Trump’s War on Truth

Of all the craziness and bluster that has surrounded Donald Trump over the last few years, one thing has stood out more than anything else: Trump’s innate ability to redefine what is true and what is a lie.

He has re-categorized any criticism of himself as fake news – as something that should not be believed. While simultaneously, he has cast himself as the great truth-teller, even posting memes on Truth Social that he has been right about everything.

The irony of all of this should be obvious: Trump had a very casual relationship with the truth for several decades before even getting involved in politics. His disregard for the truth came so naturally that he would casually pretend to be other people in order to talk about himself.

Trump’s lifelong desire to redefine truth continued a couple of days ago when he gave a speech in the Bronx. In typical Trump fashion, he and his supporters started claiming that 25,000 people showed up to cheer him on.

This is actual video of the crowd from the perspective of someone who was IN the crowd. I’ll play it a couple of times, but as you can see there are NOT 25,000 people, but probably more on the order of 2,500 to perhaps 3,500.

In fact, the Trump Campaign had a permit for only 3,500 people, so that is the MOST that would have legally been allowed to gather in the area. And, looking at this video objectively, the crowd does seem in the area of 2,500 to 3,500 people, roughly speaking.

But in Trump World the truth is not relevant, and facts must be twisted in order to glorify Trump. In this case, it’s not 2,500 people who showed up for Trump … or even 3,500. But 25,000 people. Literally ten times more than what we can be observe with our own eyes.

Speaking of Bronx cheers, Trump also made an appearance at the Libertarian Party’s convention over the weekend. Despite video of him being roundly heckled during his speech, and often booed, his supporters claimed it was a resounding success.

Trump even posted several comments from his supporters about how great he did because, again, in Trump World the truth does not matter. It’s all about finding a way to glorify Donald J. Trump, and to do that, the truth must be redefined.

The very fact that Trump IS seen as the truth teller by so many of his followers is a microcosm of the strong delusion running wild on the right, and yet another reason why he so perfectly lines up with the biblical Antichrist.

That is because the Bible not only describes one of the traits for the Antichrist as him casting truth to the ground, but that those who follow him are given over to a strong delusion that they will believe a lie. In other words, they think the lies of the Antichrist ARE the truth.

Over the last decade, Trump has single-handedly brought terms such as Post Truth and Truth Decay into our everyday lexicon. He has done this by redefining what is true, thereby throwing the REAL truth to the ground as if it was worthless.

One of the ways that Trump has successfully redefined truth is how he incessantly repeats what HE wants to be true. He conjures up his own reality by repeating the same lies over and over again.

This is referred to as the Truth-by-Repetition effect, which means that repeated exposure to false information increases its believability. There is a famous quote, usually attributed to Joseph Goebbels, which says “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth.”

Over the last couple of years Trump has bragged about there not being any wars while he was president. But in fact he started – and continues to wage – the worst war of them all. The war on truth. ♦