Donald Trump is a deeply stupid man. That he has been able to convince many in the media that he is a smart businessman says much about them, and nothing about him. His number of bankruptcies speaks for itself. So does the fact that if he had merely invested his inheritance in index funds, he'd be wealthier today than he currently is.

That Trump has become president also says little about him, and much about the media. It also says much about our broken electoral system, our even more disastrously shattered education system, and the ease with which a hostile foreign despot was able to take control of a historically corrupt political party and use unregulated social media to manipulate tens of millions of largely illiterate bigots into voting against their own self-interest.

The one skill the largely illiterate Trump has mastered is how to use his inherited wealth and intersectional privilege to bully those who didn't inherit such undeserved, unearned good fortune. He abuses women. He attacks minorities. He stiffs his creditors. He rails even at his own sycophants. And when he doesn't get his way, he throws tantrums. Perhaps the world would be a better place right now if those around Trump had kept their pockets stocked with binkies.

The idea of a border wall never was a serious idea. It was actually a stranger-than-fiction mnemonic trick designed by his genius staff to help him remember one of his supposed core ideas during campaign rallies. Because he really is that stupid, and because the inherent racism of the concept must have been viscerally appealing to Trump. But after an electoral drubbing last November that only he didn't see coming and with the many investigations into his many crimes closing in on him and his family, Trump last December was seething (and perhaps flinging his diapers around the Oval Office) when someone realized that the best way to calm him down, and spare the White House maintenance crew from excessive scouring and repair work, was to find another way for him to hurt people and try to bully his way to self-pacification. Hence: the government shutdown.

Donald Trump owns the shutdown. He wanted it. He said he'd do it, and he said he wouldn't blame the Democrats.