Summary
A new book, A Very Stable Genius by Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, reveals Donald Trump’s ignorance on key historical and geopolitical issues.
During a 2017 visit to the USS Arizona Memorial, Trump reportedly asked, “What’s this all about?” showing a lack of understanding of Pearl Harbor.
The book also details Trump’s confusion over India’s border with China, his eagerness to meet Vladimir Putin before taking office, and his frustration with anti-bribery laws.
The authors claim their findings are based on extensive interviews and documents.
Okay. How many people actually know WHY 9-11 happened? What events led up to it and what the motivations and knock ons were? At best you get a borderline meme response of “it was actually the saudis”.
Similarly, how many people living through the 00s were tricked into thinking invading Iraq had anything to do with 9-11? Similarly, how many people understood the human rights horrors that were mostly ignored in favor of “Dey got WMDs!!!”
History and propaganda are a hell of a linked thing. But, again, that is why leaders should actually read the briefings their aides make for them.
What’s any of that have to do with knowing that 9/11 happened? Standing on the Arizona Memorial, asking “What’s this all about?” isn’t asking for a dissertation on US-Japan relations, or nuances of 1940s US politics. It’s asking why there’s a big white building in the middle of the bay.
Okay. Rhetorical question because we all are historians with internet boxes but what did the Arizona do? How many Japanese planes did it down or sailors did it rescue or what? And is there anything touchy that shouldn’t be mentioned?
Again. That is not something anyone other than an SME should be expected to memorize. It IS something that should be provided as part of the briefing before you go there. Which is the fundamental difference between “ha, he is so stupid” and “he is just a fucking prick who doesn’t care”
As an example that nobody is going to read: I used to have a job that resulted in having to go to a bunch of military bases on the regular. And we would inevitably end up at a memorial or talking to a totally famous unit that we all totally cared about (the irony being that I actually do enjoy reading military history and STILL had no idea who most of them were due to military culture building up everything in the past to indoctrinate people into thinking they are part of something greater than themselves). And you learn REAL fast that just using context clues and winging it with a platitude ends REAL bad when a marine gets pissy that you didn’t properly show deference to the guys who were in that unit 20 years ago because you accidentally implied they didn’t try hard enough or they fled sooner than they did or something else.
And you know how we handled that? Googling the base and what units were stationed there at the airport while we waited for our flights. It had nothing to do with knowledge and everything to do with caring enough to at least pretend to care. And the cooler folk (funny enough, almost exclusively Navy) figured out our bullshit real fast and loved to read the cliff notes while we were getting drinks after the meetings.
If I recall correctly at the height of the Iraq War it was like 80% of the country believed they were connected.