E-Paper
When Jane Goodall called Trump 'an aggressive Chimp’: ‘More like a swaggering chimpanzee’
Jane Goodall said that Trump was more like a "swaggering" chimpanzee", who is quick to show his brawn and might, but lacked the intellect to be strategic.
Jane Goodall, the renowned British primatologist who died on Wednesday, once drew a comparison of Donald Trump with chimpanzees, saying the US President is like an 'aggressive chimp'.
Goodall, whose transformative study of chimpanzees shaped the human understanding on the apes, died of natural causes in California while on a speaking tour of the US, the Jane Goodall Institute said.
The conservationist was the first to find that chimpanzees have individual personalities and share humans’ emotions of pleasure, joy, sadness and fear. Her findings made ways to television, National Geographic cover and even a documentary.
While speaking of Trump in 2016, during his race for first-term presidency, Goodall said that Trump's performances reminded her of male chimpanzees and their rituals.
Also Read: ‘Worked tirelessly for the planet’: World mourns loss of British chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall
"In many ways the performances of Donald Trump remind me of male chimpanzees and their dominance rituals," Goodall told the Atlantic.
Drawing a comparison between Trump and the primates she studied during her lifetime, Goodall said, "In order to impress rivals, males seeking to rise in the dominance hierarchy perform spectacular displays: stamping, slapping the ground, dragging branches, throwing rocks. The more vigorous and imaginative the display, the faster the individual is likely to rise in the hierarchy, and the longer he is likely to maintain that position."
Speaking of the presidential debates Goodall referred to the story of "Mike", a chimp "who maintained his dominance by kicking a series of kerosene cans as he moved down a road", creating confusion and noise that "made his rivals flee and cower".
Her remark came during Trump's presidential campaign against Democrat leader Hillary Clinton, where his publicity stunts, boisterous speeches and boastful promises to "make America great again" resulted in a successful contest in 2016.
When Jane Goodall called Trump an aggressive chimp
After the Republican leader's successful presidential run, Goodall doubled down on her comparison between Trump and a chimpanzee, saying that he was like an aggressive chimp and called him as a "swaggering" one, according to Newsweek.
Also Read: Jane Goodall dies: Who were her husbands Baron Hugo, Derek Bryceson, and kids? Family details here
In an interview when Goodall was asked on her comparison of Trump with an aggressive chimp, she said, “When chimps are competing for dominance, they do a lot of blustering, swaggering, and intimidation. They fall short of coming to blows, usually. The chimps who are smart, they use their brain and they get to the top by forming clever alliances, like with their brothers.”
She added, “So you don’t challenge the top guy without a lot of support. They last longer, the ones with the brain. The ones who do the swaggering don’t last as long.”
The primatologist further said that Trump was more like a "swaggering" chimpanzee", who is quick to show his brawn and might, but lacked the intellect to be strategic.
