Labeling Trump's rallies a "conundrum," Will Bunch surveys responses to one of his tweets and concludes
The consensus feedback here seems right on the money. 1)
Don't air unfiltered propaganda on live TV 2) Fact-check the hell out his lies
(he's been average about 30 a rally) afterwards.
That is probably an exaggeration because much of what Trump
says, though almost all of it dishonest, is merely distorted or dishonest.
Further, a great deal of it is demagoguery, some of it intended to provoke
violence, which merely takes on the appearance of a lie.
A prime example of the latter is the President's remark at
his rally in Montana on Thursday evening, when he remarked "They are so
dishonest. Fake news. They're fake news media." To Chris Cillizza, who identified the eleven
"most dangerous lines" of the rally, "one might think that in
the wake of such violence committed against reporters, the President of the
United States might be more mindful of savaging the media to a crowd of his
supporters. "
That is probably not technically a lie, being instead an effort to destroy the credibility of the
free press, as well as to provoke a violent reaction by his supporters, which
then can be used to chip away at constitutional freedoms. We've seen this
playbook before, though with a different target.
But Trump cannot avoid constant lying, not because of a
psychological or mental aberration, but because his knows his acolytes will believe
anything he says and, as Bunch implied, the news media is insufficiently prone
to "fact-check the hell out of his lies."
And so, as Cillizza pointed out, Trump in Montana claimed
"But we signed a wonderful paper saying they're going to denuclearize
their whole thing. It's going to all happen."
"It's all going to happen" is a prediction which
the President may believe. However, he does not believe "we signed a wonderful
paper saying they're going to denuclearize their whole thing."
The agreement may have been transcribed on the heaviest,
whitest, hence most desirable and "wonderful" paper. Nevertheless, it
did not say the North Koreans are "going to denuclearize their whole
thing."
We might have known that upon learning from satellite images that
Pyongyang is completing construction of a "key ballistic missile
manufacturing site" whose "one function" is "pumping out
parts for their missile program."
A few days earlier, we had read that North Korean officials
"are exploring ways to deceive Washington about the number of nuclear
warheads and missiles, and the types and numbers of facilities they
have."
But this intelligence wasn't necessary to determine that
President Trump was flat-out lying upon claiming the North Koreans "signed
a wonderful paper saying they're going to denuclearize their whole thing."
The joint statement issued by the two leaders following
completion of their summit on June 12, 2018 (local time) included four points.
Three of them did not directly pertain to denuclearization. The other, #3, was "reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to
work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."
You may have noticed the distinction between "commits
to work toward" and "going to." Donald Trump, with an IQ
exceeding 60, certainly did.
And he continues to understand even as today, June 9, he has
tweeted
I have confidence that Kim Jong Un will honor the contract we signed &, even more importantly, our handshake. We agreed to the denuclearization of North Korea. China, on the other hand, may be exerting negative pressure on a deal because of our posture on Chinese Trade-Hope Not!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 9, 2018
He has again lied, claiming
"we agreed to the denuclearization of North Korea." He will
not admit failure, incomplete success, or even progress in working toward a
goal. He will not admit to being less than the best, the smartest and above
all, the strongest, thus demonstrating he is the weakest of them all. He remains as Bill Maher has described (at
2:32) him:
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