As well as history. I guess he knows his history because we took over the airports during the revolutionary war.
It makes me smile to resurrect this thread 
I hadn’t seen this article before. It, too, made me smile:
Headline:
I honestly don’t know if Trump has another language or if this truly is his one and only native tongue.
What I do know – and what I’ve said many times – is that this little trait of his is tailor made for the demographic they have actively cultivated.
Once again … from “West Wing:”
PRES. BARTLET: I was watching a program before with a sort of a roving moderator who spoke to a panel of young women who were having boyfriend trouble because the boys had slept With the girlfriends’ moms. Then the boys came out and they all fought. Toby, tell me. These people don’t vote, do they?
TOBY ZIEGLER: I wouldn’t think so, no.
But this is precisely who Trump & Co set their sights on, demagogued, manipulated, lied to, whipped up, made afraid, cynically exploited for their ignorance, their bigotry, their intolerance, their innumerable grievances, and their self-righteous anger.
They are the MAGAs and he speaks their language. Fluently.
Q: There are people who are ridiculously good at one thing and barely functional otherwise. E.g., there was a “special person” at one place I worked who memorized train time tables across the country amazingly well. Could barely do their job.
Is such a person intelligent?
Relation to Trump-world. Amazingly great conman, bluffing, salesperson with no ethics. Just doesn’t get the basics of so many everyday things, let alone what a POTUS needs to know.
Fun Trump fact of the day. In the filing for getting excused from fronting the whole bond in the NY AG appeal thing, the value of his portion of the Truth Social parent company is listed at $5-8 million dollars. In the proposed “merger” to take that company public in a couple weeks, the value of the company afterwards is listed in filings to the SEC as between $500 million to $2 billion. And he will own about 90% of that. That’s a factor of 100 difference in valuation. Such weird evaluations is of course the basis of the case that he’s trying to appeal.
Seems to be extremely stupid to so blatantly lie in filings that are required by law to be accurate. But he probably will suffer no consequence for this. As he “smartly” knows.
I think Trump is quite intelligent. He seems to have been able to understand the electorate and what he could get away with better than the many skilled, lifelong politicians who he has run against as well as the parties that once governed them and the influencers who funded them. He can better read the room, and is skilled at both image, humour and manipulation. This intelligence does not include much natural curiosity, academic skill or desire to learn random issues in depth. He won in 2016 with surprisingly little staff or spending.
This does not make him an honest or law-abiding person or a good president. His personality disorders are pretty obvious, and have been commented at length by his sister Mary, dozens who have worked with Trump, and professional psychiatrists - with some controversy but little counterargument. Many politicians are narcissistic, with high self-regard and obsession with image.
Sociopaths often combine that with scheming, sadism, breaking the law, hostility and an obsession with control and power games. Trump seems incapable of putting country before self and seems obsessed with gaining illicit wealth, respecting despots, escaping any meaningful consequences and petty revenge, possibly mistaking this for healing. He would not have convinced enablers if lacking in intelligence or charisma. Since he is so easy to caricature, he is equally easy to underestimate. Many have.
I’d use the word “cunning” rather than “intelligent.”