Doofus-dolt

[Stevenloan]

“Tom Friedman is a very nice guy, he writes very well about climate,” Carville said. “I like to read his columns. But he ought to stay away from writing about politics. Of course, Biden wants to debate Trump. Trump is a doofus-dolt. Biden debated Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, who’s the most on-message politician I’ve seen in my life, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar.”

- Hi everybody! I Googled the meaning of "doofus-dolt" and I found no results, but I found "doofus" and it means "a fool". What does "doofus-dolt" mean in this situation?

Thanks very much!

StevenLoan

[trolley]

"Dolt" also describes a person of low intelligence. A doofus and a dolt are the same thing. I have never seen them combined before. I suspect that Mr. Carville just doubled them up for effect...sort of like "stupid idiot".

[Erik_Kowal]

"Doofus-dolt" is the coinage of the writer of the paragraph you quoted.

Both doofus and dolt are terms for a fool, but on my opinion they imply different kinds of stupidity.

To me, the Americanism doofus implies a naïve simpleton, or else someone whose lack of intelligence or common sense causes them also to lack good judgment.

A dolt, on the other hand, is a person who is irremediably stupid in the sense that their IQ is too low for them to be capable of normal understanding.

The writer clearly intends his readers to infer that Trump suffers from / inflicts both forms of stupidity.

[Stevenloan]

trolley and Erik : Thank you both very much for your answers. They really help. Have a good weekend.

StevenLoan