Inside the Cult of Anti-Intellect and the Messiah Who Mocks His Own Disciples
“Smart people don’t like me.”
—Donald J. Trump, in a rare moment of unintended honesty
I. The Truth Slips Out
All you really need to know about this man is contained in a single, unguarded sentence: “Smart people don’t like me.”
Predictably, the right-wing echo chamber went into overdrive to sanitize it. He was joking. It was taken out of context. He meant the elites, not the smart ones. The usual chorus of professional explainers attempted to launder what was, in fact, the most truthful statement of Donald Trump’s public life.
For once, he spoke plainly. He told us exactly what he believes—and more importantly, who he needs.
His remark came, fittingly, while he was busy deflecting blame for another tragedy. In one breath, Trump claimed that the “radical left” had “radicalized” the shooter who killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Kirk, it should be noted, was a lifelong Republican, raised in a conservative Latter-day Saint household. The idea that the left somehow turned him into an assassin belongs in the same realm as Jewish space lasers and secret pizza-basement cabals.
No evidence. No logic. Just narrative—Trump’s favorite narcotic.
“To love the uneducated, in Trump’s mouth, was not a confession of compassion. It was a strategy.”
II. The Cult of the Uneducated
Trump’s base doesn’t demand proof. They demand affirmation. So when he said “Smart people don’t like me,” they nodded along, oblivious to the insult.
He was, as it happens, right. Smart people don’t like him. They can see the puppet strings, the man behind the gilded curtain. They’ve read history. They’ve studied psychology. They recognize the well-worn pattern: the demagogue who flatters ignorance, vilifies intellect, and mistakes applause for legitimacy.
This wasn’t the first time he revealed his contempt for his followers. Remember 2016? “I love the uneducated,” he declared on election night. Of course he did. The uneducated are pliable. They don’t ask hard questions. They’re cheaper to flatter than to convince. To “love the uneducated” was not a confession of empathy—it was the business model of a con man.
By July 2025, the contempt was barely concealed. During a White House briefing, he dismissed Republicans still asking about Jeffrey Epstein’s trafficking network as “stupid” and “foolish.” The “smart” Republicans, he suggested, were the ones willing to help cover it up. The “foolish” ones wanted the truth.
It takes a special kind of irony for a man under constant investigation for criminality to accuse truth-seekers of idiocy.
“Does any of his most devoted followers truly believe they’ll ever be invited into his $300 million ballroom—except perhaps as the help?”
III. The Psychology of Worship
Trump has ridiculed his supporters’ looks, their loyalty, their blind devotion. Yet they remain rapturous. It is a psychological marvel: the abused defending the abuser.
Do his most devoted followers actually believe they’ll one day sip champagne beside him in Mar-a-Lago’s ballroom? Of course not. They are the audience, not the guests. And still they cheer.
Even as he mocks them—calling them “stupid” to their faces—they would die for him. No insult too sharp, no scandal too grotesque, no cruelty too visible. They do not love him because he tells the truth; they love him because he lies beautifully to them, and uglily about everyone else.
His rallies have long since ceased to be political events. They are tent revivals of resentment, where humiliation is alchemized into belonging. He tells them they are victims of the “smart,” the “elite,” the “educated.” And in return, they love him for validating their injury.
“The man who thrives on ignorance must cultivate it. The man who depends on devotion must insult it to prove it’s real.”
IV. The Manufactured Enemy
Meanwhile, Trump continues to blame the “radical left” for every act of violence in America, ignoring the right-wing massacres that actually define this era.
He never mentions the assassination of Minnesota State Senator Melissa Hortman, the brutal beating of Nancy Pelosi’s husband, or the countless other extremist attacks carried out by self-described patriots with Trump flags and Nazi tattoos.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are unambiguous: right-wing extremism is the most lethal domestic threat in the United States. A 2020 congressional report found that 26 of 29 extremist murders in 2018–2019 were committed by right-wing actors. The Anti-Defamation League reports that 85 percent of extremist-related murders in 2021 were the work of white supremacists and right-wing extremists. Between 2013 and 2020, 75 percent of all political violence came from the right.
Yet Trump’s version of reality flips the axis: it is the left, he insists, that has blood on its hands. He needs the lie as oxygen. Without it, his moral theater collapses.
V. History Rhymes
There’s a reason the comparison to Hitler persists—not because the man is clever enough to replicate fascism, but because he instinctively recreates its emotional grammar. The slogans, the scapegoats, the contempt for intellect, the worship of strength—all of it recycled for an American audience that mistakes ignorance for authenticity and cruelty for conviction.
“Smart people don’t like me,” Trump said. And that, perhaps, is the most honest assessment he’s ever given—not just of himself, but of the country he has bent to his image.
For in his America, the dumb are holy, the cruel are patriotic, and the liars are anointed. The smart people don’t like him, true. But the real tragedy is that too many of the stupid still adore him.
“There’s a reason smart people call Trump a fascist. We recognize the propaganda from the past.”
Why It Matters
When a leader openly pits “smart” against “loyal,” he’s not joking—he’s engineering a politics where evidence loses to emotion and obedience replaces accountability. Anti-intellectualism is the oxygen for authoritarian movements: it normalizes lying, rewards cruelty, and turns disinformation into identity. That shift doesn’t just warp debates—it sabotages public health, public safety, the press, courts, and schools. If we don’t defend truth as a civic norm, policy becomes propaganda, and democratic consent becomes performance.
Key Takeaways
- The tell: “Smart people don’t like me” is a candid admission that anti-intellect is a strategy, not a slip.
- Contempt for followers: He flatters “the uneducated” while ridiculing supporters who ask hard questions—devotion over discernment.
- Rallies as ritual: Events function like revival meetings where resentment is converted into belonging and doubt is punished.
- Projection as cover: Violence is pinned on the left while right-wing extremism remains the documented, deadlier threat.
- Democracy at risk: When intelligence is framed as elitism, institutions built on facts—courts, journalism, science, education—are delegitimized, clearing the runway for authoritarian power.
Further Reading
- The True Believer — Eric Hoffer. A timeless study of mass movements and the psychology of the follower. https://civilheresy.com/the true believer
- Fascism: A Warning — Madeleine Albright. A clear-eyed look at the warning signs of authoritarianism in the modern world. https://civilheresy.com/fascism a warning
- The Death of Expertise — Tom Nichols. An exploration of how the rejection of knowledge endangers democracy. https://civilheresy.com/Death of Expertise
Wear your rebellion. Don’t bow to stupidity—stand with the thinkers. Grab your No Kings gear now at Shop Civil Heresy.
