When President Donald Trump saw the headlines in the wake of the release of Michael Wolff's book "Fire And Fury" he was less than happy. Wolff claimed that Trump's former right-hand man, Steve Bannon, had accused Donald Trump Jr. of treason. As reported by Politico the tone of "Fire and Fury" suggests that Trump is "out to lunch." Wolff is not the first to suggest that Trump is mentally unstable, but as you would expect, the president's reaction was a furious one.
President Trump declares himself a 'mentally stable genius'
Even by President Trump's standards, his reaction to Wolff and Bannon was extraordinary. The president used Twitter, his weapon of choice, to brand Steve Bannon, his former friend, and election strategist, as "sloppy Steve." He then went on to proclaim himself a genius, in response to claims that he is mentally unstable.
Of course, in addition to declaring himself a genius, the president took another pot shot at the media. President Trump has a simple strategy when it comes to any story that is not gushing with praise for him. He brands it fake news.
On this occasion, not only did he brand the media reporting as "fake news," he also called "Fire and Fury" a fake book.
Whilst many simply treated Trump's "genius" claims with incredulity, analysts at Factbase decided to put the presidents claim to the test. The results of their analysis is enlightening.
President Trump the least intelligent of the last 15 presidents
As reported by the Independent, the analysts at Factbase created a database from the "off script" remarks of every president all the way back to Herbert Hoover's election in 1929. Eight different tests were conducted, measuring vocabulary complexity, diversity, and comprehension level for every president from Trump to Hoover.
President Trump scored the lowest of all 15 presidents in every single test.
Trump's vocabulary was found to contain fewer syllables and fewer unique words than any of his 14 predecessors. His vocabulary was also found to be significantly less diverse and more simple than any of the presidents all the way back to 1929. Seriously, who would have thought that we would ever see a president more dumb that George W. Bush?
As reported by AOL, the Factbase analysis claims that President Trump has the vocabulary of a fourth-grade student, or in other terms, the average eight-year-old child.
Is Trump's vocabulary a reliable measure of his level of intelligence?
Is it fair to suggest that President Trump is dumb simply because he has a limited vocabulary? The Journal of Behavioural Neurology and most of the available evidence suggests that vocabulary is a reliable measure of intelligence.
Vocabulary is used to measure IQ and to assess neurological degeneration in older people.
It's frightening to think that the most powerful nation on the planet is being run by Donald Trump, a man with the intelligence of the average eight-year-old!