Genius Presidents of America

US President Donald Trump on January 6 declared himself a "stable genius", responding to accusations that he is not capable of leading the country. The criticisms came after the book "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" was published on January 4. In the book, author Michael Wolff quoted advisers and people close to Trump describing him as "idiot", "childlike" and having poor concentration.

Despite his bold claims, President Trump seems unwilling to provide evidence of his genius. He has repeatedly challenged others to take IQ tests, but once, when asked to prove his score, the US President simply replied: "The highest score," according toWashington Post. The newspaper on January 7 asked the White House to provide Mr. Trump's IQ test score but has not received a response.

There is no law in the US that requires presidents to provide documentary evidence of their intellectual abilities. However, there have been surveys and studies that have verified this parameter through the terms of US presidents.

In 2006, a psychologist at the University of California at Davis used statistical algorithms to search biographies, surveys, polls, and other historical sources about American presidents. He concluded that the most brilliant mind to ever hold the White House was President John Quincy Adams.

With an IQ of 165 to 175, Mr. Adams is truly a genius by any popular standard, the study said. For comparison, most normal people have an IQ of around 100. A child with an IQ above 160 would be considered smarter than Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.

President Adams never took an IQ test because, according toPoliticoIt was not until the 1900s that this index appeared, long after his death. On the other hand, the definition and meaning of IQ has also changed over time.

But as psychologist Dean Keith Simonton wrote in a 2006 study, Adams was one of eight U.S. presidents identified as geniuses in a 1926 paper by intelligence expert Catharine Cox, who examined the biographies of hundreds of famous people and devised a method for estimating IQ based on their childhood and early adult achievements.

Adams' accomplishments quickly impressed Cox. The University of Virginia Miller Center writes that he was the son of John Adams, the second president of the United States. John Quincy Adams saw himself as the family's protector while his father helped plan the American Revolution. He crossed the Atlantic at age 10, traveled from Spain to Paris, France, and passed the civil service examination at age 23.

Simonton took Cox's estimates for Adams and other early presidents and cross-referenced them with biographical information about their modern-day successors. He also used some statistical skills to construct a matrix of the intellectual abilities of all US presidents up to George W. Bush.

Psychologist Simonton claims his method is nonpartisan and extremely accurate. The Journal of Political Psychology found it powerful enough to publish the full study in 2006.

The second smartest US president according to Simonton's research was Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence. Coming in third was John F. Kennedy, the president who inspired the goal of putting the first American on the moon.

President Bill Clinton is the 4th White House genius with an IQ ranging from 136 - 159.

"His command of an astonishing amount of complex and detailed information, his eloquence and ability to debate, and his wit and sophistication in expressing reason... put Clinton well ahead of his successor in terms of intellectual power," Simonton explained.

Simonton's research predates Barack Obama and Donald Trump's presidency. Simonton suggests that President Trump has probably never taken an IQ test. "If he has actually taken an IQ test, why hasn't he released the results?" Simonton wrote forWashington Post.

Like theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, Trump has no respect for the concept of IQ. He wrote in his 2009 book, “The Art of the Deal,” “You can take the smartest kid from Wharton, the kid with an IQ of 170, and if they don’t have instincts, they’re never going to be a successful businessman.”