TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “It was January 2004 and Donald Trump was on the ‘Today Show’ to promote a new reality TV series called ‘The Apprentice.’ Almost immediately after the interview began Trump started bragging about the unparalleled intellect of the contestants who would compete for a job at one of his companies…It wasn’t the first time Trump fixated on IQ as a measure of a person’s worth — or, as is frequently the case, worthlessness. And it wouldn’t be the last. Fifteen years later, Trump, now president of the United States, still uses IQ as a shorthand for intelligence, dividing the people in his orbit into winners and losers. In private, according to interviews with a half-dozen people close to him, Trump frequently asserts that people he likes have genius-level IQs. At various points during his presidency, he’s told aides that Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson and Apple CEO Tim Cook are high-IQ individuals, for example, former White House officials said. Trump has also dubbed himself a ‘very stable genius’ on multiple occasions.”
–Andrew Restuccia, “Trump fixates on IQ as a measure of self-worth,” Politico, May 30, 2019 5:04 am