Stew Bolno: Is Donald Trump a stable genius?
On January 6, 2018, Donald Trump stated, “I’m very consistent; I’m a very stable genius.” The remark was in response to concerns about his mental fitness for office, following the publication of “Fire and Fury”. The book by Michael Wolff questioned the President’s behavior and decision-making. Predictably, the liberals mocked his response and it’s likely even his supporters winced a bit. I don’t recall anyone rushing out to protect him from the attacks or rationalizing his comment.
Agree or disagree; what he told us is probably a clear representation of how The Donald self-identifies. Therefore, it provides a reasonable foundation for evaluating his presidential body of work; for supporters as well as critics. I suspect he would determine that a performance scale erected upon those characteristics would be legitimate and appropriate.
Most people will define an individual as stable if that person is interactive, productive, and appears to be at peace with self. Stability implies a kind of consistency in thoughts, words, and actions, but doesn’t necessarily denote near-perfect predictability. We’re not speaking about purchasing a lawnmower, hiring a production worker, or constructing a science lab. Indeed, during his decades long career as CEO and elected president, Donald Trump has been required to function in a world where conflict is the norm, adversaries vary, situations change, agreements are hammered out, and other people are impacted by the results of decisions.
If the executive is highly eccentric, random, unreliable, or irresponsible he’ll be ineffective; he won’t earn trust, build partnerships, maintain relationships, or deliver on promises. If a president is totally transparent or perceived to be “inauthentic” the opposition will override him; international foes will exercise their capacity to severely harm, incapacitate, and even destroy the system and country he’s been elected to lead. Since Trump’s increased the number of votes received after his political win and loss, while expanding support for his party, it’s sensible to conclude citizens of The United States perceive him as stable enough to follow.
Determining whether Trump’s a genius is a bit more difficult, but let’s give it a try.
It’s clear that a person can be exceptional in one area but mediocre or even inadequate in other parts of their lives. A specific and singular talent or skill isn’t automatically transferable to other arenas of action. It’s not unknown to learn about a person with genius capabilities who dramatically fails at being a decent human being. When taken to extremes, savants often display signs of autism, which prohibits their ability to communicate or interact effectively with others. Substantial and brilliant people like Leonardo da Vinci and Benjamin Franklin, born over 250 years apart, are members of an extremely small club.
While most of us struggle to excel in one career, Trump bounded to the top in three. As a real-estate maven he achieved a proven record of success while becoming, arguably perhaps, the best-known national figure in his field. As a rookie TV personality, he led The Apprentice for fourteen years. That doesn’t happen unless millions of people continually tune in to be entertained. More incredibly, he overwhelmed more than eight other Republican primary candidates and upset Hillary Clinton in his first run for President of the United States. You’re aware of his remarkable comeback in 2024. The guts, planning, and execution it takes to triumph like Trump doesn’t, and won’t, occur for anyone lacking an exceptional will, a creative mind, laudable work habits, all blended with an ability to influence opinion.
The purpose of this article was to test the self-declared utterance by a confident and aged public figure, loved by some, hated by others, and impossible to ignore. He’s just a man; not a god. He may or may not be the president you want, but he’s legitimately the one you’ve got. In testing the hypothesis of Trump’s self-opinion while seeking truth, I’m willing to state I agree with his premise. If you believe he’s closer to being an erratic boob, I’d really like to learn more about your point of view.
Stew Bolno is a chronological peer of Donald Trump. He’s been a student, college professor, and consultant on leadership during his 50-year career. He’s followed politics longer than that time. His recent book is “Leadership Lessons And You: From A to Z – featuring Donald Trump” and he’s written scores of essays about him since he descended the Trump Tower staircase.
Given what the political swamp and psychotic leftists have put him through, the lies, the weaponized justice system, farce impeachments, two assassination plots, one with a bullet through his ear, the attacks from the rabid left on him and his family, and to persevere to win back the presidency and commit his administration to exactly what he campaigned on, it is commendable and a testament to his fortitude and love of this country, especially against the backdrop of the corrupt installation of the last autopen administration that was hellbent on destroying 250 years worth of hard work creating our sovereign nation.
Fed Up:
I appreciate your interest and comment.
Similar to a few previous U.S. Presidents, he may go down in history as the right man, with the right skills, at the right time and who made a difference between war and peace as well as prosperity versus economic depression; The Indispensible Leader.
Stew
“If you believe he’s closer to being an erratic boob, I’d really like to learn more about your point of view.”
Erratic (adj) deviating from the usual or proper course in conduct or opinion; eccentric.
He’s definitively erratic; not necessarily a bad thing but also not always a good thing.
Boob (noun) 1, a stupid awkward person : simpleton 2: boor, philistine
compared to the civilized and educated European, the American seemed a boob
—J. T. Farrell
There is very strong evidence and examples for when Trump falls into that second definition of boob. The most obvious example is when talking about Senator McCain (who I though was a war hero AND later in his life was also a war monger) Trump was quoted, in part, during a campaign event in Iowa in 2015: “…He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.” That was a boob thing to say. We can both agree that Trump is often misquoted or taken out of context, almost criminally, by the main stream press.
The issue with Trump is he embraces obvious common sense stances but often in a boorish way. For example, the US needs to get back to being great again at the following: control manufacturing so as to securely produce its own weapons and infrastructure with minimal risk, educate its youth to produce intelligent, physically healthy, and capable patriots and have a healthy middle class with a strong economy. Trump gets a grade of F with respect to long term finances regarding our economy. He seems mostly sizzle without the steak with a lot of promises made but about things that will never actually happen, just as his first term turned out to be in the end. We have a spending problem in the US on a Federal, State, and local level all throughout the US. Trump has not solved it and only exacerbated it. We are being led by politicians controlled by atheists that are either oligarchs or communists or both. Trump finally addressed what should be obvious planks on some matters but he has failed terribly with other matters. The mainstream press has been completely hijacked by the aforementioned atheists, and our children have spent decades getting indoctrinated in public schools via “guidance” and other programs such as S.E.L. We have serious problems in the United States that Trump doesn’t even begin to understand. He thought the Environmental part of Environment, Social, Governance (E.S.G.) which goes hand-in-hand with DEI was regarding Environmental due diligence, or the process of evaluating the environmental conditions and risks associated with a property, often conducted before purchasing or developing real estate. Trump is VERY much out of touch and seems to be handled by his handlers.