Donald Trump is a bit dim.

Teresa May, former Prime Minister of the UK, thinks Donald Trump is an idiot. Or at least, she thinks that he doesn’t know what the NHS is. Where’s the evidence in the short excerpt from a press conference? (Video below)

Question from the reporter:

"With the NHS (0.3) should the NHS be on the table?"

There are all sorts of interesting things about repair in this short example.

We know that not having heard the question is not the problem. Donald Trump does not say “huh?’ or ‘pardon?’ to the journalist, but instead turns (after a delay) to Teresa May saying “what did he say, I didn’t hear him”.

We know that Teresa May assumes that Donald Trump does not know what NHS stands for as she replies with “the National Health Service”.

Other than atypical repair, we see here a display of epistemic stance: what Teresa May assumes about what Donald Trump knows. Or rather, doesn’t know.