Lakhota
Diamond Member
President-elect Donald Trump is set to take his proclivity for falsehoods into the Oval Office next week.
WASHINGTON ― Donald Trump told America this week that he had no loans from Russia. That Russian intelligence could not possibly have compromising material about him. That no one on his staff had any contacts with the Russians during the presidential campaign.
And after 18 months of listening to him, Americans might be excused if they choose not to believe even a word of it, as the candidate who issued falsehoods at a historic rate will next week find himself the least believed president since Richard Nixon, right from the moment he takes the oath of office.
“You don’t want to be accused of lying,” said Matt Mackowiak, a Texas-based GOP communications consultant. “But that doesn’t seem to bother Trump.”
Ari Fleischer, former press secretary to President George W. Bush, said voters obviously tolerated Trump’s loose relationship with facts when they went to the polls in November. “Trump comes from a business world where what’s important is: Can you turn a pile of dirt into a tower of steel?”
As to whether and how Trump can win back credibility, the question itself might be irrelevant.
“Politically it may not matter because if people in general like what he’s getting accomplished and notice improvements in their lives, I don’t think people are going to be too worried about the precision of his language,” said Rick Tyler, a former aide to Trump’s last remaining Republican primary rival, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. “As long as things are going great, you know: Tell me lies! Tell me lies!”
And that, says frequent Trump critic Jay Rosen, is precisely the next president’s plan. “Trump is preparing a presidency that optimizes for a low-trust environment,” said Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University. “The whole premise of ‘winning back credibility’ is off. He’s prepared to govern without credibility. He seeks to profit from maximizing distrust.”
"You don’t want to be accused of lying. But that doesn’t seem to bother Trump."
--Matt Mackowiak, Texas-based GOP consultant
Trump through the years has been notoriously willing to say things that are untrue. During a 2007 deposition in a defamation lawsuit he filed because he was angry that the writer had questioned his claimed net worth, Trump repeatedly made statementsthat proved to be false. He claimed ownership of properties, for example, in which he was either merely licensing the use of his name or was in line to receive a share of future profits. When confronted by lawyers, Trump then argued that, in fact, not having an ownership interest was smarter because it limited his losses.--Matt Mackowiak, Texas-based GOP consultant
A decade and a half earlier, Trump had taken untruth to a new level, calling a gossip columnist to claim a nonexistent sexual relationship with Italian supermodel Carla Bruni while claiming to be his own nonexistent press aide.
The proclivity for falsehoods accompanied Trump into his presidential campaign, as Trump regularly misrepresented facts about ― among many, many other things ― the crime rate, the unemployment rate, the size and strength of the U.S. military, the nature and significance of the balance of trade, Muslims cheering from rooftops on 9/11, self-funding his campaign and the current state of illegal immigration.
More: Donald Trump Poised To Become Misstater In Chief
Misstater in Chief is a very kind way to put it - and a gross understatement.
