[supjeff]

How much do we believe the current administration values "intelligence"? For the most part, the truth is trump's enemy. as far as he can control it, it's better for his to be the only authoritative voice. If he says Australia is full of muslims and bad hombres, he doesn't need the CIA contradicting him.

[JumpCrisscross]

> How much do we believe the current administration values "intelligence"?

Broadly? A lot. Donald Trump is wickedly smart. So is Stephen Miller. Susie Wiles. Hegseth is an idiot, but he's Chip 'n' Dale to Marco Rubio. (Our planes aren't falling off our carriers any more. And the raid on Caracas was executed flawlessly. That isn't something numpties can pull off.)

[AngryData]

What makes you think h is smart instead of a blubbering idiot that Mr Magoo his way through life? All the reports from people who knew him personally had very low regard for his intellegence, and that is even before taking into account his repeated public blunders.

[mynameisash]

> Donald Trump is wickedly smart.

I'll grant that he has achieved success via some amount of cunning (often via threats), but "smart" is decidedly not a term I would ever apply to him, and I'm not sure how anyone could reasonably think this given the myriad facts otherwise.

[protocolture]

Donald Trump is cunning, but you wouldn't make a Fox president either, it would just screech and shit all over the oval office too.

[red-iron-pine]

> Donald Trump is wickedly smart.

wut. this is a joke, right?

Stephen Miller... maybe. He's mostly evil and shiftless, and willing to utilize any and all tools.

[gosub100]

The wicked smart people are the ones who created and honed the right/left divide in the US. Trump is an avatar of one extreme that manipulated people wanted.

[esseph]

> Donald Trump is wickedly smart

This is the exact opposite of what has been said about Trump by his "friends" in the Epstein files.

[kashunstva]

> Donald Trump is wickedly smart.

I highly doubt that. Certainly not in any conventional sense of the word. A former professor of his at the Wharton School characterized him as the “dumbest student he ever taught.”

More objectively, linguistic studies have demonstrated a considerable decline in the complexity and scope of his language. And recently while trying to defend himself against claims of cognitive decline, he could not recall the term “Alzheimer’s”, instead tapping himself on the head until an aide filled in the word for him.

[stonogo]

ah yes, a wickedly smart man who appoints an idiot as secretary of defense. completely consistent analysis here

[tokyobreakfast]

People—especially the squares in this business—tend to mistake his unfamiliar blue-collar New Yorker manner of speech at face value and don't bother to look deeper.

[exe34]

It gives me hope that Trump will replace the top generals and a few layers down with yes-men who will spend the military budget on coke and then the US will be less of a threat to the rest of the world. Another Russia is not a good thing, but it's better than a mad man at the top of the most powerful military in history.

[simonh]

What were getting is another Russia with the full military and economic might of the US.

[georgemcbay]

> It gives me hope that Trump will replace the top generals and a few layers down with yes-men who will spend the military budget on coke and then the US will be less of a threat to the rest of the world.

I realize this is kind of a joke, but...

The US will continue to be the most powerful military in history for a very long time even with a highly incompetent top-layer. It will just have less people with the wisdom and power to push back on the president's worst impulses.

Unfortunately(?) there's not enough coke in the world to put much of a dent in our current military spending (which they hope to increase even further to 1.5 trillion dollars in 2027). And if the price of coke ever did become a problem, well the US now believes it reserves the right to the entire western hemisphere which includes Columbia...

On a more serious note there is also likely to be a rapid burst of nuclear proliferation across the globe as everyone else adjusts to this new reality sans the traditional post-WW II world order.

On the current Trump path the world is going to get far more dangerous and chaotic, not less.