US President Donald Trump during an executive order signing in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, April 9, 2025.

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday defended his decision to pause his stock market-rattling tariffs but, in the process, teed up a question that critics couldn’t resist answering in withering ways.

“How do you get to be president and you’re stupid?” Trump asked reporters in the Oval Office, as he tried to shift blame for America’s economic challenges onto his predecessors and not China, whose products he has now hit with a 125% tariff.

Trump: How do you get to be president and you’re stupid? pic.twitter.com/CcsghNRTpt

Critics were quick to highlight the irony.

“We’ve been wondering this since 2016, Donald,” one person snarked on social media.

Another added:........

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