President Donald Trump issued what The New Republic’s Alex Shephard called “one of [his] more brazen” lies ever told over the weekend, one that was so divorced from reality that it reflected what he called the “end stage” of Trumpism and his influence on the GOP.
Analyses have found Trump has lied an unprecedented number of times while president, with The Washington Post counting 30,573 false or misleading claims made during his first administration. The president issued another lie on Sunday by claiming that 422,000 people were waiting to listen to his speech on July 4, and that “at least 150,000” had returned after being evacuated due to inclement weather.
Mountains of evidence suggest Trump’s crowd sizes were much smaller than he claimed, and to such an extent, Shephard argued, that it was the “perfect encapsulation of where we are with this president right now.”
Greg Sargent, speaking with Shephard for the outlet’s “The Daily Blast” podcast, concurred with Shephard’s assessment that the “end stage” of Trumpism had arrived.
“It’s got an end-stage feeling to it, an end-stage cult feeling. We’re in the middle of Late Stage Trumpism, and everybody’s just waiting for it to collapse in on itself, basically,” Sargent said.
“And I think maybe the ultimate tell here is for Donald Trump to inflate the crowd sizes at the 250th event, right, which is supposed to be all about the country. And one last time, he makes it about himself. He makes it about his own crowd sizes. It’s almost the final humiliation.”
Shephard couldn't help but note the symbolism. Trump's influence, he argued, may be collapsing with the same kind of lie that defined the start of his first term: inflated crowd sizes.
“It’s how it all began, right? That was literally day one of the Trump administration, when people were saying, maybe this guy will be different,” Shephard said. “And you’re just like, nope. It’s just going to be an even dumber and worse version of what we thought. And now it’s crowd sizes all the way down now.”