Is Donald Trump functionally illiterate?

Consider the evidence.

A former Saturday Night Live cast member says Trump struggled to read the script when he hosted the show in 2015:

http://boingboing.net/2017/04/07/when-hosting-snl-donald-trump.html

That article goes into this question a bit more, but here's another interesting observation -- Trump requested that his briefings include fewer words, more pictures and graphs, and be broken down into bite-size chunks:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/horrible-pictures-of-suffering-moved-trump-to-action-on-syria/2017/04/07/9aa9fcc8-1bce-11e7-8003-f55b4c1cfae2_story.html

Then there's perhaps the most damning piece of evidence, that Steve Bannon essentially sneaked onto the National Security Council by writing it into an executive order that Trump signed, obviously not having read it because he was "frustrated" (read: "apoplectic") when he discovered what Bannon had done:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/02/06/report-trump-not-fully-briefed-on-exec-order-that-gave-bannon-seat-at-nsc-meetings.html

It's long been reported that Trump doesn't read books -- including history books, apparently:

“Great president. Most people don’t even know that he’s a Republican, right? Does anyone know? A lot of people don’t know that.”

- The 45th President of the United States of America, talking about Abraham Lincoln

(I will risk including one picture in this post)



There are smaller, more subtle clues as well. Many people have wondered why Trump is constantly surrounded by his kids. Do they cover for his reading disability, perhaps? Trump also speaks with a limited vocabulary more typical of an American eight- or nine-year-old than of a 70-year-old. Of course, if you don't read, you tend not to pick up new vocabulary.

If you can't read, you also can't write, typically -- but you can lie about having written a book. I think most importantly, however, if you don't or can't read, should you control enough nuclear weaponry to destroy Planet Earth -- five times in a row?

I believe Trump suffers from the same malaise as all conservatives…he’s intellectually lazy.  I sense people think I’m merely twisting the knife when I criticize conservatives for lacking a sense of reason.  I am quite serious.

It’s environment, not genetics.  Conservatives are incurious.  They are handed an incredibly simplistic ideology, in which reward is ‘feeling good’ and penance is any bad fortune.  It’s all experiential.  Good-bad, good-bad, good-bad, they never have to think about it.  Hence, no original thinking.

Conservatives acquire that from their ideology.  Ideologies have an effect on people…they suggest certain metaphors and associations.  Conservatives inevitably have a ‘has been’ ideology, by which so many of the associations have already been written down for them.  So they fall into a habit of ‘parroting’ and not originating the thoughts that pass through their minds.  Consequently, they live in a world of clichés and jingles and catch phrases, ignoring original thought.

Trump is simply an extreme example of this malaise.  His disorder is compounded by the fact that he has had so many challenges met for him by others.  From the highchair where he was first fed, he has always had aides and family who pick up things he throws around.  He habitually falls into a pattern of extreme, outrageous behavior—which he perceives as somehow associated with his unique talents—and then family members pick up around his highchair.

So I agree that Trump surrounds himself with family because they are the enablers.  Subliminally, they seem to recognize what they are doing; look at the explanation of the Shayrat airbase tomahawk missile strike that Eric gave: that Ivanka told her father what to think for maximum political effect.  Eric seems not even to see what he is describing.  He, Donnie and Ivanka are the enablers, picking up after the undeveloped child who throws food and toys from the highchair.

Contrast that with a non-conservative.  A child raised in a progressive setting is taught that each moment, each episode is an opportunity for figuring out what is going on.  Simply put, they are taught to reason...organize their world in terms that make sense, change what they can, and accepting what they cannot change.  Conservatives are not taught that.  That is why you see so many conservatives, like Trump, caught up in dilemmas—cheating on a spouse, starting wars, trusting authority too much, economic decisions leading to depressions, and so forth.

Trump’s answer is to surround himself with family enablers.  Trump’s first wife, Ivana Trump, must be an amazing woman, as she held it together and made it all work for him.  She raised those children to be there when she could not.

Notice, too, it all started downhill when Trump shed Ivana.  Now the children are coming back, reflecting the wisdom of Ivana…genetically holding to the habit pattern that compensates for Daddy.  But, alas, this isn’t picking up food and toys flung from the highchair. Everyone else is throwing stuff too.

@ title: he'd be dangerous if he was literate.

I can understand why he wants less words and more graphics and pictures. Long walls of text can be difficult to read.

He also makes use of teleprompt quite a bit. He was using it when he gave his speech about why he ordered the attack on Syria.

Raggamuffin wrote:I can understand why he wants less words and more graphics and pictures. Long walls of text can be difficult to read.

He also makes use of teleprompt quite a bit. He was using it when he gave his speech about why he ordered the attack on Syria.

Yet another thing he gets a pass on from the right.



Trump's playing far more golf than Obama ever did, but you don't see the right complaining about that, either. Yet:



This just backs up Quill's points -- there's no thought process with the right, just poop-flinging.

That is precisely what my sig is about. Everything that the republicans used to complain about, regarding the previous Potus,  President Trump has done it far worse.  But people see only what they WANT to see.