Thinking back to the numerous reports in 2017 of then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson calling our ex-President “a fucking moron”, I thought it might be useful to look into the scientific accuracy of his assessment. Mr Trump of course called the reports “fake news” and has in the past made his position quite clear (“I’m like a smart person”), but did Secretary Tillerson and others overstate or understate the case?
My research indicates that of the 3 categories in the title of this report, a moron is considered the most intelligent with a mental age of roughly 8 to 12, an IQ of no more than 70, and “able to do routine work under supervision”. The idiot is considered the least intelligent with a mental age of less than 3, and finally the imbecile a step up at age 3 to 7 and an IQ of 30-70. A 2016 Carnegie Mellon University study has rated Trump’s stump speech vocabulary at a 5th grade level, which correlates closely with Tillerson’s assessment (5th grade = age 10-11).
If the Secretary were merely trying to insult the President he could have called him an idiot or an imbecile, terms that would probably be scientifically inaccurate. Of course the whole issue is complicated, and other researchers might disagree with my conclusions. Those wishing to further parse their terminology could consider “fool”, “dunce”, and “lunatic” as well, but in my humble opinion Mr Tillerson hit the nail right on the head as the saying goes.
Joseph Stevenson 