Gail Collins: Take the Trump Quiz

[John F]

Click on the link and you can take the quiz with instant right answers and your score. Mine was 8 of 11. Hint: the right answers are often more ludicrous than the made-up ones.

Take the Trump Quiz
By GAIL COLLINS
MARCH 17, 2016

Donald Trump is very likely going to be the Republican nominee for president of the United States. Take three deep breaths. I know we’ve been on this path for a long time, but it’s still hard getting your head around the idea, isn’t it? Just to ease the transition, our first-ever exclusively Donald Trump quiz:

1. After his big string of victories this week, Trump appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” where he was asked who his foreign policy advisers were. He said:

“I’m speaking with a lot of generals. Very impressive people. All winners.”
“I’m speaking with myself.”
“I have a long list. It’s a good list. Vladimir Putin said it was the best list he’d ever seen.”

2. After making his surprise endorsement, Ben Carson said that there were “two different Donald Trumps” and that the private one was “very cerebral.” Asked about that comment, Trump replied:

"I think there are two Donald Trumps."
"I don't think there are two Donald Trumps."
"I think there are two Donald Trumps ... I don't think there are two Donald Trumps."

3. Trump claimed on “Good Morning America” that there was “nobody that’s done so much for equality as I have.” As an example he pointed to:

His endorsements by Mike Tyson and Dennis Rodman.
The black guy who won “The Apprentice” in 2005.
His $100,000-membership club, Mar-a-Lago — “totally open to everybody.”

4. After a protester rushed the stage at one of his rallies, Trump claimed the man was associated with ISIS, and retweeted a video of him holding a gun in front of the ISIS flag. When NBC’s Chuck Todd pointed out that it was a hoax, Trump said:

“Whoops.”
“All I know is what’s on the Internet.”
“As Kierkegaard said, ‘The truth is a trap.’”

5. One of the groups that’s been opening Trump rallies is USA Freedom Kids, little girls who sang about “President Trump” who “knows how to make America great …

“… And give us schools that really rate.”
“… Teach us to love and not to hate.”
“… Deal from strength or get crushed every time.”

6. Trump defended the supporter who sucker-punched a protester being led away by security forces. He said the attack was justified because the protester:

Had violently attacked an elderly woman.
Had tried to grab one of the officer’s guns.
Was “sticking a certain finger up in the air.”

7. House Speaker Paul Ryan scored a great triumph at the end of 2015 when the House passed a compromise spending bill that keeps the government running through the fall. Trump has been loudly critical, and at a recent rally in North Carolina, he said the bill was bad because:

“The appropriation for infrastructure repair is inadequate.”
“It fails to address the really critical Puerto Rican oil export issue.”
“It funds ISIS.”

8. Sarah Palin had to leave the Trump campaign to be with her husband, who had a serious snowmobile accident. Before her departure she said Todd’s multiple injuries made her appreciate:

“The skill of Alaskan emergency treatment centers.”
“The time that we have to spend in doing something so worthy, and that’s to get Donald J. Trump elected president.”
“The stress my family has undergone due to my unflagging pursuit of celebrity.”

9. After Trump defended the use of torture against suspected terrorists, his son Eric, who was campaigning for him, pointed out that waterboarding:

“Is no different than what happens on college campuses in frat houses every day.”
“Has real efficacy when employed as a last resort in isolated incidences.”
“Is no worse than what China’s doing to our manufacturing base.”

10. Since he threw his support behind Trump, Gov. Chris Christie has been humiliated on a daily basis for everything — from his slavish stare at the candidate’s press conferences to widespread criticism of his absence from New Jersey while he toils on the campaign trail. To pay him back, at a pre-primary event this week, Trump:

Made fun of Christie for the absentee thing.
Announced he was indeed planning to make Christie secretary of transportation.
Invited Christie to tell the audience about all the things he went through on 9/11.

11. Trump has endlessly complained about the way immigrants steal jobs from American workers, but he’s used loopholes in federal law to hire foreign workers himself. At a recent debate he argued that voters wouldn’t care about that seeming contradiction because:

“Everybody would like a Romanian helper.”
“Nobody knows the system better than me.”
“What happens in Mar-a-Lago stays in Mar-a-Lago.”

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016 ... -quiz.html

[rwetmore]

I also scored 8 out of 11, so what does this mean?

[John F]

I don't know that it means anything. What do you think it means?

[Chalkperson]

It means he lost.