We're Flying Blind
The normal lying is not the normal lying.
President Trump recently said a former U.S. president privately told him he regretted not taking similar military action. Representatives for all living former presidents said they had not spoken with him.
This has happened before. In 2019, Trump said past presidents told him they should have built a border wall. Those presidents also said it wasn’t true.
These aren’t distortions of ambiguous facts or spins on contested events. They are invented conversations with living, named people — people who can pick up the phone. The fabrications are checkable and checked, often within hours.
America has had presidents who lied, who shaded, who misremembered conveniently. A president who invents verifiable facts is a different problem entirely. Is he untethered from reality — or does he care so little for the duties of his office and the people he represents that he lies this brazenly, without a second thought? It could be both, of course.
During wartime, a country’s fortunes rest on its president’s relationship with reality more than at any other moment.
We’re flying blind here.
It is tempting to think that Trump lies so easily and often about such demonstrably false things that he must be “demented” or “senile.” I fear it is worse - that he has lied his entire life so often and about everything that he can no longer distinguish between truth and lies, or no longer cares to. Either way we are in deep trouble.
I believe we are long past the point where we might differentiate between truths and untruths spoken by President Trump. He is in his own world, believing he is an expert in everything. His words are spoken to impress, truth and facts be damned. And as Mr. Dickerson has pointed out in another posting, there is no one in his administration who dares even suggest that he allow them to review his posts and statements for accuracy. Whether he has just run off the road of truth and no one will direct him back, or whether there is a component of dementia, we are indeed in significant trouble.