Thursday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Nicole Wallace — a former Sarah Palin staffer during the 2008 presidential campaign — revealed why even the former Alaska governor far out-qualifies Donald Trump as a presidential candidate.

Host Joe Scarborough asked Wallace about the challenge of prepping Palin on foreign policy issues while noting that she was “woefully ignorant” on the subject. Wallace said that Palin’s ignorance pales in comparison to what we are witnessing from Trump.

She noted that while Palin spent countless hours studying and learning things she didn’t know, Trump doesn’t appear to be making any attempt to understand even the basics of foreign policy.

Sarah Palin went to bed with an open highlighter smeared on her face most nights because she was trying to learn,” said Wallace, which elicited laughter from the studio audience. “She was up all night studying and she understood that she was on the ticket with a man who was respected around the world… I don’t know if this is a gender thing, but he’s not even trying to learn.

This information shouldn’t surprise anyone. Even the densest politicians have to read an incredible amount of material on a daily basis to do their job. No modern-day president can get by without being a consummate reader. Even former President George W. Bush had superior reading habits compared to Donald Trump. In fact, he had superior reading habits compared to the vast majority of Americans. From Business Insider:

In contrast to his reputation, George W. Bush was a prolific behind-the-scenes reader. Despite the fact that he was regularly derided as incurious and unread, Bush has long read a great many books. Karl Rove wrote in 2008, “In the 35 years I’ve known George W. Bush, he’s always had a book nearby.” Bush read 186 books between 2006 and 2008, mainly history and biography. By way of comparison, the typical American reads four books annually and 27 percent of Americans report reading no books over the course of a year. Bush, in contrast, read fourteen biographies of Lincoln alone while in the White House. This was in addition to his annual reading of the entire Bible, along with a daily devotional. In another surprise, Bush read both liberal and conservative authors without appearing to discriminate. Clinton and Obama, by contrast, read almost exclusively liberal authors, while Reagan favored conservatives.

The Washington Post reported that Trump doesn’t like to read books. His desk is mostly piled with magazines, and almost all of them features Trump on the cover. He once said reading long documents isn’t an “efficient” use of his time.

I’m a very efficient guy,” he said. “Now, I could also do it verbally, which is fine. I’d always rather have — I want it short. There’s no reason to do hundreds of pages because I know exactly what it is.”

Trump recalled a story about being visited by a delegation of executives from the steel, retail, and oil industries, and one of the executives informed Trump that the Chinese were taking advantage of the U.S.

“He said, ‘I’d like to send you a report,’ ” Trump recalled. “He said, ‘I’d love to be able to send you’ — oh boy, he’s got a lengthy report, hundreds of pages. . . . I said, ‘Do me a favor: Don’t send me a report. Send me, like, three pages.’ ”

Tony Schwartz, the ghostwriter who wrote “Art of the Deal,” revealed another troubling detail about Trump. The author said that Trump had virtually no attention span and that it was impossible to keep him focused for longer than 15 minutes.

Trump has been written about a thousand ways from Sunday, but this fundamental aspect of who he is doesn’t seem to be fully understood,” Schwartz told me. “It’s implicit in a lot of what people write, but it’s never explicit—or, at least, I haven’t seen it. And that is that it’s impossible to keep him focussed on any topic, other than his own self-aggrandizement, for more than a few minutes, and even then . . . ” Schwartz trailed off, shaking his head in amazement. He regards Trump’s inability to concentrate as alarming in a Presidential candidate. “If he had to be briefed on a crisis in the Situation Room, it’s impossible to imagine him paying attention over a long period of time,” he said

From my previous article on Schwartz’s ghostwriting of Trump’s book, I quoted Schwartz as saying that he believes Trump has probably never read an entire book in his life.

Schwartz also noted that Trump prefers watching TV to reading about events or topics, stating that the billionaire has “a stunning level of superficial knowledge and plain ignorance.” He said: “That’s why he so prefers TV as his first news source—information comes in easily digestible sound bites.” “That’s why he so prefers TV as his first news source—information comes in easily digestible sound bites.”

Another story claimed that soon after clearing the GOP primary field, Trump sent his son, Donald Trump Jr. to broker a deal with Ohio Governor John Kasich to become his daddy’s new running mate. Trump Jr. allegedly tried to sell a huge “perk” that came along with the position to Kasich’s advisors, in which the governor would be “in charge” of all domestic and foreign policy.

When the adviser asked what role Trump would play, his son reportedly replied: “making America great again.”

Considering Trump’s affinity for using Twitter, which is one of the quickest and shortest social media platforms available, it’s no surprise that he has a very shallow intellectual capacity. However, the most dangerous thing about Trump may not just be his ignorance, but rather the well-read puppet master(s) who would ultimately pull his strings should Trump become the next U.S. President.

Featured images via YouTube, YouTube, and YouTube.