Are we over-freaking about Trump?
Why believe him now?
Jeffrey Denny
To say Donald Trump lies like a rug is to insult floor coverings.
He lies so much few care or keep track anymore. The Washington Post stopped counting at 30,000 lies in his first term, with thousands more since. No lie is too big — not even his Big Lie that incited his hapless minions to peacefully attack and desecrate the Capitol. Fact checkers have gone the way of typesetters.
MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene repeatedly shouted “liar!” at Joe Biden during his State of the Union address. Her colleague Joe Wilson shouted “you lie!” at Barack Obama during a joint session of Congress. But when it comes to lying, Trump is the greatest president anyone has ever seen.
Calling Trump a liar is like declaring that water is wet. You know he’s lying when his lips are moving. He lies about lying about lying. It’s kind of hilarious to watch, like when a toddler tries out lies. “It’s not a lie if you believe it,” George Costanza advised, but I’ll bet even Trump doesn’t believe his lies —he’s just telling his crowd the lies they want to hear.
He named his bully pulpit “Truth Social” as if to wink that it’s neither true nor social, but it sure does trigger the truth-obsessed libs. Bwahahaha.
So why do we Democrats get all hair on fire about President Pants on Fire’s Project 2025 agenda?
“Terrifying” should’ve been the Oxford Dictionary Word of the Year. (It’s “brain rot,” which also makes sense.) Headlines stole the adjective from Ivy frosh melting down over Western lit. Vanity Fair vies for the hyperbole prize with, “Donald Trump’s Pants-Pissingly Terrifying Plans for a Second Term.”
Sure, whose bladder wouldn’t leak over 25% tariffs that’ll trigger new inflation? Or marshalling the gestapo to burst into homes, drag off and deport people who lack the right papers? Or declaring martial law and shooting protestors? Or targeting innocent transgender children? Or weaponizing justice against political enemies, cutting school funding for teaching real history, outlawing equality and climate protections, and slashing food, housing, healthcare and other help 100 million Americans — most of them poor whites — depend on?
But — deep breath — level heads know two things:
- Trump is playing to his vengeful, analphabetic MAGA base (in every sense of the word) that still believes everything he says and their selected media reinforces. He knows the more he bullies their imagined “enemies,” i.e., fellow Americans, the more MAGAs yearn to shine his Oxfords with their tongues. In his Thanksgiving message, just as families gathered together in peace, love and understanding, he gleefully took a cheap shot at “the Radical Left Lunatics who have worked so hard to destroy our Country.” Just in case Uncle MAGA forgot to trigger the college kids and ruin another holiday.
- Mainstream Trump voters (we hope) recognize #1 and scoff that he wouldn’t or even couldn’t do the extremist things he promises. And while he controls Congress and the Supreme Court, the members have their own self-interests, institutions and legacies to avoid ruining for this guy (we hope). Witness how quickly Matt Gaetz was dumped. (Pete Hegspeth could be next.)
Before the election, I talked with a former Trump official about his trade and tariff threats that worry business.
They’re consistent, she shrugged, with his lifelong “art of the deal” hard-bargaining stance, opening talks with outrageous demands to get the upper hand, then moving to get a deal, then claiming victory.
We saw this during Trump I when he pledged to trash NAFTA, only to sign the largely similar U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
Just this week, after his call with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, she reiterated that Mexico will not close the border and caravans will be dispersed before heading there. Trump replied this was “effectively closing our Southern Border.”
He knows his base will swallow this lie without chewing. Cue the Doobie Bros., “What a Fool Believes.”
I’m not naïve, ostrich or complacent about Trump’s dangers, nor denying anyone’s fears.
But we can’t let phobophobia — fear of fear itself —deter our citizen duty to resist this lawless, dangerous autocrat if he threatens our lives, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
As we gear up to celebrate our 250th birthday as the oldest democracy on the planet and, despite Trump, still a light of liberty for humanity, let’s not let up now. Especially now.
“Don’t Let Trump Drive You Into Internal Exile,” a journalist who reported from Russia for eight years wrote, reflecting on the public’s hunker-down reaction to Putin’s crackdowns.
Freaking out over a gaslighting blowhard bully’s threats doesn’t help — in fact, we’ll fall right into Trump’s trap. As every disaster teaches, level heads are invaluable in emergencies.
Jeffrey Denny is a Washington writer.
