President Trump, a prodigious liar during his first term, has upped his game in his second. In a brief review, Peter Baker observes that Trump has created “a whole alternative reality to lay the groundwork for radical change as he moves aggressively to reshape America and the world.”
Baker quotes a couple of historians on the subject:
“We have seen repeatedly how President Trump creates his own reality to legitimate his actions and simultaneously discredit warnings about his decisions.” — Julian E. Zelizer, Princeton University; editor of The Presidency of Donald J. Trump)
“Trump is a highly skilled narrator and propagandist. Actually he is one of the most skilled propagandists in history.” — Ruth Ben-Ghiat, New York University; author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present)
Baker offers a half dozen recent examples (all familiar) of Trump’s fraudulent narratives, which serve to justify something Trump is doing or wishes to do. And Baker cites former Trump aides who have seen up close Trump’s modus operandi.
Mr. Trump’s aides have long recognized his penchant for prevarication and either adjusted or eventually broke with him. John F. Kelly, his longest-serving White House chief of staff in his first term, has said that Mr. Trump would tell his press aides to publicly repeat something that he had just made up. When Mr. Kelly would object, saying, “but that’s not true,” Mr. Trump would say, “but it sounds good.”
Stephanie Grisham, who served as a White House press secretary in the first term, once recalled that Mr. Trump would tell aides that “as long as you keep repeating something, it doesn’t matter what you say.” And that trickled down to the staff. “Casual dishonesty filtered through the White House as though it were in the air-conditioning system,” she wrote in her memoir.
Every Trump associate, no matter how high or how low, breathes the same air. Whether one is a White House aide, an agency manager or staffer, a cabinet secretary or member of Congress — you must accept the deceit.
You may be required to affirm it. Current and former officials seeking intelligence or law enforcement positions in the Trump administration have been questioned about two events — the 2020 election and the January 6 riot — featured among Trump’s favorite narratives:
two individuals, both former officials who were being considered for positions within the intelligence community, were asked to give “yes” or “no” responses to the questions: Was Jan. 6 “an inside job?” And was the 2020 presidential election “stolen?”
Only loyalists, ready to affirm the lies, can expect to get hired.
Republicans must play the parts that Trump assigns. And every part is drenched in lies.
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