Trump’s lies – Memphis Flyer

If he were alive today, Mark Twain might say the following: “There’s lies, damned lies — and Donald Trump.” The president of the United States not only lies routinely, but he believes other people’s lies without a modicum of skepticism.

Mark Twain

Last week, the liar in question was North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who claimed to have known nothing about what appears to have been the torture and, ultimately, the murder of American college student Otto Warmbier. After holding a second nuclear summit for which he was grossly unprepared, this time in Vietnam, President Trump said Kim “tells me he didn’t know about it, and I will take him at his word.” He added that Kim “felt badly about it. He felt very badly.”

Right. Because Kim’s empathy and compassion toward his starving countrymen and those he has had killed, including his half brother, are legendary.

It is mind-numbing and breathtaking to hear such nonsense from a president who, if normal, would vindicate the victim through punitive actions rather than side with a violent dictator in some weird, contrived, nonproductive chitchat about nuclear weapons. Warmbier’s parents were appropriately outraged by the president’s cavalier comments — especially since he had used the Warmbiers as props during his 2018 State of the Union address — and they issued a harsh rebuke.

The 21-year-old Warmbier had been touring North Korea when, on January 2, 2016, while going through airport security to leave the country, he was detained by North Korean authorities. He was accused of stealing a propaganda poster from the Pyongyang hotel where he was staying. No conclusive evidence was provided that he did so, but he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.

After 17 months, Warmbier was sent home in a coma, having suffered severe brain damage from possible multiple beatings, and he died a few days later. His brutal death was surely no accident, as Cindy and Fred Warmbier asserted in their statement rebuking Trump, nor was it likely unknown to Kim, whose supreme leadership doesn’t leave much wiggle room for independent action. No one familiar with North Korea believes that Kim wasn’t well aware of his American captive. How could he not have been after a year-and-a-half of international news coverage and outreach from the State Department? Thus, make no mistake, Warmbier’s death was as much an assault on America as it was on this young American.

But Trump, who confessed to having a “warm relationship” with Kim, based presumably on whatever pheromones passed between them, said he believed the man he previously called “little rocket man.” This is because the president is a) a useful idiot; b) a malevolent force in the universe; c) a small-pawed, big-dog fanboy; d) a strategic genius.

I think most of us can eliminate option “d.”

Option “c” is probable, given Trump’s attraction to tyrants, dictators, murderers, and thieves. He has used similar terminology with other strongmen, with whom he has been equally credulous. Trump believed Russian President Vladimir Putin when he denied knowing about Russian interference in the 2016 election. And he believed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman when he denied knowing anything about the torture, murder, and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

At the same time Trump believed their lies, he disbelieved the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies, which, in each case, pointed a finger at the top guys.

Even if we pretend that Trump is a strategic genius who is flattering his foes by faking belief in their lies, one is left to wonder to what end? To win their approval? To charm them into believing he’s one of them, that they are essentially the same but for minor differences resolvable through the art of the deal?

If only he were trying to seize a widow’s home to make space for a new limo parking lot at one of his casinos. Or negotiating Trump Tower in Moscow. But the stakes are a little higher now. And Trump, in trying to be a tough guy, has created the opposite perception.

What every foreign ruler, dictator, president, or potentate now knows is that every American tourist, journalist, college student, and diplomat is fair game for capture, arrest, hostage-taking, torture, or murder — all without consequence. All they have to do is lie to the president, a proven weakling, and the bad thing that happened will just go away.

The American people must not let him get away with it.

Kathleen Parker writes for the Washington Post Writers Group.

“The Fake News hates me saying that they are the Enemy of the People only because they know it’s TRUE. I am providing a great service by explaining this to the American People. They purposely cause great division & distrust. They can also cause War! They are very dangerous & sick.” — President Donald J. Trump

I’ve purposely avoided writing about Donald Trump in recent weeks, choosing instead to focus on local issues. But enough is enough. The president of the United States is melting down, becoming increasingly unhinged. None of us can afford to ignore this stuff.

In the past week, via tweet, Trump has declared war on the free press; compared his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, to Al Capone; told his attorney general to stop the Mueller investigation; claimed the California wildfires are being caused by letting rivers run to the sea; launched a personal attack on LeBron James(!); and threw his own son under the bus by proclaiming that Junior — and other members of the president’s campaign team — knowingly met to get dirt on Hillary Clinton from Russian operatives but that it was “totally legal.”
This, even though Trump’s own lawyers have admitted the president dictated a cover letter claiming the meeting was to discuss Russian adoption issues. And the undeniable fact that the meeting was anything but “totally legal,” even though in the right-wing-o-sphere, “collusion is fine” is the new “no collusion!”

It’s hard to keep up, I know. It’s lie upon lie upon lie. It’s day after day. It’s mind-numbing. But the collusion — or conspiracy or treason or whatever name you give it — is right out in the open now, easy to see for anyone who’s paying attention.

And how do we pay attention? We watch the news. We read newspapers and magazines and news websites. And with the notable exception of America’s Pravda — Fox News — those media outlets are reporting things that make it clear the president’s campaign — and likely, the president himself — was thoroughly and completely entangled in the Russian meddling in our 2016 electoral process. And probably in money laundering before that.

This is why Trump’s last, best shot is to convince as many Americans as possible that they shouldn’t believe what they’re reading and seeing in the news and should instead just believe Fearless Leader. Trump knows the truth will not set him free. The truth will destroy him.

The scariest part of all this is not the president’s behavior, though his mendacity, crassness, and xenophobia are certainly beyond the historical pale. No, the scariest part is that so many Republicans who know the truth — who know this is wrong — are remaining silent. The best-case scenario you can make for them is that they fear alienating Trump’s base. The worst-case scenario is that they — like the NRA — have dirtied their hands with Russian money. The coming months will test the republic.

Meanwhile, Trump’s impulsive and reflexive tariffs are backfiring on manufacturers and farmers in the heartland (including Tennessee). Gas prices are rising. And Trump’s foreign policy skills make Sasha Baron Cohen look like Kissinger: Little Rocket Man got concessions then went back to building nuclear weapons; Iran’s leaders are basically calling him an empty suit; and Putin works him like a Dollar Store yo-yo.

All Trump has left is to hold increasingly smaller and more desperate rallies, where he can weave tales of his greatness and demonize the bearers of all this fake bad news. But the bad news isn’t fake, and he knows it. And the angry know-nothings in his audience (and your clueless friends on Facebook) can’t save him from the long arm of the law. Or the upcoming mid-terms.

Finally, even though Trump has labeled people like me an “enemy of the people,” I’d like to help him out. There are a couple of errors in the president’s tweet above. Using my skills as a professional editor, I’ve written a more accurate one:

“I call the press the Enemy of the People only because I hate the truth. I am providing a great disservice to the American People by creating division & distrust. I can also cause War! I am very dangerous & sick.”

There. That’s better.