Opinion | President Dumb and Dumber - The New York Times

"By Charles M. Blow,  August 5th, 2018

Opinion Columnist



Donald Trump has a penchant for labeling particular people. It might strike some as just another insult for a petulant urchin of a man who insults everyone with whom he takes issue. But I believe that the nature of his insults to specific kinds of people says something more about the character and nature of the man, something of which he may or may not be aware.



I believe that the fact that he so often attacks the intellectual capacity of women and minorities exposes a racial and gender bias, one that has a long history and a wide acceptance.



On Friday, Trump tweeted:



“Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do. I like Mike!”



Lemon, a CNN anchor, was interviewing James about the school James was opening in Akron for at-risk students. During the interview, James accurately noted:



“We’re in a position right now in America, more importantly, where the race thing has taken over because I believe our president is kinda trying to divide us.”



Hover over the irony here: The man trying to help at-risk children by opening doors for them was being attacked by the man who has put children at risk by locking them in cages.



On Thursday at a Pennsylvania rally, Trump repeated the sobriquet he has assigned to California Representative Maxine Waters, calling her, “Very low I.Q. low. Low I.Q.”



This attack on a woman seems to me even more important than the racial question. Might it also have some racial underpinning? Definitely. With his history, Trump requires that all his actions be examined through a racial lens.



If these denigrations of the intelligence of Waters existed in isolation, one might well be able to write them off as fluke or coincidence, but they do not exist in isolation.



A review of the many insults Trump has spouted since he declared his candidacy finds that although he has called many people dumb, or dummies or low I.Q., the targeting of that particular insult at women, including minority women, occurs with curious frequency and is often a singular line of attack against them, rather than one of many.



He has called MSNBC anchor Mika Brzezinski “dumb as a rock,” “low I.Q.,” and “crazy and very dumb.”



Opinion | President Dumb and Dumber - The New York Times