Lawrence: Today Trump said, 'I don't want to be stupid.' Too late, Donald. Too late.

The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell

Lawrence O'Donnell, MS NOW

Politics, Washington, Congress, News, Ms Now, President, Versant Media, Policy, Versant, Government, Senate

4.5 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2026

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Tonight on The Last Word: Donald Trump says he called off new strikes on Iran. Also, Trump drops the IRS suit for his $1.776 billion fund to pay his allies. Plus, three are killed in a shooting at the San Diego Islamic Center. And Democrats warn of a new assault on voting rights. Rep. Adam Smith, Rep. Ro Khanna, Rob D’Amico, and Rep. Terri Sewell join Lawrence O’Donnell.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Well, Donald Trump is now just 27 days away from completing the 80th year of his life.
0:08.9	And on this, the 338th day of Donald Trump's 80th year, he finally said, I don't want to be stupid.
0:24.0	Too late, Donald.
0:26.4	Too late.
0:28.3	The time to not want to be stupid is not when you are president of the United States.
0:33.6	The time to not want to be stupid is when you are in elementary school or at the
0:40.2	very latest high school. And the solution to the problem of possibly being stupid is to do your
0:50.1	homework, something Donald Trump has never done. Donald Trump's ghostwritten first book
0:55.8	tells stories of his life growing up as a spoiled, rich kid. And in his school years,
1:03.8	there is nothing about pulling all-nighters as final exams approached. There is nothing
1:09.8	about academic excellence or academic striving,
1:13.8	because Donald Trump was still sane enough to know in 1987 when the book was published
1:21.7	that if he claimed to graduate from college summa cum laude, that kind of lie would be easily caught and exposed.
1:29.8	There is a story proudly told in that book of Donald Trump punching one of his teachers in
1:39.2	elementary school, which is a very strong indicator of being very, very stupid.
1:47.1	Because it's Donald Trump telling the story about him punching a teacher.
1:51.6	There's no reason to believe it because Donald Trump lies about everything and he always has.
1:55.9	But either way, actually punching a teacher in elementary school or inventing a story about punching your teacher in elementary school is a mark of grotesque stupidity.
2:09.9	We in the news media are now struggling to keep up with two constantly expanding stories about Donald Trump, the corruption and the stupidity. And it has been
2:19.1	impossible to really keep up with both of those stories because they are each so enormous
2:25.3	and always expanding. There is a new facet of Trump corruption and Trump's stupidity revealed
2:31.2	every day. But at the same time, not all of the corruption is visible
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 8 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Lawrence O'Donnell, MS NOW, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Lawrence O'Donnell, MS NOW and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.