On April 29, 1962, while speaking to a group of Nobel Prize winners at the White House, President John Kennedy said:
“I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”
The geniuses who were assembled that night got the joke and revered its meaning. That’s because we Americans have always prized the fact that our presidents have possessed the intellect and character to lead our country and to be a respected leader in the world. In short, the President must have a command of knowledge about world and national events, and how history has shaped those events. Yes, Gerald Ford got flustered in a debate and misspoke about Russia’s dominance over Poland. And yes, George W. Bush had a tendency to mangle the English language. But, for the most part, we could always count on our presidents to act, think, and speak with a sense of reason and decorum, until now that is.
From the moment he began his first term in office, Donald Trump has shown a total disregard for the truth and a total lack of knowledge about anything but golf. The New York Times, CNN, and other news outlets employed fact-checkers who have kept a running list of every lie Trump told which, since 2017 has exceeded 50,000. Sometimes his lies have resulted from going off script in order to brag about something he says he did (but didn’t actually do). However, most of the time he says things that are untrue because he just doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Trump once said that it was Canadians who burned down the White House during the War of 1812. He called Belgium “a beautiful city.” When asked what the Declaration of Independence is about, he said it was about love. He claimed that President Andrew Jackson was “really angry” about the Civil War which would have been a good trick if Jackson hadn’t died 16 years before the War started. Speaking of the Civil War, Trump said “It ended in 1869 or whatever,” and that the bloodiest battle occurred on the site of his golf course along the Potomac River. In fact, not a single battle took place on that site. Speaking at a Black History Month luncheon, Trump indicated that Frederick Douglass was still alive. And he was surprised to learn from his staff that Lincoln was a Republican. It’s no wonder that Ron Filipowski, a former federal prosecutor, said Trump “couldn’t pass a 7th grade U.S. history exam.”
But Trump’s most recent gaffe came last week while meeting with West African leaders at the White House. He praised Liberian President Joseph Boakai for speaking “such good English.” The Liberian delegation took offense at that remark and with good reason. Liberia was founded by Americans, their currency is the U.S. dollar, and the official language of Liberia is — you guessed it — ENGLISH. In addition to Trump having no knowledge of history or geo-politics, his idiotic comment to President Boakai also raised concerns among some groups that Trump is, at heart, a racist.
After all, it was Trump who once referred to African nations as “shit-hole countries.” And since beginning his second term as president, he has drastically cut or eliminated scores of programs designed to honor or assist African Americans, ranging from purging the names of Black leaders from federal documents, to criticizing Juneteenth, eliminating DEI initiatives on college campuses and in the workplace, and potentially throwing 13 million people off of their healthcare coverage.
Whether intentional or not, whether racist or not, Trump’s total lack of knowledge is having a devastating effect on our daily lives here at home and on our image abroad. The sad thing is that 77 million Americans returned him to the White House last year, not caring about his lies, his crimes, or his demeanor. They are seemingly OK with having a rude, functionally illiterate man lead our country who revels in all of the things that he doesn’t know. If ignorance is bliss, then Donald Trump is the happiest man in America. By the way, the phrase “Ignorance is Bliss” originated with Thomas Gray, a poet who was born in 1716…or as Trump would say, during the Civil War.
Trump: Ignorance is Bliss
On April 29, 1962, while speaking to a group of Nobel Prize winners at the White House, President John Kennedy said:
“I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”
The geniuses who were assembled that night got the joke and revered its meaning. That’s because we Americans have always prized the fact that our presidents have possessed the intellect and character to lead our country and to be a respected leader in the world. In short, the President must have a command of knowledge about world and national events, and how history has shaped those events. Yes, Gerald Ford got flustered in a debate and misspoke about Russia’s dominance over Poland. And yes, George W. Bush had a tendency to mangle the English language. But, for the most part, we could always count on our presidents to act, think, and speak with a sense of reason and decorum, until now that is.
From the moment he began his first term in office, Donald Trump has shown a total disregard for the truth and a total lack of knowledge about anything but golf. The New York Times, CNN, and other news outlets employed fact-checkers who have kept a running list of every lie Trump told which, since 2017 has exceeded 50,000. Sometimes his lies have resulted from going off script in order to brag about something he says he did (but didn’t actually do). However, most of the time he says things that are untrue because he just doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Trump once said that it was Canadians who burned down the White House during the War of 1812. He called Belgium “a beautiful city.” When asked what the Declaration of Independence is about, he said it was about love. He claimed that President Andrew Jackson was “really angry” about the Civil War which would have been a good trick if Jackson hadn’t died 16 years before the War started. Speaking of the Civil War, Trump said “It ended in 1869 or whatever,” and that the bloodiest battle occurred on the site of his golf course along the Potomac River. In fact, not a single battle took place on that site. Speaking at a Black History Month luncheon, Trump indicated that Frederick Douglass was still alive. And he was surprised to learn from his staff that Lincoln was a Republican. It’s no wonder that Ron Filipowski, a former federal prosecutor, said Trump “couldn’t pass a 7th grade U.S. history exam.”
But Trump’s most recent gaffe came last week while meeting with West African leaders at the White House. He praised Liberian President Joseph Boakai for speaking “such good English.” The Liberian delegation took offense at that remark and with good reason. Liberia was founded by Americans, their currency is the U.S. dollar, and the official language of Liberia is — you guessed it — ENGLISH. In addition to Trump having no knowledge of history or geo-politics, his idiotic comment to President Boakai also raised concerns among some groups that Trump is, at heart, a racist.
After all, it was Trump who once referred to African nations as “shit-hole countries.” And since beginning his second term as president, he has drastically cut or eliminated scores of programs designed to honor or assist African Americans, ranging from purging the names of Black leaders from federal documents, to criticizing Juneteenth, eliminating DEI initiatives on college campuses and in the workplace, and potentially throwing 13 million people off of their healthcare coverage.
Whether intentional or not, whether racist or not, Trump’s total lack of knowledge is having a devastating effect on our daily lives here at home and on our image abroad. The sad thing is that 77 million Americans returned him to the White House last year, not caring about his lies, his crimes, or his demeanor. They are seemingly OK with having a rude, functionally illiterate man lead our country who revels in all of the things that he doesn’t know. If ignorance is bliss, then Donald Trump is the happiest man in America. By the way, the phrase “Ignorance is Bliss” originated with Thomas Gray, a poet who was born in 1716…or as Trump would say, during the Civil War.