“It doesn’t say I will. It says ‘intend.’”
Is Trump lying getting … weak?
Jeffrey Denny
Does 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump still have what it takes to lead our nation as Liar in Chief?
Certainly our 45th president’s lying lips are still moving. Even in New York federal court when his loose lips are sinking his ships. Not even a gag order could gag his lying truth.
As many children still look up to presidents, America’s First Liar taught our next generation that strong beautiful lying gets you ahead in life and politics.
But on the witness stand, when asked to sort his tax/financial doubletalk to use his Mar-A-Lago home as an elite “member’s club,” Trump fell to weak legalistic quibbling that his Clinton haters love to hate.
“It doesn’t say I will,” he said. “It says ‘intend.’”
Shades of, “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.”
Sad?
Republican officials, while politically- and mathematically-defying 100,000% behind Trump, are secretly worried about his lying stamina.
“The MAGA base loves when Trump lies, the bigger the lie the better,” one GOP pollster said. “But they’re starting to wonder, does he have what it takes to lie bigly through a second term? Given his age, is he slowing down with the lies instead of doubling down and denying?”
Trump supporters respond that if he’s elected president in 2024, he’ll be only 83 when his second term ends, while rival Joe Biden would be 86.
This extreme age difference matters to under-30 voters who put Biden neck and neck with Trump in latest polls.
While Biden is altogether healthier and fitter — qualities that appeal to young Instagram-TikTok voters—the incumbent lacks Trump’s dangerous obesity that made William Howard Taft our 27th president.
Democrats obsessed with “truth”
Republicans blame Democrats for bullying Trump to lie weakly in revenge for his successful history of strong lying.
Speaking for the GOP, Fox News pundits complain that the Democrats forced Trump to recognize the truth by weaponizing the U.S. justice system. Just like the Democrats did in the Fox $787 million Dominion settlement over the network’s fair, balanced, and truthful reporting about lying voting machines.
As Trump faces four separate criminal indictments with 91 counts, and his business empire and MAGA political brand as a brilliant billionaire titan face grave legal danger, “The truth is staring him in the face,” a Trump attorney said with barely contained glee. “Even Houdini couldn’t escape 91 criminal counts.”
Leopold Bloom, a top Trump accountant and producer from the New York firm of Whitehall and Marx, said repeatedly, “No way out.”
Many presidents lied
Spinning, dissembling, misspeaking, gaffing, pandering, PR, personal branding — all forms of “sculpting” the truth — go with the job of leading the greatest Christian nation in the world under God.
Claiming to be honest is the biggest lie. Notice Abe Lincoln never claimed being honest was his personal brand?
Lying is a key success factor and performance indicator for many professions, such as marketing or real estate titan and his lawyers and accountants.
We all remember presidential doozies. “Read my lips: No new taxes.” “Is v. is.” “Iraq has WMD.” “If you like your doctor, you’ll be able to keep your doctor.”
But Presidents Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama are losers compared to Trump when it comes to presidential lying.
Tough act to follow
During his first presidential term, diehard Trump supporters boast that he made 30,000 false or misleading claims.
But it’s not just the quantity of Trump lies— it’s the superior consistency, quality, delivery and incitement for hate and violence.
For example, Trump lied so effectively about his “stolen” 2020 election that it inspired millions of America-hating chicken-hawk social media patriots, the J6 numbskulls, and their congressmen, lawyers, and other bottom-dwelling suckermouth catfish and clown loaches, to rise up to steal the election back.
Indeed, Trump began his presidency with the greatest presidential lie ever told, when he placed his hand on the Bible and said before the biggest inaugural crowd in human history, “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Lincoln said you can fool some of the people all the time. Trump rules the GOP and Red states that way. For his MAGA fools, will he make America even greater again? Or just intend to?
Jeffrey Denny is a Washington writer.