George Will is a conservative columnist with a deep reverence for history and tradition. He is probably the most serious and respected conservative intellectual in the nation. On Thursday, he wrote a column called “Trump Has a Serious Disability” that was widely read. It was trending on Twitter. “Trump does not know what it is to know something.”
He writes:
“It is urgent for Americans to think and speak clearly about President Trump’s inability to do either. This seems to be not a mere disinclination but a disability. It is not merely the result of intellectual sloth but of an untrained mind bereft of information and married to stratospheric self-confidence.
“In February, acknowledging Black History Month, Trump said that “Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice.” Because Trump is syntactically challenged, it was possible and tempting to see this not as a historical howler about a man who died 122 years ago, but as just another of Trump’s verbal fender benders, this one involving verb tenses.
“Now, however, he has instructed us that Andrew Jackson was angry about the Civil War that began 16 years after Jackson’s death. Having, let us fancifully imagine, considered and found unconvincing William Seward’s 1858 judgment that the approaching Civil War was “an irrepressible conflict,” Trump says:
“People don’t realize, you know, the Civil War, if you think about it, why? People don’t ask that question, but why was there the Civil War? Why could that one not have been worked out?”
“Library shelves groan beneath the weight of books asking questions about that war’s origins, so who, one wonders, are these “people” who don’t ask the questions that Trump evidently thinks have occurred to him uniquely? Presumably they are not the astute “lot of,” or at least “some,” people Trump referred to when speaking about his February address to a joint session of Congress: “A lot of people have said that, some people said it was the single best speech ever made in that chamber.” Which demotes Winston Churchill, among many others.
“What is most alarming (and mortifying to the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated) is not that Trump has entered his eighth decade unscathed by even elementary knowledge about the nation’s history. As this column has said before, the problem isn’t that he does not know this or that, or that he does not know that he does not know this or that. Rather, the dangerous thing is that he does not know what it is to know something…
“Americans have placed vast military power at the discretion of this mind, a presidential discretion that is largely immune to restraint by the Madisonian system of institutional checks and balances. So, it is up to the public to quarantine this presidency by insistently communicating to its elected representatives a steady, rational fear of this man whose combination of impulsivity and credulity render him uniquely unfit to take the nation into a military conflict.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I cannot understand why people do not recognize that he has senile dementia. Why else would Ivanka play the role that Nancy Reagan did with Former President Reagan during his latter years.
I don’t think it is senility. As Will said, his head lacks information, knowledge, clarity.
Reagan had senile dementia- it was obvious when he spoke off the cuff that he was unaware of the circumstances in his immediate environment. Reagan’s handlers made sure he only talked to the press with a prepared script.
Trump is not (yet) demented. He is well aware of his surroundings. My best guess is that Trump has some form of a learning disability related to language. The danger in Trump is not his disability, per say. It’s his unwillingness to ever admit he’s wrong.
There is also Trump’s surprise and chagrin that the job of President required heart and, that the position is far more difficult than he thought.
The statements would make almost all Americans shudder at his deficit in predicting the circumstances of the leader of the free world.
I cannot understand why people who hold no medical credentials and who have never met Trump, much less examined him, think it’s okay to diagnose him.
Because he has the power to launch nuclear weapons, deny all of us and our families freedom, medical care, food, safety, and to destroy the planet, etc. ?
Since you are fond of tenuous equivalencies, if Stalin, Hitler, Mengele, etc. had been judged insane by the people and, removed from office, a great deal of human misery that set the world back decades, would have been avoided.
If you think Trump is unfit to rule, then attack him on those grounds. You have no medical training or authority to be making medical or psychiatric diagnoses. And even if you did (especially if you did), such diagnoses are only valid when the patient has been properly examined. It really is that simple and it doesn’t matter whether the target is someone innocent or someone as odious as Trump. Protections protect us all. When you throw them out the window because someone is really, really bad, you jeopardize such protections for everyone. It’s not okay to be politicizing medical or mental health diagnoses. Period.
Trump is unfit to rule because, as George Will wrote, he cannot think clearly or speak clearly. He is a demagogue, who appeals to the public’ basest instincts about the “other” (women, immigrants, Muslims). He is ignorant of history and government. He has no sense of dignity or propriety. He doesn’t understand the responsibilities of the office. He refuses to abandon his business holdings and ignores ethical violations. I could go on, but you see it doesn’t require training as a doctor to say he is unfit.
I totally support your comments, Diane.
I am tired of daily reading about the ignorant decisions being made by Trump who has no idea of what is happening or understanding the repercussions of his actions. This job is way over his head. He has stated that he relies on his reliable “intuition’ to make decisions.
“…it doesn’t require training as a doctor to say he is unfit.”
Correct, which is pretty much what I said.
It does, however, require training as a doctor to diagnose him with a disability or mental condition, especially senile dementia as Mary did.
One doesn’t have to be disabled or mentally ill to be a bad person. In fact, the vast majority of disabled and/or mentally ill people are not bad people, so even if Trump has a disability or mental illness, that does not make him a bad person.
Dienne
Use your rationale on the millions killed by Stalin and Hitler.
If only…citizens had judged them insane and removed them from office, whether those citizens had medical examinations and credentials, OR NOT.
I have to disagree that Hitler, Stalin, and Trump were/are mentally unbalanced. There is a difference between evil and crazy. These men are/were evil.
Exactly, TOW. Well said. Please let’s stop associating being mentally ill and/or disabled with being evil.
I read recently that 50,000 medical professionals have signed a petition saying that tRump is mentally unfit.
I would never say that all mentally ill people are evil but I would say that tRump’s problems are keeping him from making dependable decisions. He needs people to worship him and looks for cheap ways to get his name in lights. He is unable to think deeply on any subject because he doesn’t read and has an attention span of 8 minutes.
Dienne-
When did TOW get a medical license?
I agree that he lacks all three but this leads to the dementia being more pronounced and aggressive than someone who has attained a vast amount of knowledge , like Will.
Anyone for making it mandatory for all public office candidates and political party members in the USA to at least have a high school diploma as a basic requirement.
If this is the way he has spoken all his life, I suspect that he has had a lifelong language disorder along with ADHD. A disability in reading and writing is also a reasonable hypothesis.
I cannot forget how Trump threatened Paul Ryan during his presidential campaign when Ryan refused to endorse Trump.
Voters forget too soon the pre-condition of presidential candidate’s personal income tax clarification. Trump got away with it easily.
Now, Trump successfully repeals many acts which:
1) prevent nepotism,
2) eliminate power and wealth connection, and
3) loot common good (public pension) to privatization.
If educators are conscientious enough, please focus on cultivating public how to unite and demand a “standard” of decent earning to cover a basic cost of living like food, shelter, transportation and healthcare, dental-care.
It is not urgent to criticize or analyze all trivial, silly, nonsensical tweets from a person with his own motto “there is nothing to lose” from “near to” bankrupt position ascending to the most power position in the country. Back2basic
Reblogged this on Literary Nirvana and commented:
Ms. Ravitch has forgotten more about education and current events than I will ever know. I make a point to listen to these scholars.
Couldn’t agree more.
George Will has been writing against Trump for quite some time. Wish these opinions, which are common sense, would appear on Fox. Fox is misleading a huge portion of the country.
I have two friends who regularly watch Fox. They are Trump supporters and know that there is no global warming.
Agreed. Trump did not appear in Republican politics over night. He’s part and parcel of a know-nothing Republican party nurtured by a vast network of right wing media & funded by John Bircher billionaires.
It’s a rare occasion that I agree with George Will, but he’d do well to point a few fingers at himself. He’s supported every crackpot, right wing article of faith like climate change denial & tax cuts build the economy. Will agrees with Paul Ryan’s dream of privatizing Social Security.
Gosh this is a first for me… a first time I completely agree with George Will. Hats off to him for writing this. May some of the ultra conservatives bowing to Trump heed his dire message. Metacognition is definitely OFF THE TRUMP RADAR in addition to many other things… hmmm… humility, modesty, impulse control, kindness… and that is just the tip of this “orange” iceberg (which is self destructing under this “climate change” in politics)!!!
I often ponder just how it happened that Trump could ever be elected to the presidency in the first place. How was it that he was not weeded out by his party? How was it that he was able to convince a large enough portion of voters that he was not only qualified, but had the temperament for the position?
When you look at the position of the average Trump voter, you see more than just one profile: You see a cultural movement that supported what he magnified. You see a collection of people with real life problems who would not be suffering if not for the political landscape manipulated by the governing individuals of our country for many of the previous decades. There is a long list of perpetrators who made this man. Every policy-maker from elected to appointed official who has propagated the social destruction of our culture has had a powerful hand in the making of the Trump phenomenon, and now we are all forced to live with the consequences. The fish finally stinks from the head.
While I believe we can scratch some of the surface by lobbying our current elected officials and supporting a front of opposition through the judicial system, all of this is akin to putting band-aids on the real problem. Yes, that is democracy, and it is indeed messy. However the processes by which we have been operating are not strong enough to make the necessary changes we need to survive as a populace. How many more times do we need to write to members of congress? Why is it always a matter of how many people contact an elected official to help that person make a decision? Granted it gives us a feeling of power that we are “affecting change,” but it takes the responsibility from our elected officials to form their own philosophies and be able to support their positions. We have so little trust of our current political system now that our elected officials fear losing their jobs and make decisions based on that notion rather than basing them on what is best for the common good. They don’t even trust themselves to know what to do now. Our priorities are misplaced.
We need a cultural revolution. We need philosophy and social sciences in our culture to work toward educating our citizens about social structures. We need citizens to understand the economics of society, so that they know how decisions affect others and, in turn, us all. We need to ensure that citizens have access to knowledge and the skill of enlightened discourse to make better voting decisions. These “ideals” will never reach every person, but enough people can turn the tide of this path. We have lived through times of darkness before, but in my lifetime it has never been his dismal.
On the bright side, perhaps the collective realization of Trump’s incompetence could finally turn this country around. I always say this about hitting rock bottom: You can’t fall off of the floor.
“I always say this about hitting rock bottom: You can’t fall off of the floor.”
TAGO! (Though many of us have “been down so long it looks like up to me.”)
Thank you for printing his column. It says it all.
“He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool. Shun him” – Arabian proverb
Charles, a wise comment.
We Americans have a great deal to learn from the Islamic and Arabian world. Their philosophy, and history, and their contributions to Western civilization are immense. Our number system, algebra (an Arabic word), dentistry, chemotherapy, medicines, anatomy, and on and on, are derived from the Islamic world.
Islamic surgeons were performing cataract surgery, when Europeans were praying to the bones of their saints for cures. The Roman Catholic church forbade autopsies, but Islamic doctors were dissecting bodies, and drawing the only anatomical drawings of the human body.
Sadly, there is a great deal of prejudice against Arabian people, and Islam. This is why I have pushed for more courses in Islamic literacy.
To Charles:
IMHO, on this planet of Earth, all good people will be humble, and truly care for others’ welfare and well being whereas all bad people do their best to harm others’ emotional and physical state of sanity.
In the same vein, all religions have their best philosophy to alleviate people’s sufferance and to bring hope in salvation to people on Earth.
However, leaders and authorities, who want to secure their power, control, and lust in materials, will become fascist or communist on order to fulfill their dictatorship over the populace.
It is the best interest to learn ANY languages so that people can communicate intelligently about civilization and can exchange cultures amicably.
In short, we can show people how to do farming, cooking, and learning to be independent through hard works. However, we should not and MUST NOT enforce people to do for their own goodness sake in the name of whatever like humanity, liberty, democracy,…
If people want to trade their body and mind for a quick gaining of material like fame and fortune, that is their choice to suffer any form of abuse in their bodily harm, their mental exhaustion like murder, assassination, Alzheimer, …
Please do not advocate SHARIA law from Arabia and Islamic culture.
Regardless how advance in medical + … in those Islamic countries, Western culture is just wonderful as it is to me. Thank you. Back2basic
In addition to being an “intellectual sloth,” Trump is superficial and highly manipulative. I think he enjoys all the attention of the presidency, but not the work. The Republicans have found a perfect front for all their evil deals. I hope it comes back to bite them in the midterm elections, but I doubt it.
Donald Trump is a poster child for why we must have a strong system of public education in America!
Trump and DeVos were educated in private schools. And, the men in the top echelon of Wall Street, were privately educated. The former have huge deficits in wisdom and ethics. The latter create a 2% drag on the economy and have huge deficits in wisdom and ethics.
“Impeach the Freak.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/05/hes-an-embarrassment-hostile-welcome-for-trump-on-return-to-new-york
To think that anything written by George Will, a political operative masquerading as a journalist and “historian” (really, Diane?), attacking Trump has any political significance is really grasping at straws. With his tweedy, Ivy League affectations and bogus gravitas, he is exactly the type of Republican rejected by voters in last year’s Republican primaries.
The man is a walking cartoon, and an ethically-challenged one, and I’d urge readers to recall his coaching Ronald Reagan before the 1980 presidential debates with Jimmy Carter (is that what “journalists” and “historians” do?) by using briefing books stolen from Carter’s campaign. At one time, this was considered a scandal, a gross breach of professional ethics and a challenge to his credibility, but I guess since we live in the United States of Amnesia, so it no longer is.
Want a textbook example of false comfort? This is surely it.
Trump is the “Manchurian Candidate”. He is nothing more than a puppet. Once the puppet master or masters are exposed this national nightmare will end.
He usually goes off the rails when he ad libs while reading prepared remarks. More evidence that he is being handled.
His puppeteers miscalculated and that will lead to their demise. His narcissism prevents him from being totally handled. Trump will crash and burn. Our grandchildren will have very interesting Social Studies books in the future.
Good one, rratto.
Those puppets, the hard-core xtian regressive right-think Koch Bros, Mercers and Devoses. Those of us who have been keeping an eye on the xtian right for decades recognize these monied backers, but the vast majority of Amurikans have no clue as to the end game-an xtian caliphate.
And no, that’s not some conspiracy theory, one only has to do some research to see how long these folks have been going at it. And yes indeed it is scary to me, and I don’t frighten easily.
History may be written by the victor, but the final draft is published by the victims.
The Salmon Swamp Monster is nothing but a place holder until the xtian right (can you say George Will?) are able to get him removed from office so that their candidate of choice-Pence can come in and supposedly clean up the SSM’s mess. Will’s column is just one of the many to come from supposed “conservatives” who are really reactionary regressives. A true salvation candidate if there ever was one. The xtian right is salivating at getting their man in!!
I don’t put George Will in the same category as the XTian right.
I do, his is a more disguised method. He has been advocating for almost all the xtian right’s agenda over the years. He makes a great mouthpiece as he is able to mollify reader into thinking he is “reasonable”. How one can be reasonable and espouse what he espouses is beyond me.
Hi Diane,
Slightly off topic here, but I posted a research question at the very end of the AP Exams article comments section that I would really like to find an answer to. Hoping against hope that you either know this answer or can pass it on to someone who might know?!?!?
Thanks in advance!
Dave Kristofferson
I believe it was Bill Mahler who came up with the best diagnosis of Trump, the guy at the end of the bar.
That was PJ Rourke – and it was a great comment – could someone find it ?