Story highlights Michael D'Antonio: Trump is intelligent -- just not in a way most people would admire

He knows how to use the words words in the right ways, D'Antonio writes

Michael D'Antonio is the author of the book "Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success" (St. Martin's Press). The opinions expressed in this commentary are his. He is scheduled to appear on AC360 on Monday night.

(CNN) In his usual style, President Donald Trump recently stood on the White House lawn and reminded us that he's a "very intelligent person" and offered as proof the fact that he graduated from an Ivy League college where he was a "nice student." The "nice" part was apparently a way to connect his remarks to the question that prompted him, which was not about his intelligence but about whether or not he might want to act more civilly.

The President offered his self-admiration shortly after Sen. Jeff Flake joined the chorus of criticism related to the Trump style of politics. (Fellow Republicans John McCain and George Bush had both spoken out previously.) Trump set off the usual observations about his bad manners and the wisdom -- some might say intelligence -- of bragging about how smart one may be. However, anyone who concludes that this braying means he's stupid would be wrong.

Donald Trump has never shown himself to be intelligent in the way of a sophisticated orator or a cultured man. In the hours I spent with him, he told me he's not much interested in books, or art, or ideas that challenge his preconceptions. However, he does possess a kind of brilliance that has been underappreciated by every person who has ever dismissed him because he often acts like a boor.

Ever since he crashed the consciousness of greater New York with self-promoting claims to being a real estate impresario -- before he ever built a single building -- Trump has shown a consistent ability to spin fame, fortune, and power out of mere words. When he famously said, "I know words, I have the best words," then-candidate Trump wasn't talking about his vocabulary. What he was noting was his ability to deploy just the right terms, in just the right way, to reap maximum benefit.

For Trump, having the best words means knowing that calling his 2016 opponent "lyin' Hillary" Clinton, or his adversary in the Republican Party "liddle'" Bob Corker, produces an indelible impression. These crude words get immediate attention from the press, which amplifies them and repeats them until many people have trouble looking at Clinton or Corker without hearing the negatives in the mind. Trump's intelligence, in this case, lies in using the right word, in the right way, and knowing how the media will then do the rest of the work for him.

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