Physicist Stephen Hawking Baffled by Donald Trump's Popularity, Calls Him a Demagogue Hawking says Trump appeals "to the lowest common denominator."

 -- World-renowned British physicist Stephen Hawking may understand the many mysteries of the universe, but even he's having a hard time grasping Donald Trump's meteoric rise in popularity.

In an interview with ITV's "Good Morning Britain" today, Hawking called Trump a "demagogue" who seemed to attract the "lowest common denominator."

When Hawking was asked whether his knowledge of the universe meant that he could explain Trump's popularity, he was blunt.

"I can't," Hawking said.

Hawking, 74, is a cosmologist at the University of Cambridge in England.

Diagnosed with a motor neurone disease at 21, Hawking has needed a wheelchair for decades and communicates with the help of a speech synthesizer.