On Thursday, Daily Beast columnist David Rothkopf laid out the true breadth of President Donald Trump’s “epidemic” of lies, and detailed the “grim” consequences if they go unchecked. According to Rothkopf, under Trump’s leadership, the government has gone “braindead,” and if he and his allies have their way, the American people will be next.
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“This administration has waged war on the First Amendment and is the least transparent in history, while it is erratic and chaotic and the goat rodeo to end all clusterf–ks, there is one thing about which we can be absolutely certain,” writes Rothkopf. “It lies. The president lies. His soon-to-depart press secretary lies… and so will her replacement, no matter who that is. His director of communications lies. His Cabinet secretaries lie.”
The harms caused by these lies, asserts Rothkopf, have touched nearly every aspect of American life. As he explains, “When economic data is released, it is no longer reliable. When casualty counts for military actions are announced, they are wrong. When new policy initiatives are announced, what we’re sure of is that the ones that might help us will never happen and the ones that appear crazy or ill-conceived will surely turn out worse than we can imagine. When big deals are announced, we know that there are side deals we will never hear of.”
Rothkopf argues that we can’t believe any benefit or information the administration claims to offer, writing, “Did DOGE save us money or enhance government efficiency? No. Will the Make America Healthy Movement make us healthier? The opposite. When the insanity of RFK Jr. and his quack clack leads to disease outbreaks, contaminated food and viral misinformation, the only thing we know for sure is that these unqualified nutcases are lacing their announcements with science they read off a tile over a urinal at an 1-95 rest stop. Wherever possible, mendacious goons kill or pervert or attempt to coopt reliable sources of government data, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to the National Weather Bureau. Look out your window; do you see a baked landscape? Shriveling crops? Europe in flames from wildfires? Well, try to find information about climate change on a government website — it’s not there. There is no climate change, folks.”
Trump’s allies, says Rothkopf, feed into the lies. For example, while hard data shows that the Republicans are poised to take major losses in the upcoming midterms, “what kind of predictions do you hear from the White House, the Keebler Elf serving as Speaker of the House, or the confederacy of dunces in the GOP caucuses? That it’s all gonna be great! Prosperity is around the corner. (It must be. Scott Bessent said it would be.) Peace is around the corner. (It must be. Marco Rubio said it would be.) Big victories are coming. (They must be. Because Dear Leader says so and he is never wrong.)”
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What’s more, writes Rothkopf, the American people not only know they’re being lied to, but “we also know that behind their lies are malevolent intentions, incompetence, pathological personalities, ignorance and corruption. They are not just unleashing a never-ending torrent of falsehoods, but they are doing it to hide a destructive agenda in which the people of the United States are very often the intended victims.” And other nations know Trump is lying to them too.
Rothkopf says the situation arose “because we stopped giving proper value to the character of our leaders, and like a virulent epidemic, the flaws of those we elevated then spread so rapidly that they now threaten the very life of our republic. That’s no exaggeration.” He argues, “The only path out is that each of us, individually, makes seeking the truth our top priority, and skepticism our constant ally. We must seek out reliable sources of information and reject those who deliver anything less. For voters, it is also essential we become intolerant of liars in government, media, the corporate world, academia — anywhere…Demand proof. Demand evidence. Make people work for your trust.”
He concludes on a dire note, warning, “In the best case, if we reject lies and demand truth again — starting with November’s elections — it will still take many years to restore trust in the U.S. government at home and abroad. But if we fail to, if we allow the lies to triumph yet again, we may well live the rest of our lives in this new grim, unnecessarily, tragically dark age, and with the fear that must carry with it.”
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