Too Dumb To Fail?

 Financial FAQs

“Anyway, at this point we should assume that the same combination of incompetence and bad intentions that afflicts national security and budget policy applies to everything the Trump administration touches. Incredibly, quite a few investors and journalists still believe that there’s deep thinking underlying the administration’s trade and currency policy. I guarantee you, there isn’t” Paul Krugman Substack

Amazon

I would expand Nobel Laureate Krugman’s surmise of why the Trump administration keeps showing their incompetence and bad intentions not only in national security and budget policy. but outright governance—details of the secret Houthi battle plan leaked to the media beforehand, their latest faux pas.

Such incompetence comes from a history of dumbing down the Republican Party itself, a history that spans decades and includes denying the theory of evolution, climate change, scientific knowledge and common sense thinking in general.

Matt Lewis, Daily Beast columnist, in his book, Too Dumb to Fail, said this in 2016:

“This is the dirty little secret of the conservative movement in America today: everyone knows that it has lost its intellectual bearings. Empty-headed talking point reciters, rookie politicians who’ve never managed anything in their lives, media clowns such as Donald Trump, dim bulbs in tight pants or short skirts, professionally outraged shout-fest talking heads, and total political neophytes dominate conservative airwaves and the Right’s political discourse.”

Republicans’ incompetence has allowed an autocrat and con artist like Donald Trump to come to power to their own detriment. He is not at all concerned about their agenda, just his own—whether it is invading Greenland or the Panama Canal, attempting to impoverish Canadians so they will give in to his tariff blackmail, or backing out of NATO to please Vladimir Putin,

Republicans’ ‘empty headedness’ shows when they allow Trump/Musk to dumb down their own constituents by shutting down the Department of Education that supports 80 percent of American students in public education. This will harm Republicans’ red states citizens the most. Nine of the lowest ten states ranked on national education scores are red states, according to Wallet Hub.

Such ignorance breeds conspiracy theories, rumors, and feeds an entire propaganda machine to keep certain voters in line that polls show are the least informed politically.

President Trump lied some 30,573, or 21 times a day during his first term, according to a recent NYTimes article. A con artist must lie to cover up and justify earlier lies, whereas a truth-teller doesn’t have to lie or change his or her story. This is basic common-sense thinking, of course, something anyone can understand, if they choose to.

Donald Trump dazzled Republicans so much so that they allowed him to choose the least-qualified candidates to run his government and carry out their agenda of deregulation, tax cuts and tariffs—so he would maintain the disinformation campaign that supports the red meat issues conservatives have always wanted in some form or another—cutting taxes in order to downsize parts of the government that protect the public sector rather than the pockets of the wealthiest.

Tax cuts always sound good to those who don’t believe in the public good of better healthcare, market rules that punish cheaters, and laws that protect the environment.

Dumbing down their electorate makes it easier for MAGA Republicans to lie about issues that require some degree of education and understanding, but it will ultimately come back to bite them. Trump and Republicans are not only harming their red states, but now the whole country with their cuts in social security and national security agencies that protect our military secrets.

So can Trump deliver what Republicans want? I believe as Paul Krugman does—"we can assume that the same combination of incompetence and bad intentions that afflicts national security and budget policy applies to everything the Trump administration touches.”

Harlan Green © 2025

Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen

You Are Fired!

 Answering Kennedy’s Call

“It’s 100 days into the Trump (first) Presidency and looking more and more like President Trump is no more effective at running the country than his business interests. His book, The Art of the Deal was meant to tout his negotiating skills, but the results were never very successful.”

Huffington Post

I wrote this Huffington Post column in April 2017 during President Trump’s first 100 days in office, and the Trump 2.0 administration is showing even more incompetence. We have just learned that they know even less about keeping military plans secret.

Editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, reported that senior members of the Trump administration planned the March 15 U.S. attack on the Houthis in Yemen over Signal, a widely available encrypted app that is not part of the United States national security system.

In any other administration Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and National Security Advisor Mike Walz would have been immediately fired for disregarding national security protocols, just as Trump liked to fire people on The Apprentice, his TV show.

In fact, Hegseth should follow his own advice given in an interview on Fox News during his Senate hearings: “Anyone breaching national security protocols would be fired and prosecuted on the spot. (sic)”

When asked about the security breach, Trump responded: “I don't know anything about it, reports Heather Cox Richardson. “I'm not a big fan of The Atlantic. To me, it's a magazine that's going out of business. I think it’s not much of a magazine. But I know nothing about it. You're saying that they had what?”

It’s a sign that the Republican Party and the Trump/Musk administration has doubled down on their extreme incompetence (and naivete), so much so that it threatens our national security.

There is nothing that the administration could say to make the situation better, but this made it worse. As national security specialist Tom Nichols noted: “If the President is telling the truth and no one’s briefed him about this yet, that’s another story in itself. In any other administration, [the chief of staff] would have been in the Oval [Office] within nanoseconds of learning about something like this.”

Nothing ever came of Trump’s first term legislative efforts either; with no repeal of Obamacare, or real tax reform, an immigration ban, new trade policy, and sanctuary city victories because of poorly thought out strategies. Instead, he threatened judges, sanctuary cities, Congress, and even other countries when they didn’t support his various executive orders.

I cited a 2017 Fortune Magazine report on candidate Trump’s negotiating tactics: “As he campaigns, Trump often touts his skills as a negotiator,” says Fortune. “The analysis shows that lawsuits are one of his primary negotiating tools. He turns to litigation to distance himself from failing projects that relied on the Trump brand to secure investments. As USA TODAY previously reported, he also uses the legal system to haggle over his property tax bills. His companies have been involved in more than 100 tax disputes, and the New York State Department of Finance has obtained liens on Trump properties for unpaid tax bills at least three dozen times.”

Do we expect a different outcome with the peace negotiations over the Ukraine war? Putin wouldn’t accept Trump’s 30-day cease fire offer. It looks like Putin is once again playing him, which seems easy to do.

Americans are already realizing that we are even less safe today. The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence survey is showing an increasing lack of confidence in their future.

“Consumers’ expectations were especially gloomy, with pessimism about future business conditions deepening and confidence about future employment prospects falling to a 12-year low. Meanwhile, consumers’ optimism about future income—which had held up quite strongly in the past few months—largely vanished, suggesting worries about the economy and labor market have started to spread into consumers’ assessments of their personal situations.”

Isn’t that a definition of insanity—when Republicans keep doing the same things over and over again expecting a different result?

Harlan Green © 2025

Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen