The Atlantic

'People Who Boast About Their IQ Are Losers'

Studies say that bragging about your superiority makes people like you less—so what does Donald Trump hope to gain?
Source: Stephane Mahe / Reuters

In 2004, a New York Times reporter asked Stephen Hawking what his IQ was. “I have no idea,” the theoretical physicist replied. “People who boast about their IQ are losers.”

President Donald Trump seems to think otherwise. After recent reports that Rex Tillerson, his secretary of state, called him a moron, Trump told Forbes: “I think it’s fake news, but if he did that, I guess we’ll have to compare IQ tests. And I can tell you who is going to win.”

As Philip Bump at , Trump has a history of boasting about as false: While the chart was based on , the study didn’t have real IQ scores for most presidents (it estimated their IQs based on other factors), Trump wasn’t included in the study, and most importantly,“Donald Trump’s true intelligence quotient is unknown,” the article reads.

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