Donald Trump may be smart, but mentally he prematurely ejaculates
Donald Trump's latest torrent of early morning tweets — complete with
misspellings and evidence-free allegations that Barack Obama was wiretapping Trump Tower— brings to the fore an issue far larger than their ostensible subject. The fundamental question they raise is whether there is method to Trump's madness. Is he a brilliant tactician folded inside a master strategist wrapped within a genius? Or is he a stumbling fool rolled inside a blundering ignoramus?
The first possibility is impossible to dismiss. Trump's accomplishments, after all, are rather remarkable. For decades he ran a billion-dollar family corporation; he started and presided over a successful reality TV show; most improbably and impressively of all -- as an amateur politician, he defeated a large Republican field as well as Hillary Clinton to become president of the United States and leader of the Free World. Presumably, one cannot accomplish such extraordinary feats without being smart.
Trump himself has regularly boasted about his own intelligence: "Trust me, I'm like a smart person," is what he
said on his first full day in office, speaking at the CIA. "Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest — and you all know it!" is a Trump tweet of fairly recent vintage. Explaining his expertise in foreign policy, Trump has stated that he consults with himself, "because I have a very good brain."
Beyond sheer assertion, Trump has cited evidence, repeatedly pointing to his genetic endowment as expressed in his father's brother: "I had an uncle who went to MIT who is a top professor. Dr. John Trump. A genius," Trump said in a CNN interview in August. "It's in my blood. I'm smart. Great marks. Like really smart."
President Trump accuses Obama of tapping his phones
If we are fortunate, Trump’s native deficiencies will soon cast him down in humiliation and disgrace.
(JIM LO SCALZO/AP)
Trump is certainly correct that IQ is an inheritable trait, and he has also pointed to his sister — a federal appeals court judge — in pleading his own smarts. And while intelligent people typically do not go around boasting of their own intelligence, the fact that Trump repeatedly does so does not mean he is unintelligent; it merely makes him eccentric, and clearly reflects a high degree of insecurity about how he is perceived.
But, of course, intelligence is not a simple thing. Even if Trump has a "very good brain"— or even if he has the best brain in the world — that brain could still be handicapped by other character and personality flaws.
"My attention span is short," Trump baldly acknowledged in his 1990 book, “Surviving at the Top.” In his 2004 book, “Think Like a Billionaire,” he attempted to spin this as an advantage, writing that "most successful people have very short attention spans."
43 PHOTOSVIEW GALLERY
Donald Trump in the White House
That is a doubtful proposition. A short attention span can have obvious and multiple negative effects and few positive ones. For one important thing, it makes learning difficult. Even without a short attention span, one's ability to master a complex new subject diminishes with age. Trump is 70, and with his inability to focus, such learning becomes an insuperable task. This helps to explains why the President requires his daily intelligence briefing to be severely abbreviated, limited only to three topics at a time, and simplified with no presentation of dissenting views.
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Trump also is handicapped by an extraordinary ability to utter — and then appear to believe — his own falsehoods. He may well be sincere in maintaining that he saw video footage of thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating the 9/11 attacks, just as he may be sincere in believing that millions of illegal votes were cast for Hillary Clinton in California and elsewhere. He inhabits a world of his own truths that do not necessarily correspond with reality.
Trump is also impulsive. His IQ may be, as he says, "one of the highest," but in practice his brain often ejaculates prematurely, spewing ill-considered statements before gathering all the facts and thinking through the ramifications. Trump's early morning tweets — Saturday's and those of other days — are a striking reflection of all of these deficiencies coming together. A short attention span, a capacity for deception and self-deception, and impulsivity lead Trump down paths which are far from optimal for the country or his own narrow objective of managing the crisis engulfing his fledgling presidency.
Trump is handicapped by an extraordinary ability to utter — and then appear to believe — his own falsehoods.
(ALI GOLDSTEIN/ALI GOLDSTEIN/NBC)
The bottom line is that Trump may be highly intelligent, but he is also severely handicapped. His native abilities have elevated him to one of the highest positions on the planet. If we are fortunate, his native deficiencies will soon cast him down in humiliation and disgrace.
Gabriel Schoenfeld is a former senior adviser to the Mitt Romney for president campaign and the author of Necessary Secrets: National Security, the Media, and the Rule of Law.