“Trump Literally Can’t Read” – Former Aide Spoke to Trump Like a Baby So He Could Understand

William FurneyOct 31, 2023

Minute Read

Donald Trump is so unintelligent that he was unable to read or understand complex national security memos during his time in the White House, a former aide has claimed, saying he had to rewrite reports as though his boss was a baby.

Summarizing Intelligence Reports

Speaking on a podcast hosted by liberal political action committee and anti-Trump group MeidasTouch Network, ex-Trump official Miles Taylor said he had to distill hefty intelligence reports into a single page so his boss could read them like a “first-grader.”

“Trump Can’t Read”

Taylor, 36, said: “This 50-page memo that we would normally give to any other president to show what his options are is something Trump literally can’t read. The man doesn’t read. We’ve got to boil this down into a one-pager in his voice.”

Writing in Trump’s “Bombastic” Style

He continued in his interview: “And so I had to write this… stupid memo called something like ‘Afghanistan How to Put America First and Win’ and then bullet by bullet I summed up this highly classified memo into Trump’s sort of bombastic language because it was the only way he was going to understand.”

Like a Baby

Editorial credit: Evan El-Amin / Shutterstock.

Taylor said in his interview with MeidasTouch Network – whose stated aim is to stop Trump from becoming president again – that he had to write as though Trump was a baby so he could understand the intel reports.

Dumbing Down Reports

Taylor said: “I mean, I literally said in there, you know, ‘If we leave Afghanistan too fast, the terrorists will call us losers. But if we want to be seen as winners, we need to make sure the Afghan forces have the strength to push back against these criminals.’ I mean, it was that dumb. And that’s how you had to talk to him.”

Doesn’t Get It

Reaction to Taylor’s interview was less than complimentary to Trump. One person suggested on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that Trump didn’t know what he was even talking about.

“In other words, whenever he reads a speech in his terrible singsong voice and says incoherent stuff it is because he doesn’t get a word of what he’s reading?” said the user, under the handle Mcfclover.

Glaringly Obvious

Another person, Miguel de Unamuno, wrote on X that “[t]his has been obvious since 2015 but always refreshing when the insiders come clean.” Still another, Brian M Green, opined: “Duh. This is obvious every time he speaks and tweets!”

Trump: No Need to Read

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Trump – who was defeated by Joe Biden in the 2020 election – is on the record as saying he didn’t need to read daily intelligence briefings. A former director of the CIA, Mike Pompeo, was quoted by The Washington Post as saying the then-president was fond of “killer graphics” instead.

Fond of Bullet Points

Editorial credit: Consolidated News Photos / Shutterstock.

President-elect Trump told the Axios news site shortly before he was inaugurated, in January 2017, that he had no time for lengthy intelligence reports dropped on his desk every day.

“I like bullets or I like as little as possible. I don’t need, you know, 200-page reports on something that can be handled on a page. That I can tell you.”

Adopting Taylor’s Measures?

Future aides may have to adopt Taylor’s claimed measures and opinion of Trump if the former president gets back into the White House. Trump, 77, is seeking the Republican Party nomination to run in the 2024 presidential election and is the frontrunner among rivals who include Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley. His vice president during his term, Mike Pence, had been running but has dropped out over a lack of support.

Taylor’s Blowback

Taylor has published a book about his time in the Trump administration titled “Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump.” It became an instant New York Times bestseller and contains interviews with dozens of former Trump aides as well as others in government at the time.

Trump Prediction

The book says that a polarized nation is enabling another Trump presidency, unless something is done.

“Donald Trump will be president again, whether he is on the ballot or not,” says the blurb for the book. “That is because Trumpism is overtaking the Republican Party and will mount a vigorous comeback, potentially in the hands of a savvier successor – The Next Trump. This prophecy will come true, according to Miles Taylor, if we do not learn the lessons of the recent past.”