The constant pressure to perform must be excruciating for Donald Trump. As the most prolific liar in presidential history he needs to continuously up his game or risk falling behind rival liars like Sean Hannity and his own son, Don, Jr. But if anyone is up to the task, it’s the current (for now) Liar-in-Chief.
In a spurt of surprising activity for the usually lethargic septuagenarian, Trump raised the ante for America’s liars by putting out an impressive number of unambiguous falsehoods Wednesday morning. He began with his forte, Twitter, to post some flagrantly egregious lies. Leading off was a tweet that implored his Deplorables to “Look how things have turned around on the Criminal Deep State.” Of course, there is no “Deep State” and the only things turning are his former friends and associates. For instance, the business partner of his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who just copped a plea and will be cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller.
That didn’t stop Trump from declaring that “Phony Collusion with Russia [is] a made up Scam.” Albeit one that has already produced dozens of indictments and five guilty pleas. He then deftly segued to an attack on the former Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper. Trump quoted Clapper as saying “Trump should be happy that the FBI was SPYING on his campaign.” But Clapper never said that. He actually said that Trump should be happy that the FBI investigated Russians infiltrating his campaign. Clapper made these comments on The View, but Trump didn’t learn about them until they were part of a segment on Fox and Friends. And that’s where Trump got his bastardized quote.
Finally, Trump went after one of his favorite enemies, former FBI Director James Comey. He repeatedly called Comey a liar who is in big trouble. But then he delivered one of his famous untruths that “a lot of [imaginary] people have said.” According to Trump:
“You go into the FBI, and a lot of those great people working at the FBI, they will tell you. I did a great service to this country by firing James Comey.”
The only problem with that statement is that it conflicts sharply with reality. In an annual survey of FBI agents and employees, Comey was given overwhelmingly positive reviews. The survey was taken just two months before Trump fired Comey and revealed that:
“Former FBI Director James Comey was widely admired by agents who worked for him, winning high scores in anonymous surveys for his values and trustworthiness, even as he became embroiled in controversies over investigations related to the 2016 election.”
Knowing this, would Trump still think that “those great people working at the FBI” are still great? And in addition to these brazenly false outbursts by Trump there was an epically succinct expression of his hostility to the truth in another tweet that said simply, but loudly (in all caps):
WITCH HUNT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 23, 2018
Never mind that Trump’s hand-picked FBI Director, Chris Wray explicitly denied in congressional testimony that there was any such thing as a witch hunt being conducted by the Bureau. And that Trump’s former CIA Director, and current Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, told Congress that there was no “Deep State” in the CIA, FBI, NSA, Justice Department, or the State Department. So the most senior members of Trump’s administration are joining in calling out the President as a liar. Which makes you wonder how long it will be before he’s calling them liars. Also, whether they will be part of the administration for very long. We’ll see.
How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.
