No one can say that Donald Trump is not a colourful, controversial character.
The press has shown this to be true on numerous occasions. His is a master of prevarication. One source has documented 1,950 times plus or minus in 2017 at last count.
When President Trump sat down with the New York Times for an interview recently, he said something untrue about every 75 seconds. That’s not just the usual political boasting and grandstanding. Those were actual, verifiable claims which professional fact checkers investigated and found to be untrue.
A year-end review of untrue claims from FactCheck.org found Trump dominating the list with remarks on everything from his inauguration to the Russia investigation to his own tax bill. Of PolitiFact’s 483 fact checks on Trump so far, 69 per cent were rated “mostly false,” “false” or “pants on fire,” and his claims on Russian meddling were the “Lie of the Year.” The Washington Post alone found 1,950 false or misleading claims made over 347 days.
Trump’s trustworthiness has made it harder for him to sell his policies. While the White House boasted that the Republican tax plan would give American families a tax break, a Monmouth poll showed that half of the public believed their own taxes would go up. The various “repeal and replace” bills on Obamacare also polled poorly, despite Trump’s claims about them, some of which were clearly untrue.
During the campaign, Trump’s pitch depended a lot on salesmanship. He avoided detailed plans in favor of making grand claims about how “I alone can fix it.” As the first president without a track record in politics or the military, he essentially asked voters to take his word for it. But his reputation for dishonesty is making it harder for him to do that job.
With each passing day the nose would appear to be growing longer.
In his own mind it would appear that he sees himself as a self-made Messiah omnipotent in every way, thought, word and deed. Delusions of grandeur for the U.S.A. is his mantra. He states that he will make America great again. It leads one to ask the question “when was America not considered great by any president or living U.S. citizen?”
The real question here might be, can Trump handle the truth? Right now he is so fixed on his “fake news scenario,” he wouldn’t know the truth if it fell on his head or hit him full force in the face. He deflects any comments or criticism that comes his way. His tweets speak volumes of what I am saying — just read them carefully. The White House press secretary is a link in the chain of sycophants that feed Trump’s ego to the point that he thinks that he is godlike and that all America is in awe of him. (Note: they just want to preserve their jobs).
Does megalomania play a part in everyday Trump? Symptoms of Megalomania (courtesy of the American Psychiatric Association): Delusion of being superior to others, delusion of greatness, delusion of having great social and political power, lack of empathy for anything, delusion of importance, egoistic, violent tendencies and being self-centered.
Do any of these apply to Donald Trump? You be the judge!
Ron Barillaro
Penticton