32) Trump is Clueless About Many Important Things; It’s Probably Due to Functional Illiteracy

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He has a tremendous lack of knowledge about history, religions, civics, geography, and general science information. For a partial list of examples showing the former President’s lack of knowledge on matters that are relatively basic, see the “Appendix” at the very bottom of this post.

At the same time, Trump likes to brag about his intelligence testing. Ironically, that is yet another area where he lacks knowledge or understanding, because the test he refers to was not an intelligence test, but rather a 10 minute diagnostic tool to determine if further testing is required for dementia. Most likely it is the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. Unless you have dementia it won’t tell you much.

(Actual intelligence tests have always been controversial, but the most widely accepted intelligence test currently used is the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (ver IV) which has 10 core sub-tests and 5 supplemental sub-tests and requires 60 to 90+ minutes.) 

In any case, knowledge enables understanding which enables many parts of higher intelligence. His many knowledge gaps, therefore, (1) are worrisome, and (2) prompt a question as to why? I think it’s because Trump may be functionally illiterate. On what do I base that observation?

• Mary Trump (his niece) wrote: “Are there other factors that should be considered? Absolutely. He may have a long undiagnosed learning disability that for decades has interfered with his ability to process information.”

• The ghost writer of Trump’s Art of the Deal said that Trump has never read a book in his adult life.

• On video, Trump (the real estate mogul!) says he has never read a lease.

• There are quite a few memoirs from aides in the White House saying that Trump doesn’t (cannot?) read the daily intelligence briefings. Essentially, Trump is the first President who relies on short verbal summaries of the intelligence report instead of reading the daily 15-20 page reports. 

• On video, Trump appears unable to read a document as a court witness.

• Trump scores at a 4 th grade speaking level, the lowest of the last 9 Presidents (not including any speeches prepared by speech writers). 

Perhaps this all contributed to his fears and insecurities created by his cruel father and helped create his narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). The downside of that, is that the paranoia, the constant need for flattery and approval, his fantasies of power and other NPD traits prevent him from the reasonable substitute of listening to, relying on, and empowering expert appointees to help him learn and make ghood decisions.

Again: He is UNstable and certainly NOT a genius; he is just barely knowledgeable. In short, Trump is extremely UNFIT for the office of President.

Resources:

Testing:

Trump May Be Functionally Illiterate:

Appendix: A Very Few of Many Possible Examples of Trump’s Lack of Basic Knowledge

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