How dumb is Donald Trump?

[kentuck]

Granted, he will never be the inspiring leader or speaker like JFK.

But how difficult is it to "act presidential"? If someone is unable to keep their foot out of their mouth and is unable to keep from offending everyone in the world, how can they be the "leader of the free world"?

It is his words and his speeches that have gotten him into trouble and caused potential voters to cross him off their list. Is he too dumb to change?

[Wounded Bear]

1. I don't really think he's stupid...

He's just ignorant about politics. He's good a marketing and promotion, and from the outside our presidential elections look like nothing if not a huge personality contest, where popularity is all that matters. It has been shown in the past, that when Repubs can twist the narrative for it to be about some ephemeral quality set they call "character" they can steal elections. If issues become the driving force, Dems tend to prevail, because generally they have the issues and the solutions on their side.

Trump is trying to apply the old show business adage that "there is no such thing as bad publicity" to politics, and it's starting to unravel, I think. It is getting to the point where his antics to draw attention to himself is causing bad publicity, which he is just now starting to realize really exists outside of his show business bubble.

I see no polls that show him increasing his following. He's still pretty much 40% or Repub voters, which are 30% or less of all voters. In the general, he's not getting majorities much of anywhere.

[salin]

3. He apparently spent a year or more paying very close attention to rw radio/media

his 'positions' are derivations of what he perceives the teaparty crowd will go wild for. Thus, it is not that he is incapable of studying and becoming well versed in policy. It is that instead he turns to extremism to look for 'positions' to use opportunistically and blends those in with his flair for getting and holding media attention. That is willful ignorance on his part.

[Wounded Bear]

5. That's the thing here....

the kind of things that attract a market for a reality show is OK, because you aren't really trying to get a majority of viewers. You just need enough viewers to pay your bills with your ad revenue. Media marketing 101.

Politics, however involves getting a majority of the electorate, something that Trump has yet to do, even among Repub voters. And his trouble is that what works short term for ratings doesn't help his electability in the general. And if he moderates his game, he'll lose his base. I doubt he can walk that thin of a line.

[salin]

6. What you write makes sense

Voters don't always follow such sense. Sometimes a herd mentality towards 'The (perceived) Winner' overwhelms common sense.

I hope, and think, you are right.

[Wounded Bear]

7. I agree....

and 8 years of Bush kind of proves that, although arguably, he didn't actually win the first election, and there was funny shit going on in '04, too. But enough people voted for that loser that it was close enough to steal.

I hang my hope on the fact that Trump's unfavorables in the general are in the 60-65% range, and well north of 70% among women. I hope he can't overcome those numbers. If he can, the American electorate has abandoned all reason.

[pampango]

8. He seems to have studied the European RW populist movements as well.

Much of his rhetoric and appeals to fear and hate of "others" mixed with a few 'left' lines is classic European far-right. His speeches mimic those of the French National Front, UKIP in Britain and other groups in Europe that have been growing stronger in recent years.

[zalinda]

2. Donald Trump isn't stupid, I can't say he's brilliant but

take a really good look at what he has done. He has said really, really outrageous things, and still gets support.

When this is all over, he wins no matter what. Do you really think he is a Republican? He's been a Democrat up til a few years ago. Is he doing this to prove a point? Is he punking the Republican party? When he walks away from this, he can say, I knew they were stupid and I just proved it. He can also say the Democrats are weak because they couldn't put up a good defense against him. He will come out of this smelling like a rose. All he has to say is, I wanted to see how far they would let me go.

Z

[PJMcK]

4. Answer: Profoundly dumb for a presidential candidate

Thanks for posting the cartoon, kentuck. As a New Yorker, I've watched Donald Trump's public life since the 1980's and I've never understood why anyone listens to or admires him. His sentences are grammatical hash and lack any clarity of thought. His shocking comments about women, immigrants and minorities, among others, are nothing new to those of us who have heard it all before from him. A scholarly analysis of his speeches shows that he communicates at an elementary school level reflecting the lack of intellectual depth in his ideas. He's personally a repulsive human being. And, in my opinion, his buildings, golf courses and casinos are over-priced behemoths reflecting poor aesthetics, excessive cost and low class.

Observing his campaign has been instructive, as the cartoon above illustrates: his constituents are poorly educated (thanks to Republican state legislatures gutting public education) and they don't understand the complexities of our government and our society. Whether Mr. Trump knows these complexities or not is irrelevant because he has never explained the mechanisms he would use to implement his ideas were he to become president. His speeches don't detail his proposals and he hasn't written any policy positions related to the decisions a president needs to address. To convince his supporters of his "gravitas," all he has are grandiose adjectives and claims of his own brilliance and wealth.

While he may come out of this campaign "smelling like a rose," as zalinda wrote above, it doesn't matter much what happens to him. It's much more concerning that he's stirred up so much vitriol with his un-American expressions that the outcome for our country will not be beneficial.