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I ask, for myself and for the millions of readers of KrusControl, a simple socio-political question: Does one have to have a high IQ in order to be a successful dictator? According to historians who attempt these sorts of estimates, Hitler was thought to have an IQ of anywhere from 120-150, and Stalin’s IQ was in the range of 125-135. In terms of current dictators, Donald Trump has always boasted of having a mile high IQ, but he has produced no evidence to substantiate this claim. Several years ago, a report circulated that a record of an IQ test given to the young Mr. Trump when he was a student at the New York Military Academy was found, and his score was 73. However, in the spirit of adhering to the highest ethics in journalism, we must report that this claim was determined to be a fabrication.
Given the many definitions of intelligence, the varied means of assessing intelligence, and the general absence of reliable evidence, it leaves me, however, to apply various methods of determining whether the current dictator of the United States has a brain in his head. For instance, what should I make of the man’s claims of being a high-IQ businessman in light of the fact that his companies have filed for bankruptcy six times?
Or perhaps a better definition of intelligence begins with self-awareness. However brilliant, truly intelligent individuals know what they know and know what they don’t. They are careful what they say, knowing that others of some intelligence can tell if they are faking, cheating, or in this wonderful world of ours, simply babbling words that AI has written for them.
King Donald recently visited fellow-monarch King Charles in Great Britain. At an official state dinner, the American leader and his handlers knew that he would be called upon to make some formal remarks. Knowing his tendency to ramble on endlessly about all sorts of inappropriate subjects, his high-IQ speech writers thought it would be best to provide him with some truly high-brow comments to make before the Royals. Reading robotically in a monotone, King Donald had some very intelligent-sounding things to say. Speaking of the beauty of the English language, and our leader certainly does prefer English to, let’s say, the lowly language spoken by dope-smuggling Mexicans and Venezuelans, he talked of the great literature coming out of the British Isles “…perfected in the pages of Shakespeare, Dickens, Tolkien, Lewis, Orwell, and Kipling.” And, in passing, Trump, who likes to ad-lib now and then, added a truly high-brow remark, noting that these guys were “incredible people.” Tolkien? Lewis? You gotta be kidding me. Dare we believe for a mini-second that he could tell us any of their first names or had ever been exposed to or influenced by a single word or idea from any of the above. (Whoops, although I’m sure he never actually read him, perhaps Orwell is a writer whose ideas would sit well with the Trumpster).
Intelligent people know when they are looking like fools before any and all of those around him, but Trump likely believed that those in his presence were wowed by his acquaintance with the giants of literature. Although the British are hardly nonverbally expressive, as Trump made his comments, we could almost see Charles cringing—or was he just trying ever so hard to simply stifle a laugh.
But maybe it’s unfair to judge intelligence by behavior at a dinner party. Maybe we should determine a person’s smarts by his behavior when talking about his real job, when he is with other politicians assessing his accomplishments. This week Donald Trump appeared with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, discussing diplomatic accomplishments—sans prepared notes or pre-written speeches. Without anything to say about his accomplishments in bringing peace to Ukraine or the Middle East, the American potentate found high self-praise for his great accomplishment of ending hostilities between Azerbaijan and Armenia, warring neighbors who he believes are warring no more due to him. Everything was wonderful, except for one teeny-weeny thing: Trump could not remember or pronounce the names of the two countries. Trump talked about his great peace-making accomplishments between …hesitation…hesitation.. Abberbaijan and Albania–the latter being approximately 1,300 miles from Armenia. But who cares about silly foreign countries with funny names, thinks the Donald. After all, nobody’s perfect (well, except for me).
So once again, in the name of journalistic integrity and the highest standards of reporting, we at Kruscontrol want to make it 100% clear that the report of Trump having an IQ of 73 was a false and unsubstantiated claim.
After all, I don’t think it’s that high.
