From the Los Angeles Times
Why Trump’s use of the word ‘stupid’ is not so stupid
By Geoffrey Nunberg
To those not in his thrall, Donald Trump’s language is puzzling. His speaking style strikes them as “gibberish,” “word salad” and “Palinesque” — Slate’s Katy Waldman compares it to “what you dictate into your Notes app after you’ve downed two Nyquil.” People run reading-level tests on his speeches and announce that he has the vocabulary of a 5th grader....
He has “stupid” pretty much to himself. Other politicians talk about doing stupid stuff or say that someone was acting stupidly, but they rarely apply the word to their opponents or adversaries. They may call them mendacious, corrupt or subversive, but stupid is off limits.
That’s partly because, coming from a politician, the word sounds mean-spirited and childish....
“Stupid” suggests to Trump’s fans that they share his intelligence and powers of discernment. “They’re stupid” is something you say when you take it for granted that your listeners are oscillating at the same moral frequency that you are. That means a lot coming from someone whom the media have established as a figure of luminous acumen. True, he has his blemishes, but for Trump and his supporters, if being stupid is worse than being bad, then being smart is more important than being good.
Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguist, is a professor in the School of Information at UC Berkeley.