he wants.

He will destroy everything if that is what it takes.

[elleng]

96. Right, his 'daddy' told him to do so.

[Irish_Dem]

98. Yes the family dynamics point to his father being a sociopath too.

His mother was absent due to health problems.

Trump's daddy taught him well.

[elleng]

99. along with roy cohn.

[Irish_Dem]

101. Yes another sociopath.

Trump was surrounded by them.

[walkingman]

31. Trump has been doing this his entire life. He more than likely learned a simple lesson

from his father.....The lesson is this. Our justice system was not setup to deal with people of wealth or influence. White collar crime which involves millions if not billions is rarely prosecuted but not so much for working class people who commit misdemeanors. A easy example is - check our how many local officials get out of DWIs compared to others. There is a reason that our prisons are mostly filled with minorities.

A wealthy person can buy their pre-trial freedom, keep their job, and live at home while preparing their defense. They can hire the best lawyers which makes all the difference in the world.

An arrestee who is poor must stay in jail for days, weeks, months, or years until their case is resolved.

[Irish_Dem]

100. Yes I know. I used to do jail evaluations for the courts.

At the start of my career.

It was a quick lesson in the fact that people of limited means and lower intelligence
stayed in jail. Smarter and wealthier people did not sit in jail at all.

[AdamGG]

193. He learned these lessons from Roy Cohn too

Trump's role model on how to always stay on the attack and making allegations, no matter how far fetched, and to absolutely never take a step back or admit wrongdoing.

There was a really good HBO movie in the 90s where James Woods portrayed Cohn, which is ironic because it turns out that he is a complete far right asshole.

[Mr.Bill]

32. One must also consider

that some of the people he has been able to manipulate may not be all that bright either. Including judges and people who hold high elected office.. Myself, I'll go with what Mary Trump says. She has, of course, known him her entire life and has the credentials to explain him. She says his emotional development was arrested at about age two and a half. Think of a toddler going through that stage of saying MINE! MINE! MINE! That's where he lives to this day.

The man is an absolute mental train wreck. He needs to be isolated from society. He is the reason we have detention facilities of various types.

[Irish_Dem]

124. It takes some intelligence to identify those easily manipulated.

I agree with Mary Trump.
Psychologically Trump operates emotionally at a toddler level.

But I say that intellectually he is a clever con artist.

I don't agree that so many people in Trump's orbit are stupid.
They may be flawed morally, but not stupid.

Trump is able to manipulate people and the system to his advantage.

[Mr.Bill]

172. Anybody that aligns themselves with Trump

has an IQ around room temperature.

[Irish_Dem]

217. Obviously all the Ivy League attorneys who work for Trump

are not low IQ.

They are smart, but amoral.

[bluestarone]

33. First off, i'll say he's a DUMB fucking bastard.

Next i'll say he's the chosen one for sure. BUT not by God. He's the chosen one by every country AGAINST DEMOCRACY!! They have made their final decision to do EVERYTHING in their power to destroy us ALL. I'm ALL OR NOTHING< That's how they are thinking. I would be completely IMPOSSIBLE without the religious right though. THESE monsters are the smart ones. They picked TFG, along with getting the religious right to go along. Our country has NEVER been split like we are today. I do NOT know what they will do to FUCK UP our election, BUT i'm almost certain our courts WILL NOT stop them. It's GLOOMY for sure, BUT we have only one chance and that is VOTE like we never voted before!.

[limbicnuminousity]

36. He's not a deep thinker.

Feral is the word I'd use to describe him. He shines when it comes to avoiding consequences, denying responsibility, and grift. Those are his survival skills. I agree that he's dangerous (as are many of his supporters).

At the same time a lot of his success comes from choosing the right flunkies who will believe their future is dependent on Trump's. Unfortunately for Trump it appears that right wingers are increasingly recognizing he's a lunatic. Haley taking 25-50% of the R primary vote is consistent with that conclusion. McConnell has retired. The more insane congressional critters aren't faring well. Boebert is on the way out. Gaetz is due to be investigated. Greene and Britt are the butt-end of jokes.

Not to dismiss Trump but maybe it's time to look more closely at the scum who made his rise to office a possibility. Nail the white supremacists and the politicians who support them to a wall.

[Irish_Dem]

125. Yes he is not a deep thinker, in fact in many ways he is a LAZY thinker.

He puts his mind only to topics which enrich him in some way.

Yes indeed grifting others and getting away with crimes is his strength.

And yes manipulating others to commit crimes for him and take the fall is a talent.

[cachukis]

144. He stays within his comfort zone. Which books are

being written.

[SomedayKindaLove]

37. Trump is the greasiest of pigs

From HST’s “Generation of Swine”. Difficult to catch and fueled by Diet Coke and unrelenting narcissism. That he’s come this far in possibly becoming President again is damning.

MFer is punch drunk and on-the-open-market broke and dangerous, and if can get the R House lemmings to not certify the election, he wins. Imagine Jan 6 with Mike Johnson in charge.

[markodochartaigh]

38. Trump, Bush I, Bush II, Clinton, Obama, Biden

are not human beings. At not in the way that we in the hoi-polloi are used to referring to human beings. When one talks about one's self, one's neighbor, one's sister generally you are referring to one person and one person alone. The person may have those who assist them with this or that, but it is that single entity who decides what they will do and why. Talking about a world leader one really isn't talking about a single entity who is mostly dependent upon their own resources, driven by their own needs and desires. At least to the outside world, someone in that position, even someone as incredibly self-centered as Trump, is more a collection of forces, a nexus which has collective resources, abilities, needs, and desires so much greater than most of us that they are no longer human beings in the usual sense. Think of the European kings who were simpletons, or infants. Think of Senator Feinstein at the very end of her career. The political entity that is the politician at that level scarcely needs a heartbeat. Bush II had a man who was said to be his brain, but in reality even though the leader themself is susceptible to all the weaknesses of a normal human, they derive most of their strengths from their extra-corporeal forces. Trump may have all the curiosity of a head of well boiled cabbage, and all the morality taught him by his mentor Roy Cohn, but he has access to an incredible suite of brilliant and unscrupulous talent.

[Irish_Dem]

126. Our leaders are not just blank canvasses.

Each leader has some agency, a moral core, an intellect.
And that shines through each presidency.

[Aussie105]

39. Unfortunately America has a habit of being kind to its ex-leaders.

Even the ones who weren't all quite there while in office, or made a huge mess of things for others to clean up afterwards.

Hesitant in following up on real and possible misdemeanours while in office afterwards, for some reason.
Only history writers much later come out with appropriate discussions of their shortcomings.

Respect for the office confused with respect for the person, possibly?
Fear of upsetting the wrong people still in power?

Whatever the reason, Trump didn't respect the rules of office and the country, and left a mess for others to clean up.

Other countries have no such qualms.

[Irish_Dem]

210. Good point. The US is far too kind to criminal presidents.

Nixon was pardoned.
Reagan screwed over Carter by making a deal with Iran about the hostages during the election.
Bush forgiven for his lies and illegal invasion.
And given a pass for stealing an election with the help of his brother.

Too many gentleman's agreements and looking the other way.

[JoseBalow]

42. He's brilliant!

[Irish_Dem]

211. He is a buffoon at times.

But this does not negate the fact he is ruthless and dangerous.

[LiberalFighter]

43. He is a Mafia Con Man.

[Irish_Dem]

132. Yes exactly. He is a mob boss who controls many in the US government.

Controls those at the highest levels.
US Congress and Supreme Court.

[anamnua]

44. His success was largely happenstance

like Chauncey Gardiner.

[Irish_Dem]

130. A life of crime is not all happenstance.

A life of being a bold con artist is not just luck.

[LoisB]

45. I agree that he is street smart and intellectually stupid.

He is a con man who, without his daddy's money, would have been running a 3-card monte hustle on 42nd Street.

[NoMoreRepugs]

46. He's got money and no moral compass whatsoever - that's dangerous.

[Irish_Dem]

131. Trump has POWER. That is the most dangerous part of the equation.

He has congress, the judiciary, the Supreme Court, the media shaking in their boots.
And has an adoring cult following.

So yes a man with tremendous resources and power, and no morality, poses a threat to this country.

[TNNurse]

47. He is an poorly educated, uncaring, very successful conman.

[Mr.Bill]

173. Successful?

Eventually he fails at everything he's ever done. And he will fail at what he's duing now.

[Polybius]

187. Fred Trump was worth considerably less though

How was he able to surpass him?

[Mr.Bill]

199. By not paying his bills and lying and cheating in every way he could.

And right now I think his net worth is likely a negative number.

[MorbidButterflyTat]

226. Don't forget fraud!

He's the hat trick of criminality.

[TNNurse]

196. Well, he sort of got elected and managed to stay out of jail

so far and has fools sending him money. So there is a measure of success.

[bdamomma]

233. He's a loser

and I hope that bubble he is in, pops!!! Adderall addict.

[Evolve Dammit]

48. Good assessment

[ItsjustMe]

51. Everyone that I have known to Bully their way to the top

Had one advantage, family money. They were not very intelligent, they were not dumb.

They were just lucky.

Elon Musk Is another lucky asshole.

[et tu]

63. exactly

and with family money comes connections-
enter any small town and it's obvious, larger
cities and it's there just more complex.
but he is very dangerous as irish dem has said, and cunning, and slimy, and a sociopath, and did i say dangerous?

[Evolve Dammit]

52. If he loses the election, he will deny and call his "shock troops" to action. A rat backed

Into a corner. He also goes to jail so he knows its life or death. Does not bode well when he has 70,000,000 supporters.

[Irish_Dem]

136. Yes, very good observation.

Trump and Putin are desperate.
As are GOP members of congress.

Trump will burn it all down to win.

[Evolve Dammit]

191. I do think they will (try to burn US to the ground). Putin and the useful idiot have been very effective, so far.

The division has worked out extremely well. Never thought it would happen here, but it has. The "law and order" party is now the burn it all down party; attack judges, FBI, and any law enforcement they don't like. Quite incredible and didn't take all that long either.

[Irish_Dem]

213. Yes and it was much cheaper than a military operation.

Putin was able to gain control of the US without firing a shot.
Installed his puppets throughout the US government and the GOP was eager and happy to comply.

They want what Putin has in Russia, total permanent power and access to all national assets.

[Evolve Dammit]

237. I truly believe that is what they want. Vlad showed them the way. He is their role model for total control of

industries, communications, military, para military, energy, etc. Read Maddow's "Blowout" just for the energy sector aspect of this.

[Irish_Dem]

238. Yes I know.

The fascists must take control of US institutions.

Much like we can see the US court system taking care of Trump and enabling him.
US congress as well.

Trump's friends and family will be installed into high office.

The oligarchs will gladly fall in line.
They want cheap labor, no taxes and no regulation.

Yes of course the GOP wants total permanent power.
They know democracy is a dead end street for them.
Their ideas are unpopular.

[Evolve Dammit]

239. I knew you know. Just gotta say the truth to someone!

[Irish_Dem]

240. Yes we have to say it out loud. The GOP has run out of options.

They can no longer compete in a democratic environment.
Their ideas are wildly unpopular.

The majority of Americans do not want to live in a white, male, Christian minority ruled country.
Or lose our democracy.

Putin has shown them the way. The GOP was not flying to Moscow in the 4th of July to
have a cook out and eat borscht.

[Evolve Dammit]

245. "...cook out and eat borscht." Vodka run??

[Irish_Dem]

246. Sure, the time honored 4th of July picnic in Moscow, drinking vodka.

[Evolve Dammit]

248. nothing would surprise me at this point!

[Irish_Dem]

250. I agree, nothing would come as a surprise when it comes to Trump and the GOP.

[Evolve Dammit]

255. It's a numbing; The "I Love Chaos" orange guy has normalized the Nazi-talk. 8 years in the making.

[Mr.Bill]

200. He doesn't have that many people

that support him on that level.

[Evolve Dammit]

236. Not sure. Project 2025 claims 35,000 lawyers and 20,000 fed workers are on board?

[Nasruddin]

54. Stupidity and inabilities

HIs stupidity and inability to read, learn, empathize, or understand have resulted in incompetence, which is the only thing that has saved us - so far.

He has many skills including a type of charisma that helped him slide into a successful tv career after his incompetence (see above) pretty much wiped out his ability to progress in real estate development. Together these were a big part of his successful campaign for president. I could be wrong, but I think this combo distinguishes him - a lot of other people tried to peddle his flavors of nonsense back in the mid 2010's but none came anywhere near his success.

Pundits claim he has a whole new team of pro-tiger-riders this time that are way better than the hacks and low-lifes he depended on in 2016 - 2020. Could be. That's a real danger. On the other hand, the tiger gets awfully hungry quickly. On the third hand, his narcissism and general incompetence lead him to elevate hacks and low-lifes that can't the job done, so I'm skeptical.

But I think your advice is actually a good strategy, as long as we don't overthink it.

[Emile]

55. He is late for jail is what I would call him.

[ForgedCrank]

56. I've always

been afraid to say that here, but it's absolutely true.
Trumps true skill is that of manipulation. His vocabulary may not directly indicate his level of intelligence, quite the opposite in fact.
But he is not to be underestimated. He is very good at what he does, and how he goes about doing it. He is like the perfect rat trap, and once they commit and go for the cheese, there's no going back.

[Irish_Dem]

140. Yes Trump is a superb manipulator and con artist.

He has parlayed that to the highest office in the land.
He now wields considerable power.

He is able to talk people into committing crimes for him and take the rap.

And has a huge cult following.

[leftyladyfrommo]

57. I've thought that for a long time. Being dumb

was part of his cover. He's not dumb. He's just not interested in anything but power and money and revenge. And he's sadistic about his revenge. Even the mob is afraid of him.

I also hope that he's really self destructing. Most of those kinds of people eventually come to a bad end.

[Irish_Dem]

141. The fact he is self destructing makes him more dangerous.

Yes you are correct.
He is far from dumb and he is a ruthless sociopath.
A sadistic sociopath.

He enjoys burning it all down.
It gives him pleasure.

[bdamomma]

234. Hopefully

he will crash and burn.

[PufPuf23]

59. Trump is symptom and the idiot bastard front of those that benefit from his evil.

Look at those that cause the MSM to normalize Trump while accumulating black holes of wealth.

Trump loves the attention and is the focus, but there are other heads of the hydra.

Human condition but never in a human society of such size and technology.

Crazy making.

[Irish_Dem]

214. Oligarchs and media usually align with autocrats.

Oligarchs think they can make more money this way.
Cheap labor, no taxes and no regulation.

The media prints what their minders tell them to print.

Oh yes Trump is just a piece of the puzzle, there are many other pieces.

[betsuni]

60. What's frightening are Americans who won't vote for Democrats for whatever stupid reason.

Trump wouldn't be a problem without them.

[Warpy]

61. Please don't confuse being completely unprincipled with being intelligent

In addition, he has benefitted greatly from rich guy assisted living all his life, being bought out of scrapes and being set up with men like Roy Cohn to weaponize the legal system to his benefit.

A good thought experiment is to try to visualize how far he'd have gotten if he'd been born poor. Answer: not far.

[Irish_Dem]

143. Do not confuse mental illness and intellectual functioning.

These are two totally different topics.

Trump is a ruthless, dangerous sociopath and narcissist.

And he is cunning and clever.

His being born into wealth is a separate family history factor.
I think if he had been poor, he might have made it as some sort of mob boss.
Or white collar criminal.

[Warpy]

184. He might have seemed clever in his youth, when he had better legal representation

Were he truly clever, he'd have avoided many bankruptcies because he'd have had a better grasp of what it takes to start, run, and grow a successful business. The man went bankrupt over a casino, ferkrissake.

He has one major talent, that of charming large sums of money out of men who certainly knew better.

He was all over newspapers and magazines in NY and New England starting in the 70s. I've had ample opportunity to watch him. While he has been more glib in the past, he has never been eloquent. He committed fraud to bottow money to fatten his net worth and he stiffed stiffed contractors,

Bottom line, he is not a smart man. I do agree that he is a malignant narcissist. His father most likely had a similar loose screw, but was able to skate closer to the legal line and not get into trouble. He was a smart businessman. His son is only ruthless.

He is utterly evil, none of the laws of decency or of the land apply to him. He is not smart.

[JT45242]

62. He is as dumb as a ventriloquist dummy...

Petty stupid and only semiliterate....

But the people who pull his strings are ruthless, smart, and gave spent decades buying SCOTUS and the rethug party.

Putin, kochs, the money men behind the federalist society,...those are the brains.

[bdamomma]

64. Irish_Dem

I hold you and your credentials in high esteem. I'm going to ask you this, how do we rid ourselves of this "evil?"

But when E Jean was in court with him, she said "he is nothing", he just has those around him who are his buffers.

[Irish_Dem]

204. I think it is a complicated problem obviously.

And above my pay grade to lay out a treatment plan for what ails country.

I never thought Americans might vote out democracy and install a fascist dictatorship.

It all goes back to We The People as the solution.

How do we make Americans appreciate democracy?
How do we inoculate Americans against propaganda and disinformation?

I guess education is one answer.

[bdamomma]

218. Education

is definitely 1 thing. But all this disinformation, propaganda, is being fed to people everyday, we know this. These are tactics to get people confused and to get people not to trust their government, institutions and give up on the system of our government. That wanna be dictator is following and praising Orban and Putin. In this case, tRump is Putin's and Orban's apprentice. The "useful idiot". Do these people really want to live in a dictatorship ???? No freedom's whatsoever???? A maniac who wants complete immunity to take down his opponents??? The world is watching.

[Irish_Dem]

220. That is why propaganda inoculation is important.

Helping people understand the value of reality, the truth, facts.
And how to use discernment in evaluating information.

The MAGAs assume the dictators will be kind to them, and harsh to their enemies.
It does not occur to them that they will be targets too.

This happened in Russia. Russian oligarchs helped Putin come to power.
They assumed they would be treated well. But once in office, Putin let them know
they would follow his marching orders and hand over a great deal of their fortunes to him.
Those who refused came to a bad end.

[surfered]

65. He may hire smart people...

….but a smart man would not again defame someone who just won a $5 million judgement, which cost him another $85 million, and then flirt with defaming that same person a third time.

[gab13by13]

77. Define cost him?

He keeps defaming E. Jean because it doesn’t cost him anything.

[Ms. Toad]

81. Smart, even street smarts, have nothing to do with

Impulse control.

[Irish_Dem]

212. He is a smart man, someone else is paying all his legal bills.

As Andrew Weissmann said, the fact that Trump is still defaming Carroll means he has a sugar daddy.

Money is no longer a deterrent.

[twodogsbarking]

67. I couldn't agree more. Don't underestimate him. Look what he has done so far.

[Irish_Dem]

91. He is significantly more dangerous now.

As one of his prior aides pointed out, Trump now knows where the levers of power are located and how to use them.

[Stuart G]

186. Never underestimate ...."Evil."

Just look at "World History" to see the number of times people have underestimated ..."EVIL."

[struggle4progress]

68. Obama's book

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gL8GZBIMM0Q

[Irish_Dem]

89. Hilarious. And true.

[orangecrush]

69. Exactly

So unless we get off our asses and fight, this may very well be the last election we will ever see.

As far as fear goes, I am 65, and have had just about everything our friends across the aisle could throw at me, going all the way back to Reagan. Some of it made me laugh and throw back, but getting beaned with some of those fastballs was no joke at all.

There's a saying, "If you fight a dragon long enough, you become one."

If you put a line drive down their throat once in a while, they learn to stop throwing at you.

[Irish_Dem]

88. Bullies don't stop until they are stopped.

Yes we are going to have to fight back hard at some point.

The Ukrainians understand completely what they are up against.

[Gary 50]

70. As someone mentioned above, he is an idiot savant.

He conned his way into the presidency. That has to be one of the greatest cons in history. Outside of his awesome ability to lie, cheat, steal and manipulate people he is a complete idiot. But stupidity is not his worst quality. It's that he has no conscience and he could kill a quarter of a million people and not lose a minute of sleep over it, which, of course actually happened. I believe he could start a nuclear war and kill a hundred million people and it would cause him less discomfort than stubbing his toe.

[Irish_Dem]

86. Yes it is the single biggest con job in American history.

He of course had a great deal of help.
But that is his doing as well. He saw the opportunity and jumped on it.

Yes I have not even touched on the personality disorders in any detail.

Yes he is a ruthless sociopath like Putin.
And both of them will kill and destroy as much as it takes to get what they want.

Trump has no care at all about the damage he does to this country.

[colorado_ufo]

72. Finally, someone says it all.

I would personally add no shame, no scruples, no concern for any other living thing on the planet (or beyond), and only afraid of anything that could harm him and only him.

He must be CONTAINED, or suffer the consequences.

[Irish_Dem]

74. Yes he has no shame, no scruples, no concern for others.

He is ruthless.

He will burn it all down to get what he wants.

[gab13by13]

75. Trump is an evil genius

He wouldn’t get 1 question right on Jeopardy, he had a kid take his SAT’s which was evil genius.
Trump has committed crimes and the evidence of his crimes have been displayed on TV for all to see.
Trump has been convicted of civil crimes, yet, he doesn’t pay the money out of his pocket which is evil genius.
Trump has 2 of his judges doing their best to scuttle his trials, this is evil genius.
His 2 other criminal trials are delayed, because of his evil genius.

The bottom line, members of Congress fear him, many other powerful people fear him, read Romney’s book. He was not convicted by the Senate because Senators feared him, that is evil genius.
Russia, China, N. Korea, Saudi Arabia, Bibi, will all work to get Trump elected, which is evil genius.

Watch for Russia to hack into voting machines this election.
You bet Trump is book stupid so how did he graduate from college? Evil genius.
Underestimate Trump at our peril, he was fucking President of the United States, evil genius.

[Irish_Dem]

79. You nailed it.

Trump has reached the highest pinnacle of power.
Been on a horrific crime spree and suffers no or little consequences.

He has other people pay all his legal costs.

Half of the US government is terrified of him.
The other half doesn't know what to do about him or underestimates him.

He has aligned with the global autocratic bloc which bankroll him and will help try to
install him into the WH again by any dirty means possible.

Oh yes indeed, the ratfucking has just begun.
It will get much worse.

Trump is a dangerous and ruthless sociopath who will damage this country as much
as possible to get what he wants.

[raging moderate]

85. I think Donald Trump is normally intelligent but dyslexic.

Last edited Thu Mar 14, 2024, 10:59 PM - Edit history (1)

I have a similar problem. It is SO frustrating and humiliating! You set out to write something like Sandra Bartlett and watch your fingers write out Snarda Bratlett. Or you set out to write 2,473 and watch your fingers write out 2,374. I was lucky; I had a mild case and a wonderful mother and some phenomenal teachers. I mostly overcame it and learned to manage it. Trump appears to have a bad case, and both his parents were terrible. He is very immature and narcissistic. He seems so full of anger and resentment and self-pity. He is so vengeful and suspicious and determined to force the world to give in to his tantrums.

[Ohio Joe]

168. You are very invested in that meme

Odd someone here would devote so much effort into promoting tfg… But maybe not.

[Mme. Defarge]

78. Excerpts from Laugh Riot, Fintan O'Toole, NYRB

I held the view that he was stupid but cunning until this very morning when I read this piece in the New York Review of Books. Very sobering and chilling. . .

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2024/03/21/laugh-riot-trump-fintan-otoole/

Donald Trump is not a Nazi, and his followers are (mostly) not fascists. But it is not hard to see how this description resonates with his campaign appearances. Trump is America’s biggest comedian. His badinage is hardly Wildean, but his put-downs, honed to the sharpness of stilettos, are many people’s idea of fun. For them, he makes anger, fear, and resentment entertaining.
For anyone who questions how much talent and charisma this requires, there is a simple answer: Ron DeSantis. Why did DeSantis’s attempt to appeal to Republican voters as a straitlaced version of Trump fall so flat? Because Trumpism without the cruel laughter is nothing. It needs its creator’s fusion of rage, mockery, and poisoned imitation, whether of a reporter with a disability or (in a dumb show that Trump has been playing out in his speeches in recent months) of Joe Biden apparently unable to find his way off a stage. It demands the withering scorn for Sleepy Joe and Crooked Hillary, Crazy Liz and Ron DeSanctimonious, Cryin’ Chuck and Phoney Fani. It requires the lifting of taboos to create a community of kindred spirits. It depends on Trump’s ability to be pitiless in his ridicule of the targets of his contempt while allowing his audience to feel deeply sorry for itself. (If tragedy, as Aristotle claimed, involves terror and pity, Trump’s tragicomedy deals in terror and self-pity.)
Hard as it is to understand, especially for those of us who are too terrified to be amused, Trump’s ranting is organized laughter. To understand his continuing hold over his fans, we have to ask: Why is he funny?
This is not the 1930s or the 1940s, and we should not expect this toxic laughter to be organized quite as it was then. Trump functions in a culture supersaturated with knowingness and irony. In twentieth-century European fascism, the relationship between words and actions was clear: the end point of mockery was annihilation. Now, the joke is “only a joke.” Populist politics exploits the doubleness of comedy—the way that “only a joke” can so easily become “no joke”—to create a relationship of active connivance between the leader and his followers in which everything is permissible because nothing is serious.

I highly recommend the article if you’re able to access it.

[Irish_Dem]

82. Yes one reason Trump is so dangerous, he makes hatred and violence funny and exciting.

He goes right for the dark underbelly of human nature.


Thanks for the article.

[Mme. Defarge]

87. Avec plaisir!

It’s a very insightful piece, as to be expected from Mr. O’Toole.

[MiHale]

84. He's a predator and knows how to use fear to his advantage...

We are his prey that is always fearful and confused. He’s losing his grip on his predatory mindset seeing himself as becoming prey, something he believed he escaped from in his youth. Now feeling trapped he getting more confused and lashing out.
Just my opinion not a professional.

[TomSlick]

90. It's your field and not mine but being an imbecile is not inconsistent with being a sociopath

Trump has social skills that allow him to appeal to his people. He uses them and anyone else to advance what he thinks to be his interests.

However, it appears that he has no real idea what he's talking about - and doesn't much care.

[Irish_Dem]

95. He is a clever sociopath.

He has way more than basic social skills.

He is cunning, ruthless and clever.
It is an animal cunning and street smarts.
We are not talking highbrow sophistication.

This is a man who has carried out the biggest con job in US history.
Conned his way into power. And has half the country eating out of his hand.
This requires some brain power.

He has zeroed in on the dark underbelly of human nature and taken control of a political party
and installed himself into the WH. Which he could do again.

He is on a crime spree and no one stops him.
Other people pay his bills and go to jail for him.
This is not a stupid man.

[TomSlick]

105. I think we agree.

He is a sociopath. While an uneducated (and incurious) man, he has his own form of cleverness.

[TheKentuckian]

97. I think you actually pointed out what he has which is cunning

It is more akin to an over powered natural instinct to scheme, manipulate, and deceive more than actual intellect.

I think he just does it with little thought required.

[Irish_Dem]

138. This would be considered part of intellect.

There are talented con artists who evade jail.
There are not so bright con artists who end up in a lot of trouble right away.

Trump is a sociopath, but a cunning and dangerous one.

[jcgoldie]

106. he's a fucking idiot

.

[gab13by13]

107. He is so stupid

Alvin Bragg may have to drop his case against Trump. That is my opinion.

[Mike Nelson]

108. Yes...

... most people have a singular definition of "smart," which could best be applied to someone like Albert Einstein. You mentioned the term "street smart" (aka street wise). That points to something deeper... there are different types of "smart." Mathematics, sports, the arts... you get geniuses in many areas. Trump is a showman/conman. And, yes, he is great at what he does. He is the Muhammad Ali, Garbo, Elvis, and Einstein of his type. He inspires a fanaticism in his followers... he may be a textbook idiot, but he should be thought of as "smart" at what he does. He should not be underestimated.

[Metaphorical]

109. Blackmail

I have long wondered the extent to which Trump has engaged in blackmail. There have been too many instances where someone who was adamantly opposed to him suddenly to becoming his best buddy for me not to believe kompromot was involved.

[Goodheart]

110. Come on now... he's fucking dumb as dirt

He is not cunning. He is conniving. There's absolutely nothing clever about anything he does; he gets away with shit because people abide his shit.

[budkin]

111. No. He's stupid as shit.

He just has a lot of money.

[dalton99a]

112. Democrats underestimate him at their peril.

How many times has he returned from being DEAD / DAMAGED / DESTROYED / DISCREDITED / DEMOLISHED?

[CousinIT]

113. He's a goddamned sociopath. n/t

[Irish_Dem]

129. Yes Trump is a cunning, ruthless, dangerous sociopath.

[flamingdem]

115. Do you think he'll win in November?

If he does he WILL look smart.

And the rest of us..

[Irish_Dem]

128. Of course Trump can get himself installed again.

I do not believe he can win honestly.
But it is obvious that he can cheat again to steal the WH.

Trump, Putin and the US Congress, and many in the judiciary are desperate for Trump to "win."

Trump needs to enter the WH to stop all criminal charges against him.
Putin needs this as well so he can win the Ukraine war.
Members of Congress committed J6 crimes, and want it all to go away.
Judges are desperate to inflict their right wing ideology on the American people.

[DC77]

117. Vote for Joe Biden!

And moot this argument. Ensure this Entertainer-in-Chief never sees office again.

My father had a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and several patents to his name (assigned over to the company for which he worked). I considered him a “smart” man, but also at times he made stupid decisions (like all of us do) that seemingly undid his higher education. I was surprised when he became a Trumper in 2016—until Trump said years later we should eliminate the Constitution. That was when he no longer vowed to vote for the man. Hope is audacious, but that gave me hope. Trump is not as seductive as he once was. And the Dobbs decision repercussions are resulting women voter turnout will be a reckoning.

[claudette]

127. Yes, he is

It doesn’t take brains to be an evil manipulator with money and no conscience

[Joinfortmill]

133. I have no credentials other than common sense

and I agree. He's an intellectual midget, but very cunning. He's a snake oil type character. And Roy Cohn taught him how to manipulate the legal system. He's also buffoonish and clearly in cognitive decline, which may make him uncontrollable.

[Irish_Dem]

135. Good assessment. He is emboldened, but in cognitive decline.

Yes this is a dangerous combination.

[Shermann]

139. He's a useful idiot propped up by people smarter and more dangerous than he.

He's MAGA-Milli Vanilli.

[raging moderate]

222. Yes. Decades ago, a right-wing operative said we don't need a smart President.

I forget who it was. I remember he had not been elected but somehow had a lot of say in our government through his fellow extremists. Trump seems to me to be the fulfillment of this guy's dreams. Somebody who would look and sound like a President to the dumb Americans. All gussied up and saying and doing what the oligarchs want him to do.

[GuppyGal]

142. He is very cunning and a moron ........both at the same time. nt

[NanaCat]

145. There's a reason it's called low cunning

Because only stupid people have it.

So he can be a predator with a gift for being destructive to everything he touches, and yet be astoundingly stupid at the same time.

There are dumb predators, you know.

[redqueen]

155. I agree. He is far from smart. He looks at the sun

His idiotic comments about covid are legendary

But stupid people can indeed be cunning and he is definitely that

[Irish_Dem]

216. There is a difference between smart and stupid sociopaths.

A big difference.

The low IQ sociopath is sitting in jail.

The high IQ sociopath is not breaking the law, he is making it.

[spanone]

147. He is Evil.

[dlk]

149. Trump is dumb but he's not stupid

Trump is a gifted conniver and bs artist. He knows how to play very, very dirty.

[RevBrotherThomas]

151. Yes & no...

I think trump is a VERY stupid man. Cunning does not equate intelligence.

But like a drunk 12 year old running around the yard with with father's loaded .45, he is extremely dangerous. Only the bullets in his .45 are draconian executive orders & the launch codes.

I 100% agree that we dismiss him and his ilk at the peril of this country's continued existence.

[mzmolly]

152. Very well said.

Frighteningly true.

[birdographer]

153. When you are not smart enough to do things right

You get other people to do them for you. He is adept at blackmail--look at Lindsey. He has the money to threaten lives--he doesn't have to do the damage, he can pay someone to do it. His lawyers must be terrified of him, given all the minions at his beck and call. He managed to get Americans to attack their own Capitol. With the kind of power he has, he doesn't have to be smart. Just powerful and scary.

Frankly, I don't care if he's smart or dumb. It's way past time for someone to end him. Take a moment and imagine life if he no longer existed. All this stuff would fall to the ground like Jr.'s white powder.

[OMGWTF]

154. You knew I was a snake

The creepiest thing on the internet is Shitler reading that poem. He told us who and what he is. Fuck you MAGAts for supporting this evil man.

[Goonch]

156. 👇👇👇👁️👁️

[BobTheSubgenius]

158. I see whatever intellectual acumen he is perceived to have as yet another form of savantism.

I think he is far closer to being Rain Man than Machiavelli.

[Martin68]

160. It depends on your definition of stupid. According to Merriam and Webster "Stupid is an adjective that means slow of

of mind, given to unwise decisions or actions, or marked by unreasoned thinking or acting. I believe he qualifies for all three. Yes, he's a seasoned con and very good at sniffing out weaknesses in people that he can exploit. My feeling is that he does this on an unconscious level, which is why he also undermines himself at every turn by impulsively blurting out the truth at inconvenient moments. He's also profoundly ignorant, completely unable to understand the motivations of principled, intelligent opponents, and an impulsive liar who lies even when there's absolutely not need or advantage in doing so. Now that's stupid!

[Ping Tung]

161. Trump is "smart" in the same way that Bernie Madoff and Charles Ponzi were.

Madoff and Ponzi were undoubtedly smarter than Chump but even they ended up in prison just as Trump will.

The real problem is the questionable intelligence of the rubes who vote for him.

[58Sunliner]

164. He has the instincts of a predator. And the backing and resources of a super-predator, Putin.

It's always difficult to look at a violent sociopath with reasoned expectations, and a fatal flaw in understanding them or how they function is ascribing any norms to their behavior other than through the lens of their pathology.

[Marthe48]

166. He isn't stupid

My daughter keeps chickens. People think chickens are stupid, but my daughter says they do what chickens do, and do it well. traitor knows how to be bad, and he isn't interested in being good.

I wouldn't be surprised if the garbling of words and lapses and confusion isn't a put on to bolster a future fake defense on state of mind.

[sueh]

167. I don't know why the GOP is afraid of him

E Jean Carrol said it best at the beginning of his trial. "He's just a man."

[nikatnyte]

175. This song from WWII sums up my feelings about Trump perfectly

WHEN THAT MAN IS DEAD AND GONE

When that man is dead and gone (Dead and gone)
When that man is dead and gone  Dead and gone)
We'll go dancing down the street
Kissing everyone we meet
When that man is dead and gone (Dead and gone)

What a day to wake up on
What a way to greet the dawn
When a certain man is dead and gone
Some fine day the news will flash
Satan with the small moustache is asleep beneath the lawn
When that man is dead and gone

Satan, Satan thought up a plan
Dressed as a man
Walking the Earth and since he began
The world is Hell for you and me
But what a Heaven it will be

When that man is dead and gone

[Brainstormy]

176. categorically disagree. He IS stupid.

or the word has no meaning.

[Roc2020]

177. He is not dumb, but he is evil

That to me is his biggest downfall. Because I think there are more people in the country that will embrace good over evil. Dangerous to me is if he could hide being evil, but he cannot.

[no_hypocrisy]

179. And shrewd

[berksdem]

180. He is dumb but

He can afford lawyers bc of f his Daddy’s money.

I work w PHD folks in research and some of them I would not consider smart either.

[prodigitalson]

182. he's probably of average or marginally higher intelligence .....but he is ignorant as fuck

he really didn't learn anything in those expensive schools he went to. and while he is obviously a fascist who is trying to become dictator of america the problem i have always had with the 'trump has a hitler book by the bed' stories is that they're about him reading.

but i agree with all you wrote.

[totodeinhere]

183. Many of history's most evil tyrants may have been crazy but they were also smart.

Smart in an evil way but smart.

[-misanthroptimist]

185. I disagree

He's a moron. What he is isn't cunning; it's prolific. He just keep throwing shit at the wall until hopefully something sticks. That's not intelligent. Most mammals are capable of it.

[allegorical oracle]

188. He's ignorant but shrewd; the modern-day mob boss incarnate. And that's probably always what he

wanted to be until the power obsession struck. It's always been, and continues to be, all about power. He is one deeply mentally ill human. Puleeze get everyone you know to go vote.

[Stuart G]

189. If Trump was really ..."STUPID,".... he would be in prison right now. Yes, "RIGHT NOW "

That is solid proof that Donald Trump ........"IS NOT STUPID."

[bucolic_frolic]

190. This OP is as chilling as it gets

But I do not sense the same fear, despair, helplessness as in 2016. I trust absolutely the Biden Campaign will have a 90 yard dash planned for October and then some. Joe will have the finest minds and planners that can be assembled. We will have plenty of cash to promote Democrats. If Trump did squeak in it will be seen as illegitimate by the people. Democratic allies globally will not cooperate very much. What I do not understand other than what has been pointed out in this thread is why old time Republicans are not more vocal. The Liz Cheney's of the world.

Think about what you can do to help every day, DUers. Your efforts might deliver that extra few votes to hold a House seat or tip the Senate, or North Carolina. All hands on deck!

[Model35mech]

194. Traditionally, stupid meant slow-witted, Trump mostly hates facts

but he's pretty quick to recognize a statement that threatens him and to respond in a way that makes such threats fall out of the news cycle.

He also has a great memory when it comes to remembering the approaches used in the speeches of Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin and Mao.

We don't usually recognize as achievements anything from those domains.

[Irish_Dem]

208. Yes he can read a room and situation quickly and manipulate to his advantage.

He can sell himself and con others into giving him money and even going to prison for him.

He installed himself into the WH against the odds.
And evades jail time.

Yes we don't usually consider these typical measures of normal intelligence, but when
we evaluate sociopath functional level, these are marks of someone who is not stupid.

[Owens]

195. He is not dumb

He's a narcissist, pathological liar, con man, and a bully (extortionist and blackmailer). He knows how to play the courts to his advantage and spends money hiring investigators to dig up dirt (see Ukraine) and threaten people (see Fani Willis and Lindsay Graham). He''s Putin's puppet, and that makes him very dangerous to democracy.

[Irish_Dem]

207. Yes he is a narcissistic ruthless sociopath.

Yes he is a bully, uses blackmail and other underhanded tactics to get what he wants.
Because he is a narcissistic with a fragile ego, he is very easily manipulated with flattery and cash.
That makes him quite dangerous.

[NorthCountryLib]

197. I agree with you. We think he and his followers are stupid and are somewhat arrogant about it

And they shock us every time. I don't think Trump is a genius, but he is cunning and has no conscience. That is why he is dangerous.

[Irish_Dem]

206. Yes this is what makes him dangerous.

He is cunning and has no morality.

He will burn it all down to get what he wants and think nothing of the carnage he leaves in his wake.
It is always someone else's fault.

[RoeVWade]

202. Too many supporters are willing to give all his lying crap a pass to get what they want.

They even point out he didn't do this or that last time, so why would he be worse this next time. Why? Because, he has learned enough of the process, to actually be dangerous, because he is amoral as they come.

[Irish_Dem]

205. One of Trump's former aides says Trump will be much more dangerous this time.

She says when he came to the WH last time, he had no idea how government worked.
Now he knows where the levers of power reside and how to push them.

And he probably knows how to make the most money by selling our secrets and technology.

[MorbidButterflyTat]

227. "Man....woman...camera...

...levers of power!" I just can't.

The reality is he's a sick old man who's bleeding money with many more lawsuits to go. I don't believe that Chubb is gonna keep footing the bill for his grotesque anus mouth. His mob is sitting in prison, with lives destroyed. I don't care if he sings kumbaya and promises pardons for "political prisoners;" apparently he's too smart to know they can't vote and no one gives a shit, anyway.

I trust President Biden and Dems in Congress.

Not afraid of that moldy, vacuous sack of shit.

[Caliman73]

203. You are not entirely incorrect. I would point out however...

There is a problem with the SYSTEM. It is very vulnerable to people like Trump with wealth, power, and no ethics. When you assign Trump with "smarts", you give him more credit than he is due and you take the focus away from the SYSTEMS that fail us regularly.

Think about it this way, if Trump were not born wealthy, and had no connections yet he had the same pathologies of character, where would he be today? Would he have become president, or would he have ended up in the criminal justice system?

There are MANY MANY people out there just like Donald Trump, but they were not born with half a billion dollars to play with. They aren't useful to other powerful people because they do not have the material resources to remain close to power. Trump is a stooge, being used by powerful people. He does however, present a serious danger that we should not underestimate. People underestimated Hitler and his followers too. It isn't one person, it is groups of people that fall under the sway of a message and put their hopes into people with no morals and a desire for personal power.

We need to pay attention to both.

[Maeve]

209. Depends of the definition of stupid

A lot of posters agree while disagreeing, because we use "stupid" to mean too many things.
He's sly and cunning, but unaware of things we consider "common knowledge" and totally impervious to his own ignorance. His understanding of manipulation is profound and complex. Maybe the only thing about him that is still complex....
That said, he's also started missing steps and needs to be propped up. If his real state of mind becomes known, it will be the end of him. I hope he's aware when it happens (I am that vindictive)
Thanks for starting this conversation!

[pansypoo53219]

221. he speak moron.

[Emile]

224. I would call him two things: 1. Loser 2. Late for jail

[RandomNumbers]

228. Yup, I've been saying this since 2015.

Back when some so-called lefties would go to Trump rallies for the "entertainment", I tried to warn them.

Some of them eventually chose not to vote for Hillary, for one reason or another. Every one of them amplifying his crowd numbers contributed to his rise.

[Irish_Dem]

229. All we can do is keep warning people.

Keep speaking out.

Trump is dangerous and not to be underestimated.
Look how well he is doing evading justice and manipulating the court system.

[Scrivener7]

256. But as you can see in this thread, even after all this time, even after all his destruction, people are STILL

underestimating him.

[David__77]

230. He understands power and public opinion.

[moondust]

231. Soulless predator.

Exemplar of soulless predators everywhere who crave more unbridled predation.

[Handler]

232. Trump is as stupid as they come. Watch what he does listen to what he says. He is stupid.

[Irish_Dem]

242. The smartest sociopaths don't break the law, they make the law.

Trump was President of the US and is running for office again.

He has someone paying all his legal bills.

He goes on a crime spree with little or no consequences.

He has been able to manipulate the entire US criminal justice system to his advantage.

I assure you this is not a stupid man.

I used to conduct jail inmate evaluations for the courts.
The people sitting in jail are not the smart ones.

The criminals who remain free are the smart ones.

[GenThePerservering]

235. No, Trump isn't cunning OR smart

But he IS a useful tool for those who ARE cunning, smart and incredibly dangerous.

Don't mix up the two.

[Irish_Dem]

244. I assure you I am not mixing up the two.

They are not mutually exclusive.

Trump has been smart enough to get handlers who install him into high office
where he goes on a crime spree. With no consequences.
And he makes a fortune selling out our country.

He bullies and threatens everyone. Not only is not in jail, but running for high office again.

This is not a stupid man.

Michael Cohen, his attorney for a long time, says that Trump is totally in charge and calls
all the shots. He just gets others to take the fall for him and even sends them to prison' for his crimes.

[Straw Man]

241. Oh, he is stupid.

He is an amoral, greedy, vindictive, sociopathic bully. None of that requires intelligence. He fools no one but the stupid, of which we unfortunately have an overabundance in this country.

Here's a chilling thought: If he had any actual intelligence, his Jan. 6th coup would have succeeded. He had the armed mob ready to do his bidding. He just didn't have the right plan -- or any plan, actually -- for how to lead them.

[GoodRaisin]

247. He is intellectually ignorant and shows it - that he has no formal education.

But yeah, he’s an accomplished con man.

[Quixote1818]

243. He's a narcissist who unwittingly has an ability to manipulate stupid people. It's no deeper than that. nt

[Irish_Dem]

252. It is much deeper than that. He is also a ruthless, dangerous sociopath.

And he is very good at manipulating others.

[GenThePerservering]

249. This is what happens when we just look at the obvious

Trump is a useful fool - he has all the necessary requisites - not very intelligent, easily manipulated, lots of inherited wealth so he has little real world experience and can buy his way out of anything, a flashy (if cheap) persona and ability to work a crowd.

He's not the point - it's the cabal behind him that is dangerous - Putin, oligarchs and their dark money who are working him like a puppet. Everybody look at Trump! Look at Trump! Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. As soon as he is no longer useful to them, they will do what Trump does to others - dump him.

Trump is useful to us, too - through him we can keep track of his handlers and their motives, though he's going off script so much due to his deterioration that if they are not able to steal the election, Trump will probably be kicked to the curb.

[Irish_Dem]

253. Trump himself is quite dangerous as are his minders.

Trump is a sadistic narcissistic sociopath and will burn it all down to get what he wants.

[Scrivener7]

254. You're taking a lot of heat for saying this, and a lot of creepy condescension, but obviously he has something.

Something has allowed him to commit hundreds of crimes over the years and skate away from every one of them. He has gotten away with it for decades and decades. That needs something more than money to explain.

I agree with you about the astonishing animal cunning. I think that comes from his single minded self absorption. There is no one he won't throw under a bus. There is no act that is too terrible for him. That in itself, the extent to which he takes that, is fairly unique. He has ruined cities. He tried to ruin the United States. Imagine the perfect hubris that requires.

I think his talent is not traditional smarts, though. The closest I can come to describing him is not genius, but anti-genius. Which is not the same as the stupidity everyone in this thread is claiming.

It's the quality that lets him appeal so viscerally and perfectly to the stupid. It lets them hear him and think, "this guy is me." You have to think like stupid people to be able to do that, but then you have to be cunning enough to know what to do with their loyalty once you've gotten it.

I think that's what he has.