In Stupidity There is Hope

Donald Trump’s first hundred days in office have not gone as swimmingly as he hoped nor as disastrously as the rest of us feared.

This is not to say that the country is in good shape. Far from it. Nor have the most vulnerable had an easier time of it than anticipated. Trump, ever the bully, has been most successful in his crusade to rid the United States of those insolent enough to want their bodies to match their souls and those desperate enough to risk their lives and their fortunes to try to make a go of it in a country not dominated by gang violence and corrupt police.

He has also, sadly but predictably, been effective in exposing the utter hypocrisy and cowardice of many of the smug and powerful, especially “elite” law firms, and “world class” universities, unwilling to take the risks they constantly urge on their clients and students, to stand up for what is right despite the potential of personal cost.

Clear-cutting some federal agencies and denuding others, while putting hacks in charge of the FBI and other crucial national security outlets, has yet to erode the nation’s well-being in any serious way, but almost certainly will down the road. In the process, many dedicated government workers have been cut adrift, forced to remake their lives in an increasingly unsettled environment.

But to a rather shocking degree, Trump has been forced to back down. Most recently, Harvard, which had initially knuckled under, agreeing to alter its hiring and appointment policies to combat Trump’s charge that it tolerated antisemitism—a big red (pickled) herring—refused to allow the Trump administration to essentially run the school. A Trump spokesman chose to avoid the fight and instead blamed a minor official for sending the letter in question in error.

Tariffs have had an uneven trajectory as well. Immediately after Trump’s “Liberation Day” speech, in which he slapped punitive tariffs on virtually every trading partner—except Russia—including an island populated only by penguins, the stock market, one critic that Trump can neither ignore nor intimidate, plunged and threatened to throw the nation into a brutal recession. (That might happen anyway.) Trump was forced to unliberate America and pause the tariffs for ninety days, which may turn out to be nine hundred.

Needing to find some way to avoid looking weak, he ratcheted up tariffs on China. China struck back and the end result of all this cat fighting is difficult to determine, but promises to be painful for both nations. But China, a true autocracy as opposed to the aspirational one here, can withstand grousing from a disgruntled citizenry, which Trump’s acolytes in Congress may not able to do and still keep their jobs.

Trump’s attempt to take over the Federal Reserve has not gone well. He desperately wants a rate cut to spur an economy that shows signs of slowing, with falling consumer confidence indicating Americans might not be willing to spend as much as previously thought and foreign tourists, especially from Western Europe, staying home, afraid to be held in detention, as some Germans were earlier this month. But Jerome Powell will not be budged. He was too late in fighting inflation during Biden’s term and he is not going to make the same mistake twice. Trump is chafing to fire him but has been thus far dissuaded to avoid another panic in the financial markets.

Even the Supreme Court, which Trump once bragged was staffed with “his justices,” has given indications that, except for the two Inquisitors, Thomas and Alito, it will not be a rubber stamp for the more egregious violations of law that Trump blithely demands.

Taking a step back, these and the other roadblocks he has encountered would have seemed unlikely after the last election, when Trump seemed to have taken personal control of all three branches of government. Trump himself clearly thought he had done so.

That he has not can be summed up in two words.

Stupidity. Incompetence.

There is no doubt that Trump is a master salesman. His interpersonal instincts seem preternatural, and many who meet him personally describe him as surprisingly affable. He is clearly savvy enough to charm a fellow self-important egomaniac like Bill Maher.

But it is a mistake to confuse salesmanship with intelligence. Trump rarely, if ever, demonstrates the analytic skills by which we generally measure brain power. That in itself is not a limiting feature. There is nothing wrong with not being a genius—unless you think you are one. If that is the case, you will inevitably and arrogantly blunder into mistakes, as Trump has continually been doing.

And it is those mistakes that have created the aura of incompetence that has energized Democrats and worried Republicans—whether they care to admit it or not.

Many of Trump’s appointments are less than reassuring. Naming Robert Kennedy, Jr as HHS secretary is like appointing an arsonist as fire commissioner, with a measles outbreak in Texas appearing right on cue. Former wrestling executive Linda MacMahon celebrated her being named Education Secretary by touting the virtues of A1, a steak sauce, as a teaching tool, rather than AI. Pete Hegseth, the Defense Secretary, shared sensitive details about a strike in Yemen with everyone but perhaps the dog walker. The comic opera goes on and on. Then there is, or perhaps was, Elon Musk.

Democrats, of course, were eager to excoriate Trump for turning the government into a SNL skit, but by stripping away benefits from veterans and eviscerating programs red state voters had come to count on—although they didn’t realize it until they were gone—he has created some serious rumblings among all but his most diehard supporters.

These are the ultimate self-inflicted wounds. Trump was sworn in with a totally open field in front of him, greater perhaps than any president in history, including FDR, who had an antagonistic Supreme Court to deal with. Trump has already done significant harm to American democracy, but a smarter, less narcissistic occupant of the Oval Office could have done so much more.

Maybe he eventually will. Only time will tell. But Trump and his minions are so inept that maybe, just maybe, the damage will not be permanent.

But for that to occur, Democrats will need, at long last, to avoid being described with those same two words.

Stupidity and incompetence, unlike Trump’s government, are equal opportunity employers.