George Will’s column diagnosing Trump as having a dangerous “disability” is attracting a lot of attention but the diagnosis is wrong. And it obscures a far more malignant truth.
Will (illustration at right) argues that Trump is unable to function normally because of a mental disability. He wrote:
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”
I am no psychologist but I am sure Trump not only knows what it is to know things but also knows how to get what he wants by subterfuge and guile.
His is an old ruse. In Jamaica they call it “playing fool to catch wise.”
It isn’t that he doesn’t know this or that, the truth is that Trump just doesn’t care. To him, American history is unimportant, syntax is unimportant, the precise meaning of words is unimportant.
He dismisses it all as a waste of his precious time because he has bigger fish to fry.
This offhand approach not only endears him to his followers it also disguises his focus on achieving his real agenda.
That agenda has nothing to do with history or syntax or “political correctness.” And it has little to do with legislation or governance or the national economy.
He is spending his time on such matters only to advance his goal of building the Trump brand globally and enriching the Trump family. Everything he does serves that end, including his attempt to create a Putin-like dictatorship in America.
After all, isn’t that how Putin became the richest man in the world?
And if Trump’s offhand approach to some aspects of his presidency makes him appear befuddled, that befuddlement may make him appear benign.
As someone with a mental disability, he may even seem to deserve our concern and good=natured indulgence rather than our suspicion and dread.
No, George Will, Trump isn’t suffering from any disability. He is “crazy like a fox.” It’s the rest of us who don’t “know this or that.”
