Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/03/06/trump-doesnt-know-what-the-u.html
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I’d bet good money that he could tell you what the markets closed at every day this week.
In Rubles.
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Ok, he is stupid…totally true statement. But thinking its 11, but its actually 14, not really stupidity as much as just ill-informed.
@anon48584343 that’s more the issue right? His stupidity is low on the totem pole compared to his priorities. THAT is the real issue.
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In other people, maybe, but Trump actively resists learning and using facts. I think it’s safe to call that stupidity, though the word omits Trump’s malicious mendacity.
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I’m surprised he knew it was at least eleven. This morning NPR said the count was twelve. Now it’s fourteen.
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He is. But who cares about the actual number?Does it matter if it’s 14 or 24? No, it does not. But if people want to know, they can always look it up.
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I don’t know how large the boingboing servers are, but if you start posting everything Trump doesn’t know, you’re going to run out of space pretty quickly.
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Yeah, its hard getting those numbers on the golf course.
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Yeah, I’m not defending Trump either, but I also didn’t know what the US death toll was.
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He has people briefing him every day* on the subject and he still doesn’t know.
*In theory
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That’s ok, unless you’re a public health official or a national leader.
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I have a hunch that there was no case at the CDC offices, but the people at the fund-raiser at the Miami White House already forked over the dough to see 45 so he’s going to show them how important they are even during a national emergency. That, and the weather this weekend is going to be great for golfing and the markets are closed anyway.
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“Trump doesn’t know (fill in the blank).”
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I don’t think the problem is that he hasn’t been getting the correct information so much as his inability to absorb it.
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option 1: “anything”
option 2: “shit.”
option 3: “who gives a fuck, the guy is an idiot!”
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Trump does not know how many sons he has.
Really: he’s made multiple public statements about “both my sons…” and he seems to regard Barron as “that kid my wife is raising for some reason.”
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Same. And to @anon48584343 and @Brainspore 's point…we can assume he is being given that info regularly (daily, hourly, etc). The point being here he “SHOULD” know what it is.
I am teetering between am I more “He’s an idiot, how does he not know this…he’s supposed to know this!” and “Jesus, he was actually close…I am surprised he wasn’t all ’ we have no deaths’”
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But, but, he handed that job off to his Savior-In-Charge Mike Pence.
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There’s this horrible creepy narcissism built into it as well. Any of the following are acceptable answers to the question: What’s the death toll so far?
- 14
- I was briefed at 9:00 this morning and at that time the death toll was 11
- I’m going to leave talk of the specifics to [person] who is our expert here
It’s not just that Trump doesn’t know what the death toll is: it’s that Trump will also not defer a question they don’t know the answer to to someone who does know, it’s that Trump won’t take the time to be specific when the whole world is listening to their answers, it’s probably that Trump was too bored to take a recent briefing and was fine with just knowing last night’s facts; it’s that Trump thinks they can substitute their assertions for reality.
And I wish there weren’t people in trying to make this out to be normal. Like we should react the same way we might have reacted if George Bush Sr. had made a similar mistake and interpret each bit of Trump stupidity as it’s own unique, forgivable incident.
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