'Way in over his head': How Trump's mythmaking concealed his true incompetence

New Republic Editor Michael Tomasky says he’s surprised the reality of Trump’s intelligence managed to escape so many Americans who voted for him.

‘[E]ven if they aren’t that troubled by the mendacity and malevolence, the man is just wildly incompetent,” said Tomasky. “A mountain range of mythmaking has gone into creating the Trump persona over the years; by him, by a pliant business press in his real estate days, and, since he entered politics, by a right-wing media that would make the old Soviet press agencies blush and a party of cowardly sycophants, most of whom know very well that he shouldn’t be in charge of a high-volume McDonald’s, let alone the executive branch of the federal government, but would rather let the country collapse than say so.”

And now we’re at war with a Middle East ant nest with 60 million people. Gas prices are up about 60 cents a gallon in the war’s first week. The Dow dropped is now well below 50,000. Also on Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the U.S. economy lost 92,000 jobs in February.

Tomasky recalled a confession he’ heard from a Biden administration official in 2024, where the official confessed “we’re not going to dislodge people’s belief that [Trump is] a great businessman. … ‘[I]t’s hardwired in there, and undoing it, for a significant percentage of the people, just isn’t going to happen.”

“I was staggered during the 2024 campaign at all the voters who believed him when he said he’d bring down prices on day one,” said Tomasky. “Really. Who is that … stupid? Presidents can’t control prices. Prices — of eggs, beef, oil, refrigerators, computers, you name it — depend on dozens of factors. Xi Jinping … has far more control over the prices of refrigerators and computers than any president ever will. The price of beef has more to do with decisions made in Brazil than in Texas.”

“We all learn this in school,” said Tomasky. “So how did so many millions of Americans unlearn it?”

And now Trump is claiming the power to appoint Iran’s next leader, as if that’s ever worked for the U.S. in Cuba, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Chile — and even the same Iran that Trump is bombing right now.

“Again, who can possibly believe his nonsense?” demanded Tomasky, adding that he’s not talking about the “dead-enders” who adore Trump unconditionally. He’s speaking of the others who “know he’s not a good person but aren’t all that bothered by it.”

“His poll numbers are bad. But they’re not nearly as bad as they ought to be,” Tomasky said. “The man is, whatever his other faults, just way in over his head. Maybe Democrats should say that more often. The fact that he’s costing taxpayers a billion dollars a day on a war most of them didn’t want may be a good place to start.”

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