Trump is the king of lies
Opinion by
Columnist
July 23, 2020 at 3:40 p.m. CDT
President
Trump, who constantly and falsely claims superlative achievements in every
field of human endeavor, has every right to one historical claim: He is the
king of lies. Trump’s presidency has offered up an endless Las Vegas buffet of
completely shameless, sometimes laughable, often malicious, always self-serving
falsehoods.
Among
the most relentless chroniclers of this record have been The Post’s Fact Checker staff:
Glenn Kessler, Salvador Rizzo, Meg Kelly and Sarah Cahlan. Their use of a
Pinocchio scale to rate the truthfulness of political statements has become a
Washington tradition. Its application is meticulously bipartisan. But for the past
five or so years, Trump has been the predominant source of content. Now the
president’s prodigious Pinocchios have been gathered into a thick volume, “Donald Trump and His Assault
on Truth.”
The
authors present not just a paper trail but an avalanche of confirmation for
their thesis. They recount Trump’s deceptions about his academic career, his
business accomplishments, his enemies, his achievements, his sex and corruption
scandals. There are lies that might amuse you (like his false claim to be a Swede), or appall you
(like his revision of a National Weather Service map to
justify a false claim), or anger you (like his slanders against John McCain,
former FBI director James B. Comey and former special counsel Robert S. Mueller
III), or frighten you (like his invented claims of electoral fraud).
There
is a kind of truth shading that normally attends politics. And when a public
official intends to deceive, journalists sometimes debate whether to term this
a “lie,” or whether to call its author a “liar.” We are far past this point
with Trump.
This is not a case of omitting inconvenient truths. It is deception
as a lifestyle choice. It is compulsive violation of the Ninth Commandment.
The president is a bold, intentional liar, by any moral definition. A habitual
liar. A blatant liar. An instinctual liar. A reckless liar. An ignorant liar. A
pathological liar. A hopeless liar. A gratuitous liar. A malevolent liar.
Trump
fans may support him despite his lies. They may support him because he lies.
But they cannot deny that he is a liar. That is the definition of a being a
delusional, partisan crackpot.
The
systematic presentation of the president’s deceptions serves an important
public purpose. With Trump, these are not regrettable exceptions. The lies are
the shape of the man. Their composite reveals a type of truth about his goals
and character.
Why
does lying really matter? There are, of course, compelling moral reasons. Lies
exploit and abuse the trust of those around us. They sever relationships. They
poison love.
But
there are also practical and compelling civic reasons that truth makes a difference.
As the pandemic has shown, we need reliable information to make rational,
healthy choices. Deceptive optimism, distrust of experts and the circulation of
myths have a human cost — measured in lost lives and delayed national recovery.
More
broadly, Trump engages in a particularly ambitious form of political deception.
With the help of a compliant right-wing media, he uses repeated falsehoods and
conspiracy thinking to create an alternative mental universe for his strongest
supporters to dwell in. Trump’s lies purposely and effectively disconnect a
portion of the public from political reality. In this manufactured world, the
United States is on the edge of ruin by scheming subversives. Political
opponents are not fellow citizens but traitors plotting against the country.
Political dialogue and shared democratic purpose become almost impossible. Such
distortions are the dangerous culmination of polarization — the polarization of
truth itself.
Trump’s
lies are especially destructive because they are often designed to encourage
dehumanization. Immigrants and outsiders are frequent targets. When he falsely
charges some American Muslims with celebrating after the attacks of 9/11, or
falsely accuses Mexican migrants of a disposition toward rape and violence,
Trump is harnessing falsehood in the cause of bigotry. These are slanders
against whole religions and ethnicities. In politics, there is often a tie
between deception and malice. Lies are particularly useful in the manipulation
of fear.
Reading
“Donald Trump and His Assault
on Truth” is an exercise in civic awareness. This is what happens
when a great many Americans ignore character and dismiss deception. We can’t expect
our leaders to be perfect men and women. But we have every right and reason to
demand that they are honest and decent. Fortunately, an election result, like a
lie, can be corrected.