It has been fascinating to watch the news media becoming more responsive to the habitual lying of the current president. During the first several months of the first term of the current president, the news media, attempting to be fair, tried not to call out readily apparent misstatements and lies. The Washington Post documented and verified over 30,000 lies and misstatements made in public during the first term of the current president. Perhaps the most amazing thing is that, knowing that there were 30,000+ documented and verified lies and misstatements during the first term as president, millions of voters chose to disregard this information and decided to vote for a man who is a documented pathological liar. This level of willful ignorance and gullibility is both amazing and very troubling.
Perhaps what has set the stage for this ongoing barrage of lies from the current president is the lies about the 2016, 2020, 2022, and 2024 elections. The current president won the 2024 election, but it does not stop a pathological liar from constantly lying. The 2016 election between Clinton and Trump was won by Trump, despite Clinton winning the popular vote by almost 3 million votes; however, the election was decided by the antiquated and ridiculous Electoral College. The current president has claimed, without evidence, that he won the 2016 popular vote. The 2020 election between Trump and Biden was won by Biden. Biden claimed both the popular vote and a majority in the Electoral College. The current president, again, without any evidence, claimed he won in a landslide. He has lied about the 2020 election persistently, attempting even to orchestrate a failed insurrection to overturn the election results. Got to give the man credit, he keeps on lying in the face of no concrete evidence that his accusations are even close to being correct. The current president won the 2024 election with less than 50% of the vote, yet claims again without any evidence that he won in a landslide. He believes that the non-existent landslide mandate allows him to do all the corrupt and chaotic things he has done and will do to reshape the country according to his delusional idea of how a democratic government should work.
One of the more interesting lies being used by the current president is that tariffs are paid by the country we impose tariffs on, rather than being a sales tax paid by the American consumer. The average household paid up to $2,000 for goods impacted by what the Supreme Court ultimately determined were illegal tariffs. How the American consumer will be refunded the money spent for an illegal presidential act is anyone’s guess. The current president continues to lie about the impact of tariffs, claiming that they generate excess revenue for the country; however, that revenue almost exclusively comes from American consumers.
How many times have we heard that a Trump health care plan, or at least a concept of a plan, is coming out shortly? Healthcare is a very complex problem with many stakeholders who like the profit-driven system we currently have and will spend big bucks lobbying and legally bribing politicians to keep it as it is. Millions of individuals may be unable to afford health insurance within a year due to Republican legislation passed in 2025. A sizable number of Republicans believe that if your employer does not provide affordable health care insurance, or you are unable to afford coverage on your own, you should not burden society and die as quickly as possible if you contract a serious illness. This may not be the predominant sentiment of all Republicans, however, more than most people might believe.
It is very likely that what to lie about and how to lie are specific campaign strategies. The fact that lying has proven to be such a successful campaign strategy has made it difficult for many campaigns to reject. The current president is a masterful conman, and lying profusely is a requirement for being an effective conman. The lying comes naturally to the current president because even when what he states is a fact-free statement, he believes he is telling the truth and often doubles down on the lie. I have even heard him state in an interview that he is the most honest president ever. He made the interviewer laugh out loud right after the statement was made. It is very likely that the current president cannot distinguish between truth and lies. Sad to have a president who is a chronic liar and may not know when he is lying to the American people. This propensity to lie makes it difficult for the media because constantly calling the president on his lies makes reporting difficult. The fact that some in the media are regularly highlighting the lies and misstatements made by the president is a good thing. This is specifically why the president is attempting to censor the media as much as possible. He knows an informed public will become more acquainted with the lying and slowly believe less of what he says because of its unreliability. He is now an untrustworthy president who serves the nation very poorly.
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