Uh, because they aren't

[Scooter]

Arithmetic is not a skill that MAGA care about in their propaganda.

[Big RR]

And he says he graduated top of his class from Wharton; I doubt he even got gentlemen's Cs

[BoSoxGal]

Despite the US president attesting to the fact that he finished “top of his class” at Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania, his former college professor, William T. Kelley, had another view.

After Kelley’s death, Frank DiPrima, a close friend of Kelley, revealed that the professor felt the president was a fool.

“Professor Kelley told me 100 times over three decades that ‘Donald Trump was the dumbest goddam student I ever had,'” DiPrima wrote for the Daily Kos. “I remember his emphasis and inflection — it went like this — ‘Donald Trump was the dumbest goddam student I ever had.”

DiPrima explained that Kelley told him this after Trump became a celebrity but “long before” he was deemed a political figure.

“Dr. Kelley often referred to Trump’s arrogance when he told of this — that Trump came to Wharton thinking he already knew everything,” Di Prima added.

DiPrima’s revelation raised questions about the US president’s academic record.

According to The Daily Pennsylvania, Trump’s name was not on the Wharton Dean’s List in 1968, the year he graduated, despite him allowing the media to report for years that he graduated first in his class at Wharton. If he had performed as exceptionally well as is commonly believed, his name would be present.

However, whenever his intellectual credibility was questioned or mocked, the current President of the US is quick to remind everyone where he attended college.

“I went to the Wharton School of Finance,” he said multiple times in a July 11 speech in Phoenix, Arizona. “I’m, like, a really smart person.”

https://studyinternational.com/news/tru ... t-wharton/

[Big RR]

BSG--from what I recall of Trump before he became this mad monk, I think he was recognized as a fairly affable guy and was reasonably popular with the NYC celebrity community and many others in that social circle. However, most of these were really in no way to ascertain his intelligence, not did they really care--Trump donated money to a variety of their causes (and puffed himself up doing so)--pretty much a typical trust funder.

However, most who did business with him detested him, partly because I think he wanted to prove he could be a bigger prick than his dad, but also because they knew how woefully inadequate his grasp of business principles was. He had good legal advice (especially in the bankruptcy arena) and business specialists (who cleaned up after him), but given some of his resources, he really was too big to fail (even though he tried mightily to do so). Face it, anyone who has even had a tangential contact with business negotiations know his "style" is complete bullshit and would get him nowhere--coming on like gangbusters just gets people to leave the table (and his assistants then negotiate the real deal). But these are people who know enough to realize how little he knows, so he has to bluster--it's all he can do. so they ignore him and deal with the real people running the business.

[ex-khobar Andy]

I recall him telling us weeks ago that the price of eggs had come down 97%.

This would be true if eggs ever sold at $10 / dozen (they never got that high) and then came down to $0.30 / dozen (nope). OK he didn't pay attention in a sixth grade arithmetic class; but you would think (no you wouldn't) that maybe, just maybe, someone smarter than him in the GOP (I know, I know) would have taken him aside and showed him how percentages work - so he would not repeat the mistake.

Donald Trump is a moron. I would be surprised if his IQ made it to 75.

[Burning Petard]

Doesn't matter if the numbers make sense. To misquote another Republican president: You can fool enough of the people enough of the time. To quote another politician perhaps even a prophet: We make our own reality.

snailgate.

[BoSoxGal]

I recall him telling us weeks ago that the price of eggs had come down 97%.

This would be true if eggs ever sold at $10 / dozen (they never got that high) and then came down to $0.30 / dozen (nope). OK he didn't pay attention in a sixth grade arithmetic class; but you would think (no you wouldn't) that maybe, just maybe, someone smarter than him in the GOP (I know, I know) would have taken him aside and showed him how percentages work - so he would not repeat the mistake.

Donald Trump is a moron. I would be surprised if his IQ made it to 75.

After observing the guy for decades now, I have to disagree. Donald Trump is not a moron, he likely possesses average IQ if not slightly above average IQ.

The reasons for his arithmetical gaffes are rooted in his narcissistic personality disorder, which defines him utterly.


Because I have an overactive empathy chip, there is a part of me that feels pity and compassion for the little Donnie who was so wounded by indisputably terrible parenting he developed a narcissistic wound that has handicapped his entire adult life.

Then I think of the things he's done to other human beings and I say, fuck that twat too bad he wasn't aborted.

[Big RR]

there is a part of me that feels pity and compassion for the little Donnie who was so wounded by indisputably terrible parenting he developed a narcissistic wound that has handicapped his entire adult life.

I might agree if he didn't live only to hurt people to puff himself up. Because of what he is doing to others I have no sympathy for him.

As for him being of average intelligence, it is possible (although I have seen no proof of this) that he does have a capacity to learn, but his personality wouldn't let him learn anything from anyone. I don't think his poor arithmetic skills are not real; I think he never learned it; he always thought he knew better. I knew people like that in school, and they grew up to be assholes (at least as I know).

[Burning Petard]

But maybe he doesn't need to know how numbers, or anything else works. We only need to believe. Headline from Fortune magazine:
‘Not just a cyclical recovery, but a boom.’ BofA says a ‘key tail risk’ is that the Trump economy will actually start to take off"

And Mussolini made the trains run on time. But I am just a liberal who knows facts and dates but does not understand the zeitgeist of the times.

I sure don't understand it for right now. By the way, I did not read about the spirit of America during WWII, I lived it. For this who did not, I strongly recommend the classic book "How to Cook a Wolf" by MFK Fisher. She is an American writer, addressing her times and her zeitgeist, in 1942.

snailgate

[Big RR]

But maybe he doesn't need to know how numbers, or anything else works. We only need to believe.

Maybe? No maybe about it when it comes to his supporters; they just believe. But face it, eventually the belief will wear off, even if what BofA suggests could happens actually does. The belief won't ask forever and people will eventually realize how they have been suckered; it has happened that way throughout history and will happen here, although he can do a great deal of damage along the way, and we will have to live through that.