I watched Trump’s address as he delivered it. Although I planned to read through the transcript before commenting, selecting a number of points to respond to, I haven’t done that. (What a slog that would be.) Instead I’ll comment on just two things that struck me at the time.
Trump began his remarks with acknowledgement of some dignitaries present
… and my fellow citizens, the golden age of America begins right now.
From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer. During every single day of the Trump administration, I will, very simply, put America first.
Our sovereignty will be reclaimed. Our safety will be restored. The scales of justice will be rebalanced. The vicious, violent, and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end.
And our top priority will be to create a nation that is proud, prosperous, and free.
. . .
This screed isn’t strictly a torrent of lies, but the predicate of series – and much of the speech and of Trumpism – is a torrent of lies. Going back to the Bush 2 administration, Democratic critics were taunted as part of the “reality-based community.”
So this isn’t something new. Recall a lesson from Rush Limbaugh that his faithful listeners reject any sources of information critical of the GOP party line: “The Four Corners of Deceit are government, academia, science, and the media.”
Recall also Thomas Mann and Norm Ornstein’s critique of the Republican Party as an “insurgent outlier … unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science.”
Trump is not just more of the same. A world-class inveterate liar, who has mastered the big lie, he has amped up this rejection of reality as we know it, as we witness it with our own eyes. The dystopian America of Trump’s address rests on MAGA lies and fever dreams.
My second observation concerns Trump’s invocation of direct divine intervention to save his life to ensure his election victory so he, Donald Trump, could save the nation:
The journey to reclaim our republic has not been an easy one — that, I can tell you. Those who wish to stop our cause have tried to take my freedom and, indeed, to take my life.
Just a few months ago, in a beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin’s bullet ripped through my ear. But I felt then and believe even more so now that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
That is why each day under our administration of American patriots, we will be working to meet every crisis with dignity and power and strength. We will move with purpose and speed to bring back hope, prosperity, safety, and peace for citizens of every race, religion, color, and creed.
Note first that the passage begins (after he praises himself) with an accusation directed at his enemies. The folks who oppose him politically — elected leaders, political and volunteer activists, concerned citizens, … and half the country’s voters — are grouped with attempted assassins. The man is painting a fraudulent picture with a dangerously broad brush.
With this speech, directed to what the founders described as a faction, not to the country as a whole, Trump is deliberately taunting, trolling, and demeaning half of America.
(Also note, the thank yous are to the standing, cheering, weeping crowd, which responded to Trump’s remarks (as seen here), not to God.)
This attitude of divine blessing underlies MAGA certainty and the steamroller approach of its politics, which so many leaders of the religious right have trumpeted, including Franklin Graham. His ‘prayer’ at the inaugural evinced certainty regarding God’s dark judgment of America (matching Trump’s), his will to change things with a stroke, and his favor on the leader of the MAGA Republican Party circa 2025. “Father, when Donald Trump’s enemies thought he was down and out, you and you alone saved his life and raised him up with strength and power by your mighty hand.“
If you oppose Trump, you tried to kill him. If you oppose Trump, you oppose God. If you oppose Trump, you will be justifiably subject to Trump’s wrath (now fortified by the power of the Executive Branch).
So goes the twisted logic of the contemporary Republican Party.
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