Regarding Trump's "being, like, really smart" statement. What is it called when the content of statement is contradicted by its composition?

Question

Trump's recent tweet about his mental stability and genius like intelligence, made me wonder.

What's it called when someone makes a statement that appears to be a contradiction like this:

....Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. Crooked Hillary Clinton also played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star.....

in particular.

...and being, like, really smart.

Seems like a contradiction in terms.

I suppose a similar example:

I am too, really smart.

or

I'm a freakin' geneeos.

and so on.

Answer 1

Perhaps "a performative contradiction".

Performative words are words that are also actions. The classic case, from J.L.Austin, are the words "I do" in a marriage ceremony. Said at the appropriate moment by an appropriate person, these are not simply words, but are also an action because the have the effect of contracting a marriage. In the context of the Trump tweet it can be plausibly argued that the words say one thing ("I am really smart") but act in a way that demonstrates the opposite.

Note, however, that the character of performativity depends on context. In the case of the marriage ceremony, if the person saying "I do" is already married, then at least in principle the words don't have the effect of contracting the marriage. The Trump tweet, inserted as it is into a politically contentious context, will be performatively contradictory for some, but not for others. Differently, it could also be argued that it is not performatively contradictory because it reveals (say) lack of education rather than lack of brain power.

Answer 2

You might call these statements self-defeating:

(of an action or policy) unable, because of its inherent qualities, to achieve the end it is designed to bring about.