There is a difference in campaigns and being in a leadership position. This recent presidential campaign saw a plethora of fact free utterances and claims from Trump and the Trump camp. It is possibly safe to say the 75 million plus votes against Trump out of 155 million plus votes cast indicate this behavior played an important role in their decision.
It is difficult with an older person that engages in consistent lying to understand whether there is self-deceit at play where he believes the lies or a strategic emotional button that he is trying to push to gain supporters. In this case, we may be seeing a combination of both. Nonetheless, the brazen nature of Trump’s lies certainly indicate someone that has been at it a long time and is confident and comfortable in that way of being.
After 4 years of Trump’s first term in office when over 30,000 lies were documented, Trump has shown no signs of slowing down in spreading falsehoods. Perhaps now the bigger problem is that he currently has a Republican Party mouthing the same untruths.
It was January 6, 2025, as I started to write this and readers by now may have seen many prognostications about the entire narrative of January 6, 2021being turned on its head. The new narrative goes along the Trump line of the riot and insurrection of that day as being a “day of love.” We must assume that someone with multiple sexual assault accusations as well as a major legal/financial loss in one sexual assault case, this concept of a “day of love” is more than somewhat perverse.
People died at this riot at the Capitol along with 140 police officers that were injured. If this is the action of “patriots” as Trump is calling them, it is hard to imagine that police anywhere can see that this man has their best interests in mind. That is unless they do what he wants.
When Haitian immigrants in Ohio were falsely accused of eating pets by both Trump and incoming vice-President Vance, the consequences were real with bomb threats and Nazi marches. This was certainly not a good time for Springfield leaders and police not to mention the immigrants themselves. Strangely, this was possibly matched in media coverage of Trump playing his music playlist at a Town Hall instead of fielding questions.
This frightening circus like nature of the Trump campaign could be viewed as justifying Trump’s claim of the US being the “laughing stock all over the world.” However, for many, it would be more accurate to call the US the “crying stock of the world.”
Consider the unpresidential like manner he exhibited after the murderous acts in New Orleans and suicide explosion in Las Vegas each by US citizens and veterans. Rather than express grief and dismay or offer consolation to innocent victims, he chose to use a false Fox news report (later retracted and corrected) that the New Orleans murders were done by an immigrant rather than use US intelligence reports which provided the accurate facts. He even used the occasion to whine about “ME” (Trump) being “unlawfully attacked” in his statements about the New Orleans tragedy. We continually see well where his priorities are – himself.
The true nature (facts) of events, speeches, and actions are now subject to being blocked from being expressed because of Trump’s threatened revenge against those that have mainly documented his actions. The “fake news media” stands accused of being the “enemy of the people” by Trump and he has inspired many who are ready to use violence to enforce even his most fabricated insinuations.
This fact free narcissistic behavior of our incoming US President Trump promises to be different than his first term. The Republican party, the proposed staffing of the administration, plus corporate leaders are demonstrating extraordinary acquiescence to a man who is clearly unfit for world leadership.
Get ready for a fact free world.
W Laurence Doxsey, Retired, Former Director of Office of Sustainability for City of San Antonio, former Environmental Officer for US Department of Housing and Urban Development, former Sustainability Officer for City of Austin, resides outside Medina.
