"THE DONALD" AND "DOC": GULLIBLE GENIUSES OR NOT?

Peter Radan (2 June 2019)

President Donald Trump's recent assertion that he is an 'extremely stable genius'[1] brought to mind the life of Herbert Vere 'Doc' Evatt, once a justice of the High Court of Australia, then an Australian government minister, then the first President of the United National General Assembly, and finally, leader of the federal Australian Labor Party in opposition. Why? Because one can fairly ask if both of these men were: (i) "stable"; and/or (ii) a "genius". Given their actions on pivotal issues in the political careers, one can also fairly ask whether they were "gullible".

The gullibility question

Vlad and the Donald at Helsinki in 2018

In Trump's case, notwithstanding the findings of the Mueller Report, and all of America's intelligence agencies, that Russia meddled in the 2016 American presidential election, Trump has consistently accepted the word of former KGB intelligence officer and current Russian President, Vladimir Putin, that Russia did not, in any way, interfere in, or try to influence the outcome of, the 2016 election. Thus, in November 2017, following a meeting with Putin in Vietnam, Trump said: "I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it". And, in July 2018, during their meeting in Helsinki, Putin again denied meddling and Trump said that he believed these denials.

Evatt (left) and Molotov (centre)

Trump's gullibility in relation to Putin's denials echoed events in the 1950s in Australia in the wake of the finding of a Royal Commission into Soviet spying in Australia, that documents, which were received by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) from a Russian defector and which named certain members of Doc Evatt's staff as having communist links, were genuine. As evidence that the Royal Commission's finding was wrong, in October 1955, Evatt tabled in Federal Parliament a letter, to which he attached "grave importance",[2] that he had received from Vyacheslav Molotov, the Soviet Foreign Minister, that assured Evatt that the said documents were fabrications.[3] Legend has it that Evatt's gullibility here had Prime Minister Robert Menzies scrawling on a piece of paper: "The Lord hath delivered him into thy hands".[4]

The stability question

Many observers have suggested that Trump's political style - if that is what one can call it - reflects some form of mental instability. I disagree. Whatever one may think of his conduct, it has a perfectly clear and rational political objective. Trump is doing his level best to goad the Democratic Party-controlled House of Representatives to bring on impeachment proceedings against him. If impeached, he will not be convicted because of the Republican Party-controlled Senate. Thus, he can then go into the 2020 election campaign casting the Democrats as villains and the reason why he has been unable to deliver on his 2016 promises, such as, scrapping Obamacare, building a big beautiful wall on Mexico's dime, balancing the budget, and delivering big infrastructure projects.

As for Evatt, it is pretty well documented that, by the time he became Labor's opposition leader, he was "losing the plot". For example, in 1955, Menzies recorded a story of Evatt being found "walking up and down in the ladies' room [at the Hotel Australia in Sydney], talking to himself, occasionally calling out loud, holding his head in his hands, walking up and down, walking up and down".[5]

The genius question

The best evidence that we have that Trump is a genius, is Trump's assertion that he is one. It is likely that members of his White House staff who confirmed, when asked by Trump to do so, that Trump was "extremely calm"[6] during his unsuccessful meeting with Democrats on infrastructure, would also confirm, if asked by Trump to do so, that Trump is also a genius.

The Donald when seeking confirmation that he was 'extremely calm'.

However, further corroboration of his assertion is hard to come by. Academic excellence is something of a guide, albeit not a perfect one. But, with Trump we have no knowledge of how he performed in high school and at university. Indeed, as Michael Cohen testified before Congress, Trump instructed him to write to the high school and universities that Trump attended to threaten them with legal proceedings if they released Trump's SAT scores and academic records. Furthermore, Trump's claim that he finished "first in his class" in his business degree at Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania has been shown to be a lie. But, as George Costanza once memorably said to Jerry Seinfeld: "Jerry, just remember. It's not a lie ... if you believe it",[7] and I suspect that the Donald does really believe that he was "first in his class".

On the other hand, there are reasonable grounds to ascribe genius status to Doc Evatt. In 1915, he graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Arts degree with triple First Class Honours and the University Medal in Philosophy. In 1918, he graduated, again from the University of Sydney, with a Bachelor of Laws degree with First Class Honours and the University Medal. And, again, it is pretty well documented that many - both friend and foe - regarded Evatt as a genius, including, accordingly to a former foreign intelligence officer, many ASIO officers.[8]

Conclusion

There is no doubt that Trump and Evatt demonstrated extreme gullibility on serious matters of state. As to their stability, with Trump it only appears that he is mentally unhinged, but with Evatt, he clearly was increasingly mentally unstable in the latter stages of his career.

As to the prized quality of genius, a strong case can be made that Evatt was one. With Trump, perhaps the concluding words of Robert Meuller's short coda to the Mueller Report are appropriate. In relation to the allegation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, Mueller said: "that allegation deserves the attention of every American".[9] The same can be said in relation to the Donald's assertion that he is a genius.

Footnotes

[1] 'Pelosi, Trump insults reflect jockeying for gains in 2020', The Washington Post, 24 May 2019.

[2] Andrew Tink, Australia 1901-2001: A Narrative History, NewSouth Publishing, 2014, 193.

[3] Robert Murray, The Split: Australian Labor in the Fifties, F W Cheshire Publishing, 1970, 271.

[4] Troy Bramston, Robert Menzies: The Art of Politics, Scribe, 2018, 199.

[5] Heather Henderson (ed), Letters to My Daughter: Robert Menzies, Letters, 1955-1975, Pier 9, 2011, 12.

[6] Tweet from @realDonaldTrump, 24 May 2019.

[7] See YouTube clip at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn_PSJsl0LQ.

[8] Bramston, note 4 above, 200-201.

[9] 'Mueller's statement', The Washington Post, 30 May 2019.