# What is Donald Trump's IQ? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 10, 2017, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-donald-trumps-iq/798521 "2017-10-10T22:11:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tigers2B1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc29f/32.png) [@Tigers2B1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tigers2B1)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-donald-trumps-iq/798521/1 "2017-10-10T22:11:50Z")
Has that or anything related ever been published? He attended the Wharton School where the average SAT score is north of 1430 (1600 is perfect). Its my understanding that SAT correlates with IQ scores. Anyone seen real evidence of either for Trump? ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-donald-trumps-iq/798521/2 "2017-10-10T22:18:26Z")
Here is a quote from a [possibly relevant article:](http://www.pennlive.com/news/2017/02/what_is_trumps_real_record_at.html) > [@](#): > > In Gwenda Blair’s 2001 book, “The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders and a President,” she said Trump transferred into Wharton from Fordham University with help from family connections. The president’s older brother, Freddy Trump, knew an admissions counselor at Wharton, she said. ---
**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:** [October 10, 2017, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-donald-trumps-iq/798521/3 "2017-10-10T22:31:17Z")
I can’t prove this, but my wealthy uncle bribed his son’s way into Wharton. The bribe was not personal, but in the form of a gift to Penn. $10,000, a substantial sum in 1950, was the amount that circulated in my family. He later bribed his son into Penn Law in the same way and the son became a notorious ambulance chaser. Both bribes were family lore, but the ambulance chasing is fact. Now his son is doing it too. ---
**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:** [October 10, 2017, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-donald-trumps-iq/798521/4 "2017-10-10T22:44:02Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I can’t prove this, but my wealthy uncle bribed his son’s way into Wharton. The bribe was not personal, but in the form of a gift to Penn. $10,000, a substantial sum in 1950, was the amount that circulated in my family. He later bribed his son into Penn Law in the same way and the son became a notorious ambulance chaser. Both bribes were family lore, but the ambulance chasing is fact. Now his son is doing it too. As long as he isn’t chasing parked ambulances… ---
**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:** [October 10, 2017, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-donald-trumps-iq/798521/5 "2017-10-10T22:51:11Z")
I think it’s a fair guess that his IQ is quite a bit north of 100. As much as he may be ridiculed, it is extraordinarily difficult for a person of average or below-average IQ to rise to the presidency. You have to have the ability to weather and tackle numerous debates, be aware of numerous issues, understand what makes voters and donors tick, know this and that, navigate various political waters of this and that - not even including Trump’s prior decades in business. His morals and ethics are questionable, but I would bet big money on his IQ being quite high. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-donald-trumps-iq/798521/6 "2017-10-10T22:53:26Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I think it’s a fair guess that his IQ is quite a bit north of 100. > As much as he may be ridiculed, it is extraordinarily difficult for a person of average or below-average IQ to rise to the presidency. \*\*You have to have the ability to weather and tackle numerous debates, be aware of numerous issues, understand what makes voters and donors tick, know this and that, navigate various political waters of this and that \*\*- not even including Trump’s prior decades in business. His morals and ethics are questionable, but I would bet big money on his IQ being quite high. Really? Where did you see him do this? He just spouted shit until he got applause and remembered _that._ ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-donald-trumps-iq/798521/7 "2017-10-10T22:55:02Z")
Education isn’t the same as IQ though, is it? I know plenty of people with lots of education that are really rather stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-donald-trumps-iq/798521/8 "2017-10-10T23:01:08Z")
All of it, one of the highest ever recorded. Seriously, the only way to get a real IQ score is to take an individually administered IQ test and the vast majority of people never have a reason to take one. Fordham is a perfectly fine school but it isn’t top tier. If he just used family connections to transfer from Fordham to Wharton, his scores could be anything. Keep in mind that you can’t compare current average scores to ones from decades ago. They have inflated greatly as competition has increased. It used to be common for wealthy and influential families to just buy their way in. It is still possible but much harder these days. It isn’t just Trump either. George W Bush, John Kerry and many of the Kennedys got their Ivy League education the old fashioned way - money. I don’t think any of them are especially dumb but they weren’t exceptional students and wouldn’t get in today just based on blind admission criteria. ---
**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:** [October 10, 2017, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-donald-trumps-iq/798521/9 "2017-10-10T23:08:59Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Really? Where did you see him do this? He just spouted shit until he got applause and remembered _that._ Which was the winning strategy. How exactly is intelligence defined by the way? If The Donald’s strategy was so simple and effective why wasn’t it copied by those with IQs 2-3 standard deviations to the right of the mean? ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-donald-trumps-iq/798521/10 "2017-10-10T23:15:47Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > It used to be common for wealthy and influential families to just buy their way in. It is still possible but much harder these days. It isn’t just Trump either. George W Bush, John Kerry and many of the Kennedys got their Ivy League education the old fashioned way - money. I don’t think any of them are especially dumb but they weren’t exceptional students and wouldn’t get in today just based on blind admission criteria. Still possible. From a [\*2006 \*Boston Globe article](http://archive.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2006/09/04/harvards_admissions_of_gilt/): > [@](#): > > The most egregious example of pay-for-Crimson - play is that of Jared Kushner , now the youthful owner of The New York Observer. While Jared was applying to colleges, his dad, New Jersey billionaire developer Charles Kushner , pledged $2.5 million to Harvard, to be paid in installments. (Kushner pere pleaded guilty to tax evasion and other counts in 2004 and recently completed a prison sentence.) An official at Kushner’s high school told Golden: ``There was no way anybody in . . . the school thought he would on the merits get into Harvard. His GPA did not warrant it, his SAT scores did not warrant it. We thought, for sure, there was no way this was going to happen." Kushner graduated from Harvard in 2003. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-donald-trumps-iq/798521/11 "2017-10-10T23:18:36Z")
> [@Tigers2B1](#): > > Has that or anything related ever been published? He attended the Wharton School where the average SAT score is north of 1430 (1600 is perfect). Just to be clear Trump has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania. He only spent his last two years at U Penn, having transferred in from Fordham. He got in through family connections. The [minimum standard for admission in 1967 can be found here](http://www.archives.upenn.edu/primdocs/upa/upa4/upa4b183mcgill.pdf). (PDF warning.) He did take undergraduate classes at the Wharton School of Business. However, Trump was not enrolled Wharton’s prestigious MBA program. Trump did not graduate from the UP Wharton school [nor make the Dean’s List at any time](https://dparchives.library.upenn.edu/cgi-bin/pennsylvania?a=d&d=tdp19681025-01.2.27). > [@](#): > > Writing in the New York Times [magazine](http://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/08/magazine/the-expanding-empire-of-donald-trump.html?scp=1&sq=%22THE+EXPANDING+EMPIRE+OF+DONALD+TRUMP%22&st=cse&pagewanted=all) in 1984, William Geist reported that “the commencement program from 1968 **does not list him as graduating with honors of any kind** ,” even though “just about every profile ever written about Mr. Trump states that he graduated first in his class at Wharton in 1968.” ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-donald-trumps-iq/798521/12 "2017-10-10T23:19:10Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Which was the winning strategy. > > How exactly is intelligence defined by the way? If The Donald’s strategy was so simple and effective why wasn’t it copied by those with IQs 2-3 standard deviations to the right of the mean? Possibly because the end doesn’t justify the means. Just because you can con your way to the top doesn’t mean you should. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-donald-trumps-iq/798521/13 "2017-10-10T23:23:10Z")
Trump certainly has talent of some sort. The question is just whether his particular sort of talent is accurately labeled as “intelligence”. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-donald-trumps-iq/798521/14 "2017-10-10T23:23:35Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > Just to be clear Trump has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania. He only spent his last two years at U Penn, having transferred in from Fordham. He got in through family connections. The [minimum standard for admission in 1967 can be found here](http://www.archives.upenn.edu/primdocs/upa/upa4/upa4b183mcgill.pdf). (PDF warning.) He did take undergraduate classes at the Wharton School of Business. However, Trump was not enrolled Wharton’s prestigious MBA program. Trump did not graduate from the UP Wharton school [nor make the Dean’s List at any time](https://dparchives.library.upenn.edu/cgi-bin/pennsylvania?a=d&d=tdp19681025-01.2.27). [Here is a link to the Penn graduation program.](http://media.pennlive.com/news/photo/2017/02/19/trump-commencementpng-c8cfb2506f7ec1cd.png) Trump is not listed among the honors graduates. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-donald-trumps-iq/798521/15 "2017-10-10T23:26:27Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I think it’s a fair guess that his IQ is quite a bit north of 100. > As much as he may be ridiculed, it is extraordinarily difficult for a person of average or below-average IQ to rise to the presidency. This is not true. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-donald-trumps-iq/798521/16 "2017-10-10T23:29:15Z")
I think he’d score horribly on a standard IQ test. It’s not so much regular stupidity as it is a complete lack of any sort of intellectual curiosity and a complete inability to apply any sort of attention or focus to anything that he doesn’t have an emotional connection to – which is limited to 1.Stuff people say about Trump 2. Stuff that makes Trump look like a loser 3. People of color that do stuff. It doesn’t matter what they do, it’s sure to piss off Trump. But can you imagine him focusing on standard IQ test questions long enough to answer them? Or actually trying to work through a problem? It’s easier to imagine a dog doing a crossword puzzle. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-donald-trumps-iq/798521/17 "2017-10-10T23:37:16Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I think it’s a fair guess that his IQ is quite a bit north of 100. > As much as he may be ridiculed, it is extraordinarily difficult for a person of average or below-average IQ to rise to the presidency. You have to have the ability to weather and tackle numerous debates, be aware of numerous issues, understand what makes voters and donors tick, know this and that, navigate various political waters of this and that - not even including Trump’s prior decades in business. His morals and ethics are questionable, but I would bet big money on his IQ being quite high. I would take that bet, for any definition of “big money.” But I don’t think we’ll ever know. We have a better chance of seeing his tax returns some day. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-donald-trumps-iq/798521/18 "2017-10-10T23:52:29Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > \But can you imagine him focusing on standard IQ test questions long enough to answer them? Or actually trying to work through a problem? It’s easier to imagine a dog doing a crossword puzzle. I agree. Many of the questions require logic and reason. And as you said ‘working through a problem’. Trump has not demonstrated any of those skills. Quite the opposite. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-donald-trumps-iq/798521/19 "2017-10-10T23:59:23Z")
Trump is probably quite smart but like many smart people his intelligence is often defeated by his ego, emotional instablity, and thinking he already has all the answers. You know, I remember when I was young, older people used to criticize us for thinking we knew it all. Now that I’m north of 40, I realize that older people need to just shut the hell up. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2017, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-donald-trumps-iq/798521/20 "2017-10-11T00:15:25Z")
What role would dementia play in his IQ? Trump in his 40s or 50s may have gotten a different IQ score than trump at age 70. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-donald-trumps-iq/798521.md?page=2)