Why Trump’s lies are the foundation of his power

Predictably, as the sun rose in the morning, the President of the United States Donald TrumpState of the Union address It was full of lies.

It’s time for the world to speak out about his lying not just as a character flaw but as a toxic form of democratic fraud. Facts are the glue that holds society together and Trump is the liar that tears society apart.

Lying is an expression of both Trump’s power and how Trump has gained power. To understand this relationship, consider that Trump always lies because he can get away with it. And he lies because he has to lie: he can never win without lying.

This point was emphasized differently in Rick Reilly’s bestselling book: Commander in Trick: How Golf Explains Trump. Reilly explains that everyone who played golf with Trump knew he was cheating. He was given the nickname “Pele”In memory of the Brazilian football superstar, as he or his assistants regularly hit the golf ball into a better position.

Reilly provides some insight into why Trump cheats at golf, which helps explain why Trump lies so blatantly in politics. Actually, the first reason I think of has to do with how Trump justifies cheating to himself and others: He believes everyone cheats at golf, so he rationalizes that he must cheat too to keep up with all the other cheaters.

The other reason is more important and actually much simpler: Trump wouldn’t have won without cheating. The narcissist’s personality is such that he must win. Therefore, his only option is to cheat. This is why lying is a form of cheating in politics. He has to lie because the truth would destroy him.

What truth am I talking about here? The first obvious fact is that Trump is absolutely unfit to be President of the United States. He’s so confused he can’t put a sentence together. This got worse as he got older, but he was never smart or outspoken to begin with. HE degenerate. He is a coward. HE racist. He is a sexual predator. And there is growing evidence Epstein files He said he abused children.

And of course, as we said above, Trump is pathologically dishonest. Trump is probably the world’s worst candidate to be President of the United States, and yet here we are.

Besides his many personal inadequacies, inadequacies, and character flaws, what other facts would destroy Trump? Let’s just name the big ones because there are so many.

Despite what they say, minority racial and religious groups, including blacks and immigrants, are not responsible for social and economic problems, including crime and wealth inequality.

Trump does not serve the economic interests of working class Americans. The only people who will benefit from Trump’s presidency are billionaires, including Trump and his family. Unless you are a billionaire, the American economy is not performing well under the Trump Administration.

These are not little lies that Trump tells; lies he told throughout his two-hour lie-filled State of the Union address. These are big and obviously false lies. They are so big, in fact, that they form the basis of the Trump presidency.

These are the equivalent of saying – as Trump says – that you are the best golfer in the world, when in reality you did not play a game of golf where you won by relying on your own ability, but instead cheated and cheated and cheated again, then bragged about winning by cheating.

When you realize that lies are not just a flaw of the Trump movement, but the foundation on which it is built, it raises the question of how exactly Trump and his allies managed to not only lie so much, but also weaponize the lies to cheat and win.

Because the thing is, Trump can lie and cheat all he wants in amateur golf. But of course Trump was never crowned PGA champion. Where you can cheat on your own golf course and get away with it because you’re too rich and powerful to be called out, in a professional sport you can’t cheat your way to sporting glory when there are officials, umpires, umpires, and unbreakable guard rails who actually run the sport to ensure the best player wins.

It is clear that American democracy has weaker guardrails (weaker outcomes and deterrents to cheating) than professional sports. One of the weakest and most ineffective guardrails is the media. Major news networks are now openly sitting in the MAGA tent. This includes Fox News, which is always there.

Increasingly, publications such as CBS Taken over by Trump loyalists And censor anyone Who can criticize Trump, in other words, tell his lies? They also have social media allies Elon Musk And Mark ZuckerbergTheir mega platform is full of MAGA lies.

Even among other news media outlets that are not in Trump’s pocket, there is a reticence (you might even call it cowardice) to call Trump a liar. Just like people who play amateur golf with Trump and let him cheat because that’s what he does, mainstream journalists uncritically repeat Trump’s lies as if they were just a difference of opinion.

By doing this, they are pushing Trump’s lies to a mainstream audience. Not only do they make sure to say Trump is cheating, they are also the aides who are kicking his cannon.

We’re now at the point where Trump can lie to the American people for two hours in his State of the Union Address, and it doesn’t seem like that’s going to hurt Trump politically, weaken his support, or loosen his grip on power.

The Massachusetts Representative is notable. Jim McGovern After Trump’s speech, he said: extraordinary:

“If any other president had concocted such a grandiose, ridiculous lie about his economic records out of thin air, it would have been a major scandal.”

McGovern is right about this; Lying was once a huge scandal. But when he said he lied because Trump’s strategy was wrong “filling the area with so much BS it’s impossible to keep up”misses the point.

Right-wing political commentator Steve Bannon said Trump’s Republicans flood the area damn, the first part of his sentence was: “The real opposition is the media”. The media never thought about why they might be opponents of the Trump movement. Of course, this is because they have the power to expose his lies. It’s a shame they didn’t do this.