Donald Trump is remarkably stupid
When I was in college I had the pleasure of knowing two very talented young men. One was a student of my piano teacher, the other was a high school student who was monitoring my third semester calculus class. Both, as it happened, were 14 years old. Both, as it happened, were very mature and very agreeable young men, though that part might have been a fluke.
The thing about it was, their talent was easy to spot. You didn’t have to squint your eyes or cross your fingers and hope they were good. You didn’t have to make excuses for them. Their respective talents, one for classical music the other for mathematics, shouted from the rooftops. That they were both six years my junior really had nothing to do with it, either. Fourteen or forty, they were geniuses, and nobody could doubt it.
That was back in the mid 1970s. These days, in the era of the social media-magnified Dunning Kruger effect, talent is sometimes ascribed to the most absurdly untalented people. You can be a “legend” for bringing somebody a cup of coffee. I don’t know why this is. Maybe it’s because people figure if some mediocrity is talented then they themselves aren’t so far behind. Yes, that must have something to do with it.
Anyway, I know what talent looks like. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing two examples of it in its most pristine and near-perfect form with my own eyes. And I can assure you, without fear of contradiction, that Donald Trump is quite possibly the least talented human being I have ever seen.
Trump isn’t even a little bit good at anything. Right now even his mediocre campaign handlers and self-anointed political “experts” are trying to get him to change his strategy. They want him to stop whining about how Joe Biden was “unconstitutionally” forced to quit. They want him to stop beating his chest about how he has the biggest crowd sizes “anybody has ever seen.” They want him to start focusing on the issues, specifically, the economy, the border, the price of gas, and so on. and Trump will have none of it.
Trump knows better. Only the Stable Genius knows what’s best for his campaign. So he merrily proceeds to shipwreck his chances. Not even the threat of losing his comeback bid and a miserable death behind bars can get him to change course. I’m just fine with that, naturally, but I am amazed that he can’t see what’s plain as day to the rest of us. Donald Trump is losing, and he’s going to lose big.
I have never seen the Democratic Party quite so united with enthusiasm. I have never witnessed Republicans so utterly bereft and desperate. As a result, a blue wave is coming, the likes of which we have never seen before. (“Never seen before.” I’m starting to sound like Trump!) I think we aren’t just going to win the presidency by a landslide. I think we’re going to win back the House and keep the Senate as well.
Yesterday I heard something I thought I would never hear in this election cycle in my wildest, most optimistic moments. Thanks to recent polls, Florida could be in play. Texas could be in play. I never worried about those two states. I figured we needed to focus on the battleground states and consign Florida and Texas to the trash bin of hopelessness. Don’t get me wrong, we could still lose those states of course. But if they’re “in play,” what does that portend for the rest of the country? Very good news, I should think.
We also have two people working tirelessly to see that good news happen. I’m not referring to Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, although they are very good and we’re lucky to have them. No, I’m talking about the Dunning Kruger twins themselves, Donald Trump and JD Vance. They have done more to hurt their own campaigns than I would have thought possible.
As I said, Trump has no talent for anything. He is without a doubt the most remarkably stupid man in the long history of remarkably stupid men. But his choice of Vance for his running mate was a positive masterstroke of stupidity. Together I think they are unbeatable — as losers.
Back in 1972, George McGovern jettisoned his running mate Tom Eagleton for the most craven and chickenshit of reasons, because it had come to light that Eagleton had once undergone shock treatment for depression. There is little doubt that Trump, on the other hand, could get rid of Vance and lose no credibility at all. In fact I think it would help him. But Trump won’t do that because Trump is remarkably stupid.
Of course, with Trump gone MAGA will still be there. We’re going to eventually have to worry that one day MAGA might field a candidate who is halfway smart. Until then, let us rejoice, brothers and sisters, that Donald Trump is remarkably stupid. And we are almost certainly going to win. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.