How Trump learned from a circus 'freak show' how to fool America: author

Journalist and author Kurt Andersen believes he's identified the secret behind Donald Trump's political success: his lifelong stupidity combined with an American culture that's vulnerable to being conned.

Speaking on The Daily Beast Podcast, Andersen said his theory was on full display in Trump's recent foreign policy moves, which he said are fundamentally uninformed. Regarding Trump's Iran strategy, Andersen said that Trump has "no clue" about the region's history and dynamics.

“He’s an idiot," he said. "He’s always been stupid. And his stupidity has been an under-remarked-upon, unheralded part of his — along with the lying, along with the mental disorders — the stupidity is important.”

Drawing from his book "Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire; A 500-Year History," Andersen argues that America possesses a particular vulnerability to manipulation rooted in its religious and cultural history. The foundational American belief, he contends, is, "I can believe what I want because it's the truth and it feels right."

And Trump is an expert at exploiting that.

"All that stuff, which is not uniquely American, but it is definingly American," he said. "America has always been the world leader in that kind of weak-mindedness and slippery sense of the difference between reality and fiction."

Andersen drew parallels to P.T. Barnum, the 19th-century showman who successfully marketed obvious hoaxes by maintaining plausible deniability. When confronted about false claims, Barnum would respond: "How do you know it's not? If you can't prove it's not and people enjoy it, then that's entertainment."

As an example, the author described a 161-year-old woman who was paraded to circus-goers — and which was obviously a hoax.

“He didn’t hide it,” he said. “He didn’t pretend it was true. He said, ‘How do you know it’s not?’ [That] was basically his response to people. If you can’t prove it’s not and people enjoy it, then that’s entertainment.”
Andersen characterized Trump's relationship with truth as similarly ambiguous.

"It's just such an American story. This combination of religiosity, I guess sincere, and this kind of hucksterism. And that's part of the story of America and how Trump came to be, even though he is irreligious and a nonbeliever, I think, pretty clearly."

Andersen identified evangelical Christians as Trump's most devoted supporters, explaining that in a cultural environment where citizens believe "any old thing you want and hear and disbelief in things that are true, anything goes."

"It always tended to be the case in America a little bit, but then it got out of control in the last 60 years and, along with the internet, gave us Donald Trump," he concluded.