Caffeinated Politics

When we start to rebuild and address the myriad problems Donald Trump created, fostered, and nurtured during his terms in the White House, it will be essential that we begin with his default position of telling lies, seemingly with every breath. Regaining honesty in the Oval Office might seem like a low bar to achieve, but this matter is not one to be smirked at and thought irrelevant. We deserve a national leader we can trust.

This column is promoted by Trump and his boundless lies, such as this week’s absurd rambling conversation in the Oval Office as he was surrounded by young children. Put aside the dark talk about nuclear war and his inability to read the room, and let us concentrate on the following claim he made.  A claim he made in March. In April. Now, in May.

“I am at, according to CNN, 100% approval within the Republican Party. I’m at 100% approval. Did you see the CNN poll? Nobody talks about it.”

The schoolchildren were bored to tears, while those of us on this side of the television screen know there is no such CNN poll.

Now, I am aware that this comment by Trump is not earth-shattering or going to cause a ripple anywhere. I use this small, even trite, example to show that even in the small things, Trump has no filter when it comes to weeding out lies.

We have reams of lies about weighty issues to choose from when it comes to Trump. Let me select a few whoppers he repeats to make the point. While there is no evidence that Democrats used the 2020 pandemic to manipulate election results, Trump has repeatedly lied about it. Trump repeatedly lied about Hillary Clinton starting the racist conspiracy that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. Trump repeatedly lies that mail‑in voting is inherently fraudulent. Recently, Trump lied that “Pope Leo XIV thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.” We know there is no evidence that the Pope ever said such a thing.

What is concerning is the normalization of verifiable lies from Trump. The sycophants to Dear Leader trivialize the behavior as ‘that is just how Trump talks.’ The acceptance of being continuously lied to also says a great deal about the MAGA base in terms of education and personal ethics. What has happened with MAGA treating truth as optional is that damage is not confined to the news cycle where the lie is made. The spewing of lie after lie seeps into the national fabric, weakening the very conditions that make self‑government possible.

Just look at the bizarre people who constitute MAGA and watch how they try to defend what is demonstrably false. Facts can be presented with public records, government data, video evidence, or the administration’s own agencies, but Trump’s followers will fall for the lie every time and denounce the truth. I understand that MAGA will not grasp this next line, but the harm they are causing the nation is not abstract.

When Trump lies about plainly visible matters, be they crowd sizes, election processes, public health data, or his own recorded statements, it allows some in the nation to distrust their own eyes. That is the beginning of civic disorientation, a place where authoritarianism sprouts, grows, and wishes to thrive. A citizenry that cannot agree on basic facts cannot hold anyone accountable. Trump would be pleased with such an outcome.

Donald Trump desires higher cynicism among the voters. He wants a growing number of people to stop believing that facts matter. And if we go down that road, we lose our ability to deliberate and to correct the glaring calamity that now sits in the Oval Office.