robMar 28, 2025
@wood5y @HarriettMB @pennine I disagree. He's not stupid. If he were stupid, he could only have got where he is by being someone's puppet, and there is no sign of that. He is really quite clever. The reason he is so destructive is that he literally does not care. That's a better explanation than the idea that a really stupid man somehow muddled his way to the presidency.
Show threadSamuelJohnsonMar 28, 2025

@robparsons @wood5y @HarriettMB @pennine He is genuinely an imbecile with no grasp on reality. Low intelligence and now with clear age-related cognitive issues evident in his vocabulary.

He was *actively* chosen by a credulous poorly educated electorate who liked his lies and fantasies and by billionaires either afraid of crossing him or willing to engage transactionally to protect their interests. If he were smart he wouldn't be a serial bankrupt and a serial liar on an epic scale.

Show threadrobMar 28, 2025
@samueljohnson @wood5y @HarriettMB @pennine I really don't agree Eg his bankruptcies were not stupidity on his part. Bankruptcies are his business strategy, wielded without conscience or any thought for those who lost out from them. There was nothing for him to "learn" from any of his bankruptcies because they worked exactly as intended. He realised early on that going bankrupt has no consequences as long as you don't have a conscience.
Show threadSamuelJohnsonMar 28, 2025

@robparsons @wood5y @HarriettMB @pennine Yes, they were. He was a braggadocious oaf repeatedly humiliated by his own inability to deliver anything. He was rescued by the kindness of banks not his own smarts or even his amorality in cheating others including the state and federal govt. I have followed the history of his business operations for decades since living in NYC in the 70s.

He is extremely thick as well as a racist, a rapist, and many other things. A world class gold-plated moron.

Show threadrobMar 28, 2025
@samueljohnson @wood5y @HarriettMB @pennine Banks aren't kind. They are driven entirely by profit, ditto all the other people who lent him money over the years and lost it again and again. The only person who didn't lose was Trump. It's not stupidity, it's a complete lack of conscience that defined his strategies, and still does.
Show threadSamuelJohnson

@robparsons @wood5y @HarriettMB @pennine It's not a good idea to assume that someone claiming to be a successful multi-millionaire businessman either is as rich as claimed or that it as a result of any intelligence or merit of any kind. Statistically some morons get lucky. It's that simple.

https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0219525918500145

See also Fooled by Randomness by Nicholas Taleb, an entire book on the subject.

TALENT VERSUS LUCK: THE ROLE OF RANDOMNESS IN SUCCESS AND FAILURE | Advances in Complex Systems

Mar 28, 2025 at 11:30amWeb