These Basic Laws are really not focused on the US Presidency when it was written in 1976 by Carlo Cipolla, who was already an economic historian by then.
>A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.
>Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular, non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people infallibly turns out to be a costly mistake.
>A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person. A stupid person is more dangerous than a bandit.
This is exactly the unanimous reaction to young Trump himself back in 1976 when he was one of the more annoying golf-loving fake millionaires from NYC, coming to South Florida and acting like a big shot. Much more fake than most, and way more flamboyant, it was so comical. You should have seen the gossip on him in the Enquirer, and the pictures with unidentified women whom none of the gossip hounds knew anything about.
When you think about it with hindsight, most of the other fake millionaires doing flagrant self-promotion were not as likely to do something stupid and make for a paragraph or two in a local tabloid. He really was a product of the media and got famous nationwide as his NY deals bankrupted people, nothing else he did was as notable.
It's not like he has acquired enough of the non-stupid characteristics to make a difference by now.
I normally prefer to focus my disapproval on ingrained dishonesty, because I remember so well how it only took a few weeks for the locals to share that he cheats at golf and can't be trusted in a real estate deal. The old money wasn't stupid, Trump never had a chance until they all died off.
Cipolla's Basic Laws sound like he met Trump in person 50 years ago, and it confirmed all his research up until that point thoroughly enough to print :\