The Declaration of Independence

 The Declaration of Independence

As we approach our 250th birthday and plan our milestone celebrations for 2026, it would be nice if our president knew something about history. I bring this up because the president has an important copy of the Declaration of Independence hanging in the Oval Office. It is one of 26 surviving Dunlap copies of the original 200 versions that were created after the original one was signed on July 4, 1776. The original document still resides in the National Archives (whew) after a fight with the president to keep it there.

During an interview the president proudly pointed to the encased copy of the Declaration of Independence which formally states that the 13 British colonies in North America were declaring their independence from King George III and British rule. It could be considered in terms more familiar to our president, an announcement that we were filing for divorce. We would no longer be subject to the tyranny of the king and wanted our natural rights that included the right to self-governance. There was no prenup and things were about to get ugly.

The interviewer, Terry Moran, asked the simple question, "What does it [Declaration of Independence] mean to you?" That interviewer couldn’t hide the shock on his face when the president responded like a second-grader being asked that same question by Art Linkletter* on Kids Say the Darndest Things. The leader of the free world replied to the question of what the Declaration of Independence means to him with, "Well it means exactly what it says, it's a declaration, it's a declaration of unity and love and respect and it means a lot and it’s something very special to our country."

With that one sentence, the president announced to the entire country and the world that he didn’t have a clue what the Declaration of Independence was really about. Saying that a document, basically telling the king of England to go f*ck himself, is a declaration of unity and love. Such a comment is about as far off the mark as most of what this ignoramus says and does.

This begs the question, is Donald J. Trump the dumbest president in history? Answers to that query would obviously be biased by political affiliation. Trump is hard to assess as he has made his school grades more of a state secret than, well, our real state secrets. Unlike presidents who wrote regular long documents that history can evaluate, Trump uses short tweets that do not provide a measure of complex thinking.

When Trump sticks to the teleprompter, he sounds reasonably intelligent. When he goes off-script or makes impromptu comments during interviews, the stupid begins to show. Those remarks are then often explained with the “I was just joking” excuse. As joking comedians go, his brand of humor escapes me.

In the beginning of our nation’s history, presidents were elected by electors appointed by state legislatures. Since those were educated men selecting other educated men, our presidents were generally more intelligent people. As we shifted to electors being selected by popular vote, there was more room for someone like President Andrew Johnson who was a tailor who never attended school.

Among the brightest presidents were John Quincy Adams and Thomas Jefferson with estimated IQs of 175 and 160 respectively. Both Barack Obama and Bill Clinton are at the top of the presidential intellect class. Joe Biden would be more in the C+ or B- category.

By contrast, President Trump isn’t doing himself any favors with statements like the one he made on camera describing the Declaration of Independence as, “…a declaration of unity and love and respect.” Donald Trump often tells us that he has a superior intellect, calling himself a “very stable genius.” Using his stable analogy, I’d have to say it may be time to “muck the stalls.”

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*Postscritpt: Arthur Gordon Linkletter was a Canadian-born American radio and television personality. He was the host of House Party, which ran on CBS radio and television for 25 years. Kids Say the Darndest Things was a segment on this show where he interviewed small children and asked them life questions that often had hilarious answers from those innocent minds.