Trump did not understand Pearl Harbor, new book reveals: 'What's this all about?'

Trump does not understand Pearl Harbor anything.

Professor Kelley told me 100 times over three decades that “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddam student I ever had.” I remember his emphasis and inflection — it went like this — “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddam student I ever had.” Dr. Kelley told me this after Trump had become a celebrity but long before he was considered a political figure. Dr. Kelley often referred to Trump’s arrogance when he told of this — that Trump came to Wharton thinking he already knew everything.

The USA is the worst fucking society because it's allowed these pricks that know nothing but think they know it all to fail upward their whole fucking lives. Musk is another prick exactly like this. These coddled fucking baby removed who are going to tear down all the things that allowed them to amass such wealth. They literally think they're above it all and think things like "stability" or "respect on the international stage" are jokes.

During a meeting with Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister’s “eyes bulged out in surprise”, the Washington Post reporters claim, when Mr Trump told him: “It’s not like you’ve got China on your border.” China and India in fact share more than 2,000 miles of common border.

Mr Modi’s expression “shifted from shock and concern to resignation”

Modi is all of us. Shocked at the stupidity, concerned for our well being then resigned to the fact Trump doesn't even care about either.

"When Mr Trump early in his tenure agreed to feature in an HBO documentary in which all living presidents read from the constitution, Mr Trump blamed others in the room when he struggled to read the text.

"It's like a foreign language,” he allegedly complained."

People are often saying "hurr durr Trump can't read," but even that is not really a joke - the man truly is barely literate.

What have you done America, what the hell have you done...

The guy looked straight into the sun. There is no ending to "Trump doesn't understand... " that would surprise me.

The article is not a long read, and recounts a number of other horrifyingly stupid things.

Well his hero was in the European theater and died by suicide in a bunker in Berlin so it kind of makes sense he doesn't know about the Pacific theater.

Our Army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do, and at Fort McHenry, under the rocket's red glare it had nothing but victory.

Trump speaking about the Revolutionary War. I'm supposed to be surprised he doesn't "get" Pearl Harbour?

This loser has had a silver spoon shoved up his ass his entire life. Hey, weren't conservatives supposed to be against that kind of thing? Oh wait, conservatives don't actually have standards. Trump hasn't been forced to learn or grow because of that silver spoon. That's why he's an 80 year old man that acts like a 5 year old child and is about as intelligent as one. Does anyone, other than idiots, expect him to know anything about American history?

We should be thankful he doesn’t get Pearl Harbor, fucktard would probably try to attack Japan.

Intelligence on par with the Americans that voted for him, twice.

Billionaires are mostly all idiots who never had to actually educate themselves. Out of the 760 of them in the USA 12-15 of them are probably in the 130+ iq range and the rest are barely above or below the 100 median range. Even with their expensive private education most of them likely paid others to do their school work like george bush was rumored to have at yale. Then with nixon and reagan severely cutting education standards at the direction of their mutual consultant roger freeman saying that we were en route for a highly educated proletariat which was a threat to them and would result in mass unemployment (since people who are intelligent enough can easily understand capitalism is exploitative and many of the wages offered are not worth the effort input) now we are in a full fledged fascist hellscape. They are so emboldened they dont even attempt to hide it anymore.

In fairness, harbour is a pretty long word for someone with the reading comprehension of a toddler

Book came out in 2020, why are they talking about it like it's new?

“Hey, John, what’s this all about? What’s this a tour of?” Mr Trump reportedly asked John Kelly, his then-chief of staff, when they took a private tour in 2017 of the USS Arizona Memorial, a ship commemorating the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during the Second World War.

"Trump had heard the phrase 'Pearl Harbor' and appeared to understand that he was visiting the scene of a historic battle, but he did not seem to know much else," write the authors, who quote a former White House adviser concluding the US president was “dangerously uninformed”.

Presidents are not actually superhuman. They don't actually know everything about the world. They typically know about as much as any other reasonably-well-educated American, plus maybe some extra stuff from their background. Donald Trump worked in real estate and branding. Harry Truman was a haberdasher. Andrew Jackson was a soldier.

They try really hard to give the impression that they're super-familiar with everything -- that's part of the campaign. But...they aren't.

And they're gonna have blind spots, like anyone else.

What makes a President especially capable is that they have a large staff of advisors and experts under them who can advise them on things, not that they have everything in their own skull.

I know probably a fair bit about Pearl Harbor compared to the typical American. I think that there are interesting bits about it. But...to be honest, I'd say that it's not really all that critical to be especially familiar with it as a President. If you're a naval warfare historian, maybe a naval officer, sure.

I think that probably, a President's important skills are being able to select competent people to work for them, being able to get along with them and willing to listen to them, being able to communicate well -- since they are the public face of the US and the face of the government to the public -- and maybe to conduct themselves ethically or something like that. Now...I don't personally believe that Donald Trump ranks very well on those characteristics. I don't think that he has the stuff that makes for a good President. But I also don't think that having a lot of familiarity with naval battles, even an important naval battle, is that critical, either.

The Battle of Gettsyburg was also important from an American military history standpoint. Ditto for the Battle of Bunker Hill. But...I don't really think that a familiarity with them is all that important for a President. If they need to get that information, they should know how to get ahold of it (which...it actually sounds like Trump was doing there, asked someone who should know.

To be fair, Pearl Harbors significance is vastly overstated. It was just a random fucking air raid like any other. All the stuff that led to it is much more important.