Trump believes he is always the smartest person in the room.

[MineralMan]

He listens to nobody's opinion unless it is in complete agreement with his own. He is smart enough to run his own privately-held businesses, sometimes even to profitability. He is smart enough to use debt-based financing to generate income for himself at a great cost to others.

He is, however, not smart enough to recognize that he is surrounded by people who are much smarter than he is, who are more knowledgeable and who have long experience in areas where Trump has none.

His failure to recognize that others are smarter and know more than he does is his largest deficit. He is just smart enough to get along, but not smart enough to know his own limitations and use the advice given to him by those who know more than he does.

In the end, Trump is not very smart at all, as evidence demonstrates. In the end, he is not smart enough to know that he's not smart enough to be in the position he is in. That endangers us all.

[FM123]

1. truer words have never been spoken

[samnsara]

2. my 14 yr old grand daughter is by FAR the smartest person in the room!

[MineralMan]

3. She apparently has smart grandparents, too.

Every 14 year old girl is smarter than Donald Trump, I'm sure.

[leftyladyfrommo]

4. Sad. nt

[MineralMan]

5. Indeed!

[leftyladyfrommo]

6. Also delusional.

Trump is just plain wierd.

[MineralMan]

7. Yes, and that's the man who inhabits the White House.

Shockingly stupid!

[leftyladyfrommo]

11. The fact that he is in the White House

is also just plain weird.

It is like we are all caught up in some totally absurd alternate reality.

[MineralMan]

12. As I watch in alarm, I keep my fingers crossed.

I hope we make it to the 2018 election and that everyone and his neighbor turns out to vote. If we make it that far, we still have a chance. If not...well...

[leftyladyfrommo]

16. I am old.

We gave been thru some rough times.

I have faith in our system. The wheels grind slowly sometimes. But we pull thru.

[MineralMan]

18. I'm also old. And we normally do recover from bad decisions.

I hope that will be the case again.

[leftyladyfrommo]

24. Look at it this way.

We made it thru the Civil War, the First World War, the Second World War, Viet Nam, Reagan, Nixon, Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld.
There have been times when our governments were completely corrupt. Kansas City, New York and Chicago were completely run by the mob.

But we made it. And we will make it again.

60% of us want to see Trump impeached. That has to be a good sign. People are beginning to see that he is just a horrible, horrible president. I still find it very strange that 30% think he is just the cat's pajamas. That is pretty weird in itself. I guess I just didn't realize that we had so many completely mean spirited people living here. That was an eye opener.

Keep the Faith.

[MineralMan]

25. I'll do my best to remain optimistic.

That's my nature, so I remain hopeful, if cautiously so.

[leftyladyfrommo]

26. It is certainly better for your own mental health. Don't let these assholes get you down.

Personally, I think Cheney was more dangerous than Trump.

Trump is so angry all the time that he will probably drop dead of a heart attack. Well, one can only hope. He is absolutely miserable in this job. Dick Cheney loved it. And then his heart (it was amazing that he had a heart at all) gave out. Sad!

[DefenseLawyer]

8. Most people that are born on third base

Grow up thinking they've hit a triple.

[MineralMan]

9. Apparently so.

More's the pity.

[Fatemah2774]

10. I am not so sure...

He runs a privately held business, but I don't think he is making the decisions to garner profitability. His brother I think is what keeps the name going.

There is no way I can see this petty,incompetent, foolish, unsympathetic, crass, hateful, despicable person as having the sense except to satisfy his large ego and small hands.

[SHRED]

13. This plays out at the family level also

We all have known abusive bullies like him that have caused damage in our families.

[MineralMan]

21. Yes, indeed.

My wife's family had someone like that. He's gone not, but the damage he caused is still present.

[SHRED]

22. We are suffering right now

My daughter's abusive husband.
She is so broken it's hard for her to not go back.
It's a sickness.

[MineralMan]

23. I'm so sorry to hear that.

It's one of the most difficult problems anyone can have, really. In some ways it's worse than a serious medical issue.

Bullies destroy lives, and they do it very effectively. I hope you can find a way to help, but it's very, very difficult. We couldn't help in that situation, and despite the abuser no longer being alive, the damage appears to be permanent and no resolution seems to be on the horizon. It's devastating.

[bigtree]

14. Trump is smart enough

...but he's terminally foolish and vain.

He tries to surround himself with people who don't assert their own intelligence to his detriment. He's determined to insulate himself from anyone who will unravel and expose his tangled web of illegalities and wrongdoing, so he picks compromised figures with their own secrets to hide like Bannon, Flynn, and Kuschner as close confidants.

Smart people are fine with Trump, just as long as they're 'loyally' doing his bidding, and don't take credit away from him.

What's dangerous about Trump is his indifference to most of what's been considered traditional and essential for our Chief Executive to focus and act on. He just doesn't give a shit about what most of us consider vital to our own workaday lives, much less about what the government or the nation needs.

[Phoenix61]

15. Pretty much sums it up

He seems to have no curiosity about anything. Imagine what you could learn if you were in his position? To have the opportunity to speak with the top experts in any and every field!

[MineralMan]

17. Exactly. No curiosity or eagerness to learn.

That seems so foreign to me. One of the great joys of my life has always been learning about a new subject area. Whether I learn from reading or by talking to someone who has expertise in an area I know little about, learning new things is what makes life worthwhile for me. That has been true since my earliest memories.

[Orrex]

19. Even in solitary confinement he wouldn't be the smartest person in the room

[MineralMan]

20. LOL!

I think you're right. There might be an ant or a cockroach in there, too.

[Permanut]

28. I see what you did there..

[bellmartin]

29. May he be forced to find out soon.

[Freethinker65]

27. I think Trump survives by controlling who is "in the room" publicly.

He may use smarter people in the background, but for appearances he chooses to surround himself with those less "smart". This way he truly does appear superior, like the final boardroom scenes in his reality show. When forced in public situations surrounded by smarter accomplished people (think recently of foreign leaders (Merkel), media personalities asking valid questions (Time magazine), etc.) his comfort level is dramatically reduced and his gross inadequacies are revealed.

[pandr32]

30. Nailed Trump again

I enjoy reading your spot-on posts.

[MineralMan]

31. Thank you for your kind words!

[shockey80]

32. If it wasn't for lawyers trump would have never amounted to anything.

He used money from dad and lawyers to make it in life.

[Boomer]

33. Trump's intelligence is irrelevant

Whether or not Trump is stupid is pretty much beside the point. His narcissism is so strong that he can't see outside his own ego-bubble. He can't learn because his inflated ego believes he already knows everything. He can't see his errors and blunders because his narcissistic ego re-arranges reality to remove any personal failings.

This isn't a matter of being smart or not smart. He's mentally unbalanced and delusional. THAT endangers us all.

[Still In Wisconsin]

34. And again, surely the intel people know this and act accordingly right?

I mean... I've asked you similar questions in the past... but surely he's not told everything, correct?

[MineralMan]

39. I don't know for certain, really.

He gets briefings, but not raw intel data. How thorough his briefings are, however, I'm not certain.

[Still In Wisconsin]

41. From what I have read he likes the briefings to be reeeeealy short and simple.

I don't think he has the longest attention span.

[MineralMan]

42. Yes, and I'm sure those who prepare those briefings

take Trump's attention span and low intelligence into consideration and don't overtax the presidential brain.

[niyad]

35. if he were in the same room with my dryer lint, he STILL would not be the smartest

person in the room.

[MineralMan]

40. LOL!

[Hekate]

44. There'd be plenty of hot air spinning around though

[niyad]

45. that is very true. could probably dry my down coat in nothing flat!

[ehrnst]

36. Never a good characteristic for a politician. Ever.

If you alienate your peers by acting as though you are the most ethical, knowledgable person in the room, you aren't going to get much done.

[QED]

37. He thought as much when he was a kid

And punched his music teacher because he knew more about music than she did.

[spanone]

38. only if the room is empty.

[rock]

43. Strange since he's never the smartest person in the room

Even when he's alone.

[Gothmog]

46. Trump is an idiot

Trump is rarely the smartest person in the room