Quora Question - What exactly is Donald Trump’s IQ? I am betting that in reality, he does not rank as the genius he claims to be. Who can clarify?

My Answer.
 You cannot make extremely reliable claims with respect to IQ scores going on school grades or report card marks as some have suggested. Nor can they be gauged by anecdotal references to people who may have met Trump. Many students who are intelligent slack at school and work to the minimum necessary level. Also until you have administered a well normed IQ test such as the WAIS or the Stanford Binet all claims with respect to IQ are subject to a high margin of error. In addition IQ tests (including those that are highly g loaded) only provide a snapshot of the intelligence puzzle. There may be over 100 factors (by some accounts) that go into defining what Intelligence really is. 

What we do know is that Trump has been a relatively successful businessman (although he has had his fair share of failures), He also pulled off one of the most stunning election wins in US History, bested two political dynasties and took out a host of well established GOP candidates in the Primaries. Yes he speaks with a simplistic tone but clearly this resonates with his base and has paid dividends. He also more than held his own in the debates against opponents, many of whom had Ivy League pedigrees. This has to count for something in the smarts category putting aside Academic elitism. 

However if speculating is the name of the game (and again I will add the necessary grain of salt) then here goes… As far as his education is concerned he did graduate Wharton with a Bachelor of Science in Economics. While one could argue that his family pulled strings to get him in there the fact of the matter is that he gained his degree from a school that is regularly ranked in the Top 5% of all Business Programs in the US. The average IQ of University students in the US is about 111–113. Wharton is a school that is well above average so it would not surprise me if the average graduate of the school has an IQ somewhere between 125–135 (using a SD of 15…same as the WAIS). Even if Trump was weaker than the average student there (which again is speculation) it is unlikely that his IQ is below 120 let alone 115. Remember he completed his degree. Therefore looking at his accomplishments and factoring in these conditions I would argue that his IQ is at the 125 mark (well in the top 10% range for the general population) - not a genius but more than comfortable for making his mark.. Try the suggestions below or type a new query above.