'Very Stable Genius' Once Again Demonstrates Wide-Ranging Ignorance

On two consecutive evenings last week, the Ignoramus-in-Chief reminded us of just how empty that brain that keeps getting scanned is.

President Donald Trump addresses the nation, Wednesday, December 17, 2025, from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House. | Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok via Flickr

“Let’s look at the facts,” the most anti-fact person ever to hold the presidency said in his televised address to the nation on Wednesday evening. The night before, he had demonstrated yet again that his ignorance of basic geography is as complete as his ignorance of simple arithmetic, science, economics, history, civics, law, religion, literature, morality, decency, the English language, and common sense.

In a social media post on Tuesday evening, Donald Trump declared:

“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America. It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before—Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.

Is it too much to ask that someone—particularly someone who promised there would be no more needless wars, no more attempts at “regime change” and keeps ludicrously claiming he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize—who wants to invade another country at least have some idea of where it is and that it is part of the South American continent, not an island?

It is true that the government of Venezuela is terrible. It is undemocratic, corrupt, and has ruined the nation’s economy. That sounds much like Trump’s plan for the United States, though starting from what Trump claims was “a mess,” but was in fact the best economy in the world when Joe Biden left office, Trump has much work to do to make the lives of people in this country nearly as bad as those in Venezuela.

But none of that is a reason to go to war. Nor is a tiny fraction of the drugs coming into the United States being from Venezuela a reason to attack boats, killing people who may be carrying drugs, which is not a capital offense anyway, without arrest, indictment, trial, or conviction and without any declaration of war.

But, you say, at the last ass-kissing competition called a Cabinet meeting, Kristi Noem said to the president, “You have saved hundreds of millions of lives with the cocaine you’ve blown up in the Caribbean.”

What an achievement! The current population of the United States is estimated at around 345 million. Had it not been for Trump ordering that a few small boats be blown up, we would be down to no more than 145 million.

Stephen Miller must be pissed at Trump over this. In 2024, Trump is reported to have “told a campaign meeting last year that if it was up to Miller, there would only be 100 million people living in the US – and all of them would look like Miller.”

Then there is the question of antecedents. He asserted that Venezuela must return “he Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.” It is true that the government of Hugo Chávez, the dictator that Nicolás Maduro succeeded nationalized property of giant oil corporations. Unless Trump himself is a communist, those oil companies never belonged to the United States or the American people. As with everything else, Trump sees “us” not as the American people, but only fabulously wealthy individuals and giant corporations.

In the televised rant on Wednesday evening, the very stable genius told whatever small percentage of the American people bothered to tune in that before he returned to power, there was “transgender for everybody, crime at record levels with law enforcement and words such as that just absolutely forbidden.” Y’all remember that, right? Biden’s goons in combat gear were breaking into schools and stores to arrest people for saying “law enforcement” and take them to be strapped to operating tables where they were forced to undergo transgender surgery.

Under Biden, Trump asserted, the United States “was laughed at from all over the world. But they’re not laughing anymore. Over the past 11 months, we have brought more positive change to Washington than any administration in American history.”

In the world of fact, a world where Donald Trump would be an alien if he ever visited, of course much of the rest of the world is laughing at the United States, but more are crying that the destruction he has wrought over the past 11 months.

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“I was elected in a landslide,” Trump proclaimed. On Planet Fact, he received less than 50 percent of the votes (49.8% to Kamala Harris’s 48.3%). In the 32 presidential elections since 1900, Trump’s margin of victory last year was the fifth smallest. It must be admitted, though, that his margin of victory in 2024 was greater than that he achieved in 2016, when he “won” by −2.09%. That was the smallest margin of “victory” since 1888, when Benjamin Harrison was elected over Grover Cleveland by −0.83%

More on Mr. Trump and negative numbers in a moment.

He said that his “landslide” was “a mandate to take on a sick and corrupt system that really just took the wealth from people and crushed the dreams of the American people.” There, he may have slipped into the vicinity of the truth, but he has done just the opposite by having by far the most corrupt administration in American history, pushing through the Big Beautiful-for-Billionaires Bill to transfer even more wealth from the people to the obscenely rich, slashing programs that help ordinary people, and crushing the American Dream to a degree unseen since the Great Depression.

“Now you have a president who fights for the law-abiding, hardworking people of our country,” the totally lawless Führer who couldn’t care less about hardworking people lied.

I won’t go on to try to catalogue all the absurdities he uttered in this “address.” It’s just too much. But here’s a particularly ridiculous one:

One year ago, our country was dead. We were absolutely dead. Our country was ready to fail. Totally fail. Now we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world. And that’s said by every single leader that I’ve spoken to over the last five months.

Of course every leader he speaks to tells him how wonderful he is, gives him toys and golden participation trophies, and so forth. They know that’s the only way to deal with him. They also know that it’s 100 percent bullshit.

Speaking of percentages, Dear Leader once again demonstrated his mathematical skills in this address:

I’m doing what no politician of either party has ever done. Standing up to the special interests to dramatically reduce the price of prescription drugs. … to slash prices on drugs and pharmaceuticals by as much as 400, 500 and even 600 percent.

Leaving aside the ridiculous claim that he, the man trying to turn the United States into a full-fledged kleptocracy, is “standing up to the special interests,” there are the numbers.

Trump has said he “loves the uneducated.” But anyone whose education reached the fifth grade should understand percentages. And the concept of negative numbers is usually introduced by sixth grade.

Here’s the blackboard lesson little Donny missed. How much would you save on a $50 prescription if the price were cut by 600 percent?

So, you’ll pick up your $50 prescription and the pharmacist will hand it to you along with $250. Helluva deal!

Doctor, please give me several hundred more prescriptions—and please them as expensive as possible!

That is our Ignoramus-in-Chief. The only question is whether he thinks the American people are that ignorant or it is just that he is.

Author and historian Robert S. McElvaine writes the Musings & Amusings Substack. Read the original column here.