When Donald Trump is at home in the United States he spends much of his time denigrating the country, its people, and it’s leaders, past and present. His campaign slogan of “America First” might actually be a shortened version that originally read “Blame America First.” This is the sort of common anti-American spiel that is standard in the Trump repertoire. He’s been doing this throughout his visit to Canada for the G7 meeting, and we can expect more of that when he’s in Singapore with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un next week.

Trump held a brief press avail prior to his departure from Quebec. It was predictably full of the open animosity he has for America, particularly the media that he despises. But he clearly didn’t want to leave anyone else out as he trashed the country and those who have represented it. He made a special note of blaming President Obama for Russia’s invasion of Crimea. But guess who he didn’t blame? Russia.

After chastising Obama for allegedly doing nothing when Russia annexed Crimea, Trump couldn’t explain why he’s done nothing about Russia’s continued occupation. Point of fact: Obama did respond to the annexation with sanctions and leading the effort to boot Russia out of the G7. Trump is now advocating for Russia to be readmitted to the G7 and for the sanctions to be removed. Even though Russia is still in Crimea and is guilty of crimes around the world, including in the U.S.

However, what really stood out in his remarks was a whopping dose of hypocrisy that was astronomical, even for him. Trump sought to minimize the frequent attacks he makes on his fellow Americans. Not that he cares about the harm he’s doing to the country’s reputation. It was probably just his way pretending to have some sort of emotional balance. He failed miserably. The failure became unavoidably apparent in a comment that everyone knew he couldn’t possibly believe when he said unconvincingly that, “I’m not looking to criticize people that were preceding me.” But that claim was blown apart by almost everything else he said during the Q&A. In fact, he explicitly contradicted himself six times in the brief press event where he also said:

• “The United States has been treated very, very unfairly treated. And I don’t blame other leaders for that. I blame our past leaders.”
• “I don’t blame them. I blame our leaders.”
• “Because the United states leaders of the past didn’t do a good job on trade – and again, I’m not blaming countries. I’m blaming our people that represented our past.”
• “I don’t blame them, as I said. I blame our past leaders.”
• “It’s the fault of the people that preceded me.”
• “They were missing in action, our leaders.”

Does that sound like someone who isn’t “looking to criticize people” that preceded him? Of course not. Trump has always blamed everyone else for his own failures. This is just another lame attempt to gaslight the press and the public by making obviously contradictory statements intended to confuse and distract. But the only people this tactic works on are his own Deplorable disciples who are too dumb to see through it. It’s really pretty pathetic. But it’s also somewhat frightening that anyone embraces Trump’s open disdain for our country and is fooled by his obvious bullshit.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Here is the full video of the press event, if you have the stomach for it.