When public officials are caught making demonstrably false statements, they typically don’t last long.
At least that’s how it used to be.
That changed in the age of Donald Trump, ever since the former president turned his propensity for falsehoods that would normally be a liability into an asset, Vanity Fair’s Molly Jong-Fast writes.
Jong-Fast contends that Trump isn’t the only politician with a perfect record for truth-telling, noting that it’s common for those seeking public office to shade the truth or exaggerate.
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“But Trump has taken dishonesty far beyond making vague, unfulfillable promises or spinning one’s record,” Jong-Fast writes, noting that the former president has made thousands of claims that are at best misleading.
“He made tens of thousands of false or misleading claims in office,” Jong-Fast writes.
“He’ll say things that can be easily disproved by visible evidence, like that he built his long-promised border wall with Mexico, or that he’d never met E. Jean Carroll, even when there is a photo of him with the columnist who accused him of rape. (A jury last week found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation of Carroll.) It was telling that Trump, as president, once told a crowd that what they’re ‘seeing’ and ‘reading is not what’s happening.’”
Jong-Fast writes that “As often happens during a rally, the town hall audience — which CNN said was made up of New Hampshire Republicans and undeclared voters—rewarded Trump’s lies and insults with applause and laughter. This is the base (Florida Gov. Ron) DeSantis needs to win and this base occupies the post-truth ecosystem that Trump has created and thrived in.
“In order to draw these supporters back to Earth One, DeSantis would have to challenge the fundamental tenet of Trumpism, which is that Trump’s untruths trump all actual truths. One might be able to puncture a lie, but Trump supporters aren’t going to love you for it. If anything they’ll be enraged.”
Jong-Fast writes that “Trump’s untruths act as a barrier, a protective wall around him. So perhaps when Trump says that he’s built the wall, this is what he means.”
“The problem for Republicans is this Trump-built wall keeps out candidates who could win in the purple states.”
