# Average IQ of Typical Trump Supporter **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 30, 2020, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-iq-of-typical-trump-supporter/854743 "2020-05-30T17:44:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chargerrich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chargerrich/32/5399_2.png) [@chargerrich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chargerrich)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2020, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-iq-of-typical-trump-supporter/854743/1 "2020-05-30T17:44:18Z")
I concede there are very intelligent Trump supporters, specifically those in high income tax brackets who are all about the GOP core tenants of lower taxes and pro corporate policies. However, I have a real hard time understanding how low or even middle income citizens support Trump. Hardcore racists aside, in my experience many of theses Trump supporters are un or under educated and likely have an IQ around room temperature. Am I completely off base here? I would posit that lower IQ demographic make upwards of 10% or more of his base because - lets be honest here - Trump is, clinically speaking, one of - if not the - lowest IQ POTUS in modern history. That 10% is key to winning and the secret to this BEWILDERING support numbers IMO. Thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2020, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-iq-of-typical-trump-supporter/854743/2 "2020-05-30T17:55:02Z")
Well, nobody has ever done testing for particular political demographics. That being said, some factors to consider are: 1. Academic attainment does not necessarily correlate to IQ - many people who do not go to college, do not because of financial or other circumstances, not necessarily due to lack of intelligence. 2. Democrats have their own demographic that may be low IQ as well: inner city/urban low-income minorities, etc., which may neutralize the IQ factor. 3. Even if Trump voters have low IQ, insulting them won’t do a thing. You don’t need IQ to have sperm or eggs. They can reproduce and bear future Trump-ish voters with no difficulty. Slamming them as low-IQ won’t make them stop voting or existing. FWIW, when I was in Mensa (way back in the day, in 2013; my membership lapsed), I was startled at how many conservative/libertarian/hostile-to-liberalism members were present in its online discussion. One woman complained that the Mensa-member message board was dominated by conservative voices. I haven’t been back in a while but I would definitely bet on there being substantial Trump support there. ---
**Author:** ![xenophon41](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xenophon41/32/253_2.png) [@xenophon41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenophon41)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2020, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-iq-of-typical-trump-supporter/854743/3 "2020-05-30T18:14:07Z")
Um… \<_clears throat_\> [**TENET**](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/tenet?s=t). I don’t think IQ or any untestable aspect of intelligence _per se_ has much to do with it. The very brightest people can twist their rationalizations around the oddest of beliefs. And, nice #2 you left up there **Velocity** : > [@Velocity](#): > > 1. Democrats have their own demographic that may be low IQ as well: inner city/urban low-income minorities, etc., which may neutralize the IQ factor. That’s not racist at all! ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2020, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-iq-of-typical-trump-supporter/854743/4 "2020-05-30T18:19:40Z")
> [@chargerrich](#): > > I concede there are very intelligent Trump supporters, specifically those in high income tax brackets who are all about the GOP core tenants of lower taxes and pro corporate policies. However, I have a real hard time understanding how low or even middle income citizens support Trump. Hardcore racists aside, in my experience many of theses Trump supporters are un or under educated and likely have an IQ around room temperature. > > Am I completely off base here? > > I would posit that lower IQ demographic make upwards of 10% or more of his base because - lets be honest here - Trump is, clinically speaking, one of - if not the - lowest IQ POTUS in modern history. > > That 10% is key to winning and the secret to this BEWILDERING support numbers IMO. > > Thoughts? Well, IQ and demographics/voting behavior correlations might be an arbitrarily perilous subject to discuss. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2020, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-iq-of-typical-trump-supporter/854743/5 "2020-05-30T18:20:15Z")
> [@xenophon41](#): > > And, nice #2 you left up there **Velocity** : > That’s not racist at all! I mean, this \*\*\*is \*\*\*a thread in which we’re painting people with strokes from an IQ brush. ---
**Author:** ![xenophon41](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xenophon41/32/253_2.png) [@xenophon41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenophon41)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2020, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-iq-of-typical-trump-supporter/854743/6 "2020-05-30T18:25:00Z")
Not all of the four of us are doing that. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2020, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-iq-of-typical-trump-supporter/854743/7 "2020-05-30T18:39:17Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Well, nobody has ever done testing for particular political demographics. > > That being said, some factors to consider are: > > 1. Academic attainment does not necessarily correlate to IQ - many people who do not go to college, do not because of financial or other circumstances, not necessarily due to lack of intelligence. > 2. Democrats have their own demographic that may be low IQ as well: inner city/urban low-income minorities, etc., which may neutralize the IQ factor. > 3. Even if Trump voters have low IQ, insulting them won’t do a thing. You don’t need IQ to have sperm or eggs. They can reproduce and bear future Trump-ish voters with no difficulty. Slamming them as low-IQ won’t make them stop voting or existing. > > FWIW, when I was in Mensa (way back in the day, in 2013; my membership lapsed), I was startled at how many conservative/libertarian/hostile-to-liberalism members were present in its online discussion. One woman complained that the Mensa-member message board was dominated by conservative voices. I haven’t been back in a while but I would definitely bet on there being substantial Trump support there. I remember that when Bill Clinton was president the SDMB sounded to me to be conservative thanks to constant threads against policies or acts by Clinton, I decided to join anyway as they were fair and not shy of crisscrossing the administration or anyone being guided by ignorance or arrogance back then. The fact that the SDMB sounds more liberal has IMHO more to do with the current administration willfully grabbing the idiot ball nowadays. I do think that a similar thing is going at Mensa, we should not forget how the Mensa leaders were not impressed about Trump’s boasts of intelligence a few years back. > **[Mensa reveals what an IQ test could look like for Trump, Tillerson](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-tillerson-iq-test-questions-mensa-charles-brown/)** > > Mensa's communications director joins CBSN with a sample question after president says he and Tillerson will "have to compare IQ tests" > [@](#): > > Mensa reveals what an IQ test could look like for Trump, Tillerson > > By Peter Martinez > > President Trump’s attack on Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has Mensa saying “it would be fun” to have them take one of their IQ tests. > > Mensa’s response comes on the heels of Mr. Trump saying in an interview published Tuesday that he’s smarter than the top member of his Cabinet as he was reacting to a report that Tillerson previously called the commander in chief a “moron.” > > “I think it’s fake news, but if he did that, I guess we’ll have to compare IQ tests. And I can tell you who is going to win,” Mr. Trump told Forbes. Not much came from that offer but clearly the Mensa people was tossing a dig at the silly boasting of the president. And as a Mensa member pointed recently: > **[What do actual smart people, like in Mensa, think of Donald Trump saying he is...](https://www.quora.com/What-do-actual-smart-people-like-in-Mensa-think-of-Donald-Trump-saying-he-is-a-stable-genius)** > > Answer (1 of 4): There are different types of intelligence. > > I would have to agree that President Trump is a genius. > > He went from Real Estate mogul to best seller writer to having one of the top shows on TV. Then he decides to run for President and... > [@](#): > > \*Dale Sopocy, Mensa Member > Answered April 6, 2019 > \* > No highly intelligent people ever say “I’m, like, really, really smart” or “I have a really big brain” or claim to be a “stable genius”. Depending on their social IQ, those prone to boast tend to do so indirectly by demonstrating their depth of knowledge in conversation or by sharing their ideas. Most let their contributions speak for themselves. > > Donald Trump is not smart by any measure, except for his reptilian survival instincts. He is the exemplar for the Dunning-Krueger effect. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2020, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-iq-of-typical-trump-supporter/854743/8 "2020-05-30T19:12:13Z")
“Depending on their social IQ, those prone to boast tend to do so indirectly by demonstrating their depth of knowledge in conversation or by sharing their ideas.” Says the member of an organization whose membership is attained not by demonstrated knowledge, not by conversation, not by impressive and persuasive ideas, but by test scores. Trump took a million from his father and turned it into billions, working in the complex, competitive, and bottom-line business of Manhattan real estate. He later lost most of it, but that kind of sustained success doesn’t happen as a fluke. Nor does gaming the system to escape bankruptcy with a huge chunk of cash remanining. Then with minimal training in marketing he turned himself into an international brand, earning billions in licensing. Then with no training in show business, he turned himself into a long-running televison star. Then with no experience in politics, he got elected president. That kind of repeated success, across multiple highly-competitive, zero-sum domains, defeating many other very smart people, does not happen by accident. Hate on Trump’s personality and political agenda all you want. If you think he’s dumb … well you’re probably the kind of person that thinks test scores impress anyone outside of Mensa. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2020, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-iq-of-typical-trump-supporter/854743/9 "2020-05-30T19:13:03Z")
It’s not IQ, but education and especially experience interacting with others. And by ‘others’ I mean those who don’t look like you, think like you, or seem to hold the same values as you. I have said it before on this board, but the best remedy for ignorance-based bigotry is to live in a city like mine, Toronto. Over half of us weren’t born here yet all of us are made better by seeing all the good people who don’t look like us. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2020, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-iq-of-typical-trump-supporter/854743/10 "2020-05-30T19:42:28Z")
> [@furt](#): > > Trump took a million from his father and turned it into billions, working in the complex, competitive, and bottom-line business of Manhattan real estate. He later lost most of it, but that kind of sustained success doesn’t happen as a fluke. Nor does gaming the system to escape bankruptcy with a huge chunk of cash remanining. > > Then with minimal training in marketing he turned himself into an international brand, earning billions in licensing. Then with no training in show business, he turned himself into a long-running televison star. Then with no experience in politics, he got elected president. That kind of repeated success, across multiple highly-competitive, zero-sum domains, defeating many other very smart people, does not happen by accident. Trump was exploited by smarter people than he because they saw that Trump was very good at attracting the kind of people to whom Trump is what intelligence and success looks like. Trump is nothing more than a useful idiot for TV Producers, and foreign banks and investors who used him to launder money. > [@furt](#): > > Hate on Trump’s personality and political agenda all you want. If you think he’s dumb … well you’re probably the kind of person that thinks test scores impress anyone outside of Mensa. It’s not about test scores. Intelligence is about how someone is able to express thoughts and ideas, and demonstrate abilities other than maniacal self promotion, schemes requiring low cunning, crooked attorneys and accountants who do the thinking for him. ---
**Author:** ![Anny\_Middon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Anny\_Middon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anny_Middon)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2020, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-iq-of-typical-trump-supporter/854743/11 "2020-05-30T20:08:35Z")
> [@furt](#): > > Trump took a million from his father and turned it into billions, working in the complex, competitive, and bottom-line business of Manhattan real estate. Really? Do you have a cite for this claim? I’ve never seen a reputable source that indicated his holdings were ever more than ~$3B. In fact, [current estimates](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_of_Donald_Trump) are about $2B. > [@](#): > > According to an investigation by the New York Times, Donald Trump received at least $413 million (2018 prices) from his father’s business empire.[2] The New York Times drew upon more than 100,000 pages of tax returns and financial records from Fred Trump’s businesses and interviews with former advisers and employees, finding 295 distinct streams of revenue that Fred Trump created over five decades in order to channel his wealth to his son.[2][3] > [@](#): > > A 2016 analysis of Trump’s business career in The Economist concluded that his performance since 1985 had been “mediocre compared with the stock market and property in New York”.[44] A subsequent analysis in The Washington Post similarly noted that Trump’s estimated net worth of $100 million in 1978 would have increased to $6 billion by 2016 if he had invested it in a typical retirement fund, and concluded that “Trump is a mix of braggadocio, business failures, and real success.”[45] IMO receiving a pile of money and ending up with only 1/3 to 1/2 of what investing it in a S&P 500 fund would yield is hardly showing much financial intelligence. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2020, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-iq-of-typical-trump-supporter/854743/12 "2020-05-30T20:24:30Z")
[The Elements that Comprise Your Beliefs DON’T PAY RENT](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=93866) ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2020, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-iq-of-typical-trump-supporter/854743/13 "2020-05-30T20:42:43Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > 1. Democrats have their own demographic that may be low IQ as well: inner city/urban low-income minorities, etc., which may neutralize the IQ factor. :dubious::dubious::dubious: Seriously, dude? _Seriously?!_ ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2020, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-iq-of-typical-trump-supporter/854743/14 "2020-05-30T20:45:00Z")
I think Trump took $400 M from his father and turned it into 6 bankruptcies and I wonder if his net worth today is even positive. How much does he owe Deutschebank and how much to Russian banks? I just heard a joke today about the sum of the ages of the likely Democratic candidates and the sum of the IQs of the Republican candidates were both 150. Really? Pence has an IQ of 125? ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2020, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-iq-of-typical-trump-supporter/854743/15 "2020-05-30T20:51:09Z")
I don’t think it’s intelligence – it’s values. There are a lot of Americans who place a high value on the denigration and suffering of non-white people, of immigrants, of women, etc. There are a lot of Americans who place a high value on angering liberals. And of course there are a lot Americans who don’t value that stuff, but also don’t really care about opposing it either, and value Republican judges, lower taxes on the rich, tough talk on immigration, etc., far more than they value fighting against the denigration and suffering of minorities, immigrants, and women. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2020, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-iq-of-typical-trump-supporter/854743/16 "2020-05-30T22:37:32Z")
> [@Anny\_Middon](#): > > Really? Do you have a cite for this claim? Sure, and you just linked to it. In 2015, before he got into politics, Forbes valued him at $4.1 billion. His claims to be a super-duper dealmaker that rose from nothing are obviously bullshit, but so are the claims from his opponents that he was just handed everything. He clearly held his own and survived in a high-stakes, bottom-line, highly complex industry full of extremely smart people and in which a lot of people get crushed and lose everything. Taken by itself, maybe you could say he got lucky, but as noted, he’s also had massive success is other, quite disparate, domains. A truly dumb person doesn’t just blunder into all of that by luck. He may well be low-IQ _by the standards of other presidents_, but that’s sort of like being a bad coach in the NFL: you’re still smarter most of the people in the crowd yelling how dumb you are. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2020, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-iq-of-typical-trump-supporter/854743/17 "2020-05-30T23:19:38Z")
> [@furt](#): > > Sure, and you just linked to it. In 2015, before he got into politics, Forbes valued him at $4.1 billion. His claims to be a super-duper dealmaker that rose from nothing are obviously bullshit, but so are the claims from his opponents that he was just handed everything. He clearly held his own and survived in a high-stakes, bottom-line, highly complex industry full of extremely smart people and in which a lot of people get crushed and lose everything. Taken by itself, maybe you could say he got lucky, but as noted, he’s also had massive success is other, quite disparate, domains. A truly dumb person doesn’t just blunder into all of that by luck. > > He may well be low-IQ _by the standards of other presidents_, but that’s sort of like being a bad coach in the NFL: you’re still smarter most of the people in the crowd yelling how dumb you are. [Trump’s father gave him at least $413 million dollars](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/trumps-father-gave-his-son-at-least-413-million-new-york-times-2018-10-02). The “1 million dollar loan I made into billions” story that Trump enjoys telling is fabricated. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-iq-of-typical-trump-supporter/854743/18 "2020-05-31T00:18:30Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally Posted by\*\* Velocity\*\* > 2. Democrats have their own demographic that may be low IQ as well: inner city/urban low-income minorities, etc., which may neutralize the IQ factor. > [@Linty\_Fresh](#): > > :dubious::dubious::dubious: > > Seriously, dude? _Seriously?!_ Ya know, **Velocity’s** calling out specific groups of Dems as being low IQ doesn’t come off looking too good especially because he mentions minorities. However, I think it’s quite true that Democrats have plenty of less than intelligent supporters. There’s so many dumbfucks in this country you just know they’re not all supporting one party. Lots of stupid in all colors, creeds, races, eye-color, height, gender, etc. Plenty to go around. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-iq-of-typical-trump-supporter/854743/19 "2020-05-31T01:21:33Z")
I do apologize for the earlier comment. I shouldn’t have made it about race, even if a subset of a race. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-iq-of-typical-trump-supporter/854743/20 "2020-05-31T02:03:52Z")
> [@furt](#): > > “Depending on their social IQ, those prone to boast tend to do so indirectly by demonstrating their depth of knowledge in conversation or by sharing their ideas.” > > Says the member of an organization whose membership is attained not by demonstrated knowledge, not by conversation, not by impressive and persuasive ideas, but by test scores. Of course that goes then to dismiss the boasting of president Trump too. Remember, he commented about the Mensa challenge and claimed that he could win handily against Tillerson. Trump essentially chickened it out. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-iq-of-typical-trump-supporter/854743.md?page=2)