Trump Challenges London Mayor to take IQ Test

Update from my post this morning.   Trump insults Muslim.

This morning I wrote that Trump's ads had a crafty brilliance in that they displayed him as clear and tough, but not vengeful.   It would be dangerous to put into a position of great power a person who might carry out post-election reprisals.   His ad made a point to say that even his critics would say he did a good job.

Trump's behavior with vanquished GOP rivals immediately turned from brutal to kind the moment each admitted defeat.   Like Genghis Khan or Tamerlane, who built pyramids of human heads of the vanquished who resisted, or Jews under the leadership of Moses, who merely sacked and killed the leaders of walled cities that opened their gates, but rained utter destruction of "everything that breathes" of cities who resisted.

It was a hallmark of primitive warfare.  Those who submit, survive to pay tribute.  Those who fight face utter destruction.  Trump's campaign behavior is a form of primitive warfare, older than humanity, as old as biology.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan

Humans are a status conscious species.  Today Trump is demonstrating his power.   The newly elected Mayor of the City of London, England--a Muslim-- said that he thought Trump was ignorant about Islam.  He went on, "Donald Trump's views are ignorant, divisive, and dangerous--it's the politics of fear at its worst and will be rejected at the ballot box just as it was in London."

These comments came on the back of Prime Minister Cameron's having said that Trump's plan to ban Muslims from America was "divisive, stupid, and wrong."

Trump hit back.  Trump challenged the mayor to take an IQ test.   "Tell him I will remember those statements."  Trump went on,  "When he won I wished him well, now I don't care about him." Trump described the statements as "very rude" and "very nasty."

Silverback gorilla in flex display

Some readers of this blog will consider this response childish and beneath the dignity of a presidential candidate, but from the perspective of anthropology, classical literature, or dominance display among apes, this is fundamental combat.    This is Achilles vs. Hector.   These are rival dogs in a pack determining who leads the pack and who dominates the females.  This is Trump asserting he is David with the sling on the path to being King David, by way of collecting 200 foreskins from defeated Philistines.   This is the silverback gorilla taking ownership of the harem, its sole protector and the one with sole sexual access.

Trump is asserting dominance and demanding respect.  Trump had said harsh things about Muslims.   The newly elected Mayor of London called them stupid.   Trump immediately challenges him.  Trump will not allow disrespect to stand.   This is alpha male communication.  Trump is showing his tribe--and foreign leaders--what kind of president he would be.  

Not everyone will like it, but male gorillas lead their band by use of strength, not politeness and deference.  David proved his mandate from heaven with his sling and his sword, not his piety.  Humans are like that, and not just Trump.   Putin displayed himself bare chested.   Ted Cruz had drawings of himself on his website, all buffed up.  Chris Christie called Obama weak and feckless.   Rubio thought to taunt him by saying Trump had small hands.  

Is it ridiculous?  Well, it is life and death to gorillas, Putin takes off his shirt, and Trump thought the matter important enough to assure us his hands and the other equipment were just fine.

Putin, displaying himself

Trump forgives and makes nice with the vanquished, within moments of calling them utterly unfit.  But that is saved until after defeat is acknowledged.   

Khan is a Muslim and brown skinned.  There is little downside politically for Trump in insulting a powerful Muslim male, even one who is so westernized he can be elected mayor of the epicenter of Anglo-American civilization.  Indeed, this is exactly the best kind of person for Trump to insult, a Muslim male with power.  It shows he can take on powerful people, today a Muslim mayor, tomorrow Hillary, and as president the entire country of Russia and China.   He cannot insult just anyone.  It would be unseemly to insult a 90 year old Queen, for example, but Khan had the temerity to voice objection to Trump's insult of Muslims, and many Americans won't mind watching Trump, a white American, insult a brown foreigner, even a Brit.   We won the Revolutionary War.

Trump will seem crude to many people.  But those people will seem prissy and precious and "politically correct" to Trump's supporters.  Diplomats and State Department people and academics and people who get screwed in trade deals will think Trump is crude.   Trump supporters think those diplomats are snobs and weaklings and will like the way Trump stands up for America.  They won't think it crude; they will think it strong.  They will be glad he is on our side.

Achilles offends the gods by dishonoring the vanquished

It is ugly, but all in all this is another win for Trump.   Trump is running for commander in chief, not pope.

If Khan backs down then Trump, if true to form, will immediately "make nice."   But Trump might err.   Remember the Iliad.  This is primitive war and men seeking glory sometimes overdue it.  Athletes celebrate after touchdowns and basketball players taunt the other side after hitting a 3 point shot from deep.  They get penalized for it but they still do it.  Glory seekers get amped up.

 Achilles was honorable in slaying Hector;   the gods and the Greeks approved..  The dishonor and offense to the Gods took place when Achilles then celebrated victory by dragging the body of Hector around.    Shameful.  He wasn't content with winning; he sought to humiliate.  That sealed his fate.  The danger for Achilles came from how he won.  Hubris killed him.

 So far in this campaign Trump stops with total victory over GOP rivals.   This is an opportunity for Trump to reveal a character flaw, if Khan backpedals and then Trump does some after-touchdown celebrating.   That would be evidence for the Hillary Clinton interpretation of Trump, that he is strong and dangerous both, and his hubris makes him unfit.

Homer understood Trump and how Trump might fail.