Former President Donald Trump is again defending his description of the terrorist group Hezbollah as “very smart” by invoking another controversial world leader, Kim Jong Un of North Korea. Trump says Kim Jong Un is also very smart and he criticizes the U.S. media — the “fake news” Trump says — for what he sees as their disingenuous coverage of his “very smart” assessments.
“The press hates it when I say [these leaders] are smart,” Trump says, “what am I supposed to say, they’re stupid people?”
[Note: Both parties Trump has called smart recently are designated terrorists. The United States designated North Korea a “state sponsor of terrorism” in 2017, while Donald Trump was President.]
Trump drew criticism less for his assertion of Jong Un’s intelligence than for the evidence he used to back it up. Trump claimed that Kim Jong Un “leads 1.4 billion people” and implied that he must be smart to be in that position. (He was given the job by his father, Kim Jong Il.)
If Trump’s logic is correct and leading 1.4 billion people does constitute intelligence, then just two men qualify: Xi of China and Modi of India, the only two nations in the world with populations of 1.4 billion people. North Korea’s population is approximately 25 million people.
By Trump’s formula — that leading 25 million people equates with intelligence — Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom is practically a Mensa member, as California’s population is just shy of 40 million people. (There is a big difference, of course, between a sovereign nation and a U.S. state.)
It’s clear that Trump simply misspoke — the former President doesn’t think North Korea has 1.4 billion citizens though the stat was offered as the prime evidence in justifying Trump’s claim of Jong Un’s superior intelligence.
Donald Trump: "Kim Jong-un leads 1.4 billion people, and there's no doubt about who the boss is, and they want me to say he's not an intelligent man." pic.twitter.com/RoYy1QDNIo
— Republican Accountability (@AccountableGOP) November 9, 2023
[Note: Trump’s characterization of Hezbollah as smart in the wake of the brutal Hamas attack on Israel drew rebuke not from the press but from Israelis and also Republicans who believed Trump’s words were harmful. Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence said: “Hezbollah aren’t smart. They’re evil.”]
