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Is Donald Trump the Smartest Man in the World?

The Evidence Answering the Question is all Around Us

5 min readApr 16, 2025

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Wortulo with you.com (genius), CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

I try not to be blinded by the assumption that Donald Trump's actions are automatically evil; therefore, the polar opposite of his every decision must be the correct path. Whether some of the people surrounding him are competent or he’s correct twice daily like a broken clock, some things the president does will be good for America.

The economy is one area where presidents often get too much credit for their impact. Under normal circumstances, presidents have limited influence over the economy and mostly follow tried-and-true practices, allowing the Federal Reserve Bank to use interest rates to control inflation and recessions. These, however, are not normal times. Donald Trump has created a national emergency out of whole cloth, allowing him to unilaterally impose tariffs on what turned out to be the rest of the world. Congress could use its power to take back control over tariffs by declaring there is no emergency, but it will not.

Trump’s tariffs are dominating the world’s economy, and one of two things must be true. Either Trump is the smartest person in the world, taking us down a path that only he is brilliant enough to discern, or he’s winging it, making decisions based on instinct or the last person to whisper in his…

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William Spivey
William Spivey

Written by William Spivey

I write about politics, history, education, and race. Follow me at williamfspivey.com and support me at https://ko-fi.com/williamfspivey0680

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