Trump on "telling the truth"

I saw a brief segment of an interview with President Trump by ABC News' Jon Karl that was literally jaw-dropping.

ABC played some footage from a campaign speech where Trump says "In this journey, I will never lie to you.   I will never tell you something I do not believe."

Karl then asks Trump if he feels he has kept that promise.

Trump's response:   "Well I try.   I do try. . . .  When I can, I tell the truth.   And sometimes it turns out to be where something happens that's different or there's a change, but I always like to be truthful."

That was his canned answer.   Karl didn't let him off the hook, so he began to improvise, beginning by stating to Jon Karl that "you sometimes say things that are not true . . . about me."    And then,  Karl pushed him, really quite hard -- especially on his calling journalists "the enemy of the people."

Karl asked him (paraphrased, because I don't have a transcript of this part):  'Don't you ever worry, when you say that we're the enemy . . . don't you ever worry that someone is going to hear you say that and shoot a reporter?    You're the most powerful person in the world -- and when you call someone "the enemy," people listen.   Why do you do that?'

Trump began to shrink and stumble over his words.  I've never seem any interviewer push him quite so relentlessly.   Finally Trump said:  'Well, it's all I have to fight back with.  Karl counters with:  "But you won."   Trump:  'I wouldn't be sitting here now if I didn't [lie when I had to].'

In other words, Trump is acknowledging that he lies 'because it works' and sometimes it's all that will work.

The take-away from this:   Trump lies when he "has to" to get what he wants.   And sometimes he feels that it's his only defense.   It doesn't seem to bother him, in the least, that he lies -- and lies about very important matters with national and global effects.   It's very simple to him:   if it works, then that's what you do.   There is no qualm, no guilt, no attempt to explain.  It's an expected part of the transactional nature of his amoral approach to negotiating to get what he wants.

Just look at the lies he's told in the last week or so as ways of stoking the fear in his base so they will go out and vote.    I suppose this means he doesn't trust that people will vote for him if they aren't scared enough of the consequences.

1.  The caravan bringing Central American people -- most of whom seem to be women and children, some of the children in strollers -- is an "invading horde" that will bring diseases and violence into our country.   Trump talks about M13 gang members and terrorists in the caravan -- without a shred of evidence.

2.   He has ordered 5,200 active duty troops to the southern border to bolster the national guard units already deployed there.   And now he says he might send as many as 15,000.    And, because we have a law that forbids our U.S. military troops from fighting within the United States unless they are attacked with guns, he plans to issue an executive order to redefine a rifle so that it will include the rocks that are the only weapons the caravan people have -- even if they did want to fight us.    In fact, they are coming, hoping to be taken in a refugees.

3.   To take care of that, he is also saying that he will not grant asylum to any refugees who enter illegally.  Being turned away at one entry point, and then coming in at another entry point, will constitute entering illegally.

4.   On the other hand, he has promised a 10% tax cut for the middle class "before the mid-term election," after the $10 trillion tax cut for the wealthy did not prove to help him in the election.   When it was pointed out that Congress won't be back  in session until after the election, he brushed it off -- well, we'll have the vote after the election.   But we will pass it -- this despite a complete lack of enthusiasm among Republican legislators, who want an excuse to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

5.  He has floated all kinds of terrible things that will happen if the Democrats take control of the House -- including impeaching him.   And he told his crowd that, if they let that happen by not voting, it will be their fault.

6.  And ego-maniac that he is, he also told them that he is the most important one in this election.   Even though he is not on the ballot, it will totally be a referendum on him.   There is some truth in that boast.

7.   He has boasted that he will sign an order forbidding transgender people to serve in any capacity in our military.    That's not going to happen.   The military does not want it.  They had already accepted Obama's order to treat them as equals in the military.  Mattis will slow-walk it, and Trump will forget the promise.

8.   Trump has declared that the concept of birthright citizenship (being born in the U.S. of non-citizen parents) is unconstitutional;   and he intends to change the interpretation of the law.     This is despite near-unanimous consensus among legal scholars that the 14th amendment applies and has been reaffirmed in that interpretation.

There are probably some more, but that's enough space taken up with more of Donald Trump's lies, distortions, and misinformation.   In fact, some newspaper that keeps count says his total number of lies since his inauguration is now over 4,000.

But remember -- the main point of this post is Trump's revelation of why he lies:   he does because it works or because he can't think of any other answer.  And he feels no hint of guilt or shame about it.

Ralph