The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
The New York Times fact-checked Donald Trump’s 63-minute jabbering at a recent Las Vegas campaign stop and found 64 false, inaccurate or misleading remarks — one a minute. That mendacity wasn’t even a record. A contender for the distinction would be Trump’s 64-minute August news conference at Mar-a-Lago that was more monologue than Q&A: He racked up at least 162 lies, misstatements and vast exaggerations by NPR’s count — about 2.5 a minute.
Pathological lying ought to be a disqualifier for the office, yet for nearly half the electorate it’s not. Sure, shading the truth is a feature of politics. But lying on Trump’s scale is a bug, and a venomous one.
The lies are bad enough, but it’s why he’s lying that’s even more disqualifying: to divide us, between “patriots” who support him and those who are un-American because they do not. It’s what he’s lying about: matters that should unite Americans, such as disaster responses, the U.S. standing in the world, the integrity of our elections and the facts about the unprecedented insurrection on Jan. 6. And it’s how he gets away with it: by discrediting a free press and playing to propagandist channels of the right.
Take Trump’s reaction to the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, the worst since Katrina two decades ago. Back then, George W. Bush was criticized for the actual dilatory incompetence of Washington’s disaster response, even by many Republicans. But Trump is assailing rival Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden for their administration’s reaction to Helene based on fabrications.
No sooner had Trump landed in stricken Valdosta, Ga., on Monday than he charged that the federal government was M.I.A., and that Georgia’s Republican governor was “having a hard time” even getting Biden on the phone. Gov. Brian Kemp himself had earlier said Biden called him the previous day to make sure Kemp had all he needed and to urge him to call directly for anything else. The Republican governors of South Carolina and Virginia praised the federal response as well.
This from the man who, as president, withheld money from hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico for years and on a belated visit tossed paper towels at needy residents. He repeatedly threatened to block money from blue-state governors, notably California’s Gavin Newsom during the 2018 wildfires, while promising “A-plus” treatment for states whose governors supported him. Last month, he re-upped that threat against “Newscum.”
In a nearly two-hour harangue in Erie, Pa., Trump expanded on his fearmongering falsification in weekend posts about newly released data from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Harris, he said, “let in 13,099 convicted murderers,” and thousands more migrants convicted of rape and assault. “SHE HAS GOT BLOOD ON HER HANDS!” he posted on Friday. “Thugs and slimeballs” were “totally unvetted and unchecked,” he wrote on Saturday
In fact, the ICE data covered migrants who entered over four decades — including during Trump’s term — and most are in local, state or federal custody or had served sentences. All are tracked by ICE, incarcerated or not.
In Pennsylvania, Trump repeated his oft-debunked falsehood that on Jan. 6, “Crazy Nancy Pelosi” rejected his offer for 10,000 National Guard troops and that she’d taken responsibility for the violence. “And then they try and blame me for it!” he whined. In fact, Trump’s own Pentagon chief, among others, said under oath that Trump issued no such orders, including during the three hours that the then-commander in chief watched the mayhem on TV.
As his White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, told the nation in August from the Democratic National Convention: “He used to tell me, ‘It doesn’t matter what you say, Stephanie — say it enough and people will believe you.’ But it does matter — what you say matters, and what you don’t say matters.”
Words do matter. Lies really matter. And an inveterate liar should be nowhere near the Oval Office.
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