Just How Dumb Is He?

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times is an excellent reporter. So why, in a CNN interview this morning, did she say of Donald Trump, “For all the mocking of him, he’s not dumb, and he does understand that this is actually going to be what he gets judged on in the fall. How he handles this [the pandemic].” 
 

Ms. Haberman’s argument is that Trump is not dumb, since he understands that his re-election will turn largely on whether voters regard his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic as effective. But I disagree. Any slack-brained simpleton would understand that. Realizing this basic truth does not require a Ph.D. in Political Science.

But, more to the point, Maggie goes on to say, “So, he would much rather have it be a fight about the media. And that is what you saw yesterday.” By “yesterday,” she means Trump’s crude propaganda video about his terrific handling of the pandemic, and his snarling attacks on reporters who asked him pertinent questions.

I grant that Trump can be said to have better than average skills in media manipulation. He is quite good at distracting people from important information with his shiny objects. You could say he is, essentially, an Oval-Office-Occupying Flim-Flam Man. His only form of cleverness is his ability to divert and deceive. But ask him to handle a global pandemic and suddenly, He Ain’t Got Shit.

David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, made a similar point about Trump in an MSNBC interview. “News flash” Remnick said, “He’s not a competent executive.”

He went on to say that what is taking place in the White House briefing room “day after excruciating day” is Trump electioneering for November: “More than anything, Donald Trump is framing a re-election strategy.”

In other words, more aggressive manipulation of the media, while offering no effective response to the coronavirus crisis. When it comes to getting anything done, he’s just plain stupid. His succession of bankruptcies should have clued us in. Well, it did many of us, but not quite enough of us, apparently.

Mr. Remnick concluded by saying that Trump is “intolerant of reality.” In other words, whatever is happening, he doesn’t understand, but he does understand something about getting people to believe bullshit.

So, I’m going to agree with David Remnick, and disagree with Maggie Haberman. We do mock him because he is dumb and, in every area except media manipulation, he is dumb. But to be fair, we also mock him because he is misogynistic, bigoted, and corrupt.

Finally, at the risk of being dismissed as petty, let me raise one more mock-worthy point. What is that thing Trump seems to think is a smile? Doesn’t he know what a real smile looks like? Here’s what I’m talking about:

That face does not say to me, “Herein lies a happy, harmonious soul.” That’s because within Donald Trump’s innermost reaches there lies nothing but a black hole of neediness, a yearning for approval that has led to his reckless struggle to keep his re-election prospects up.

It is into that black hole that almost all of his potential intelligence is sucked.

For some excellent reporting on Trump’s pandemic failures, I refer you, once again, to Maggie Haberman and the wonderful piece she and her NY Times colleagues wrote that lays out his coronavirus-related blunders in vivid detail.

In the meantime, let’s not forget what smiles look like on the faces of people with full and genuinely happy hearts.