Trump is an incompetent, conspiracy-theory-pushing liar who puts Americans' lives at risk
Category: News & Politics
Via: jbb • 4 years ago • 58 commentsBy: afisher@businessinsider.com (Anthony L. Fisher) (MSN)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
© Tasos Katopodis-Pool/Getty Images President Donald Trump. Tasos Katopodis-Pool/Getty Images
- We all know President Donald Trump is a compulsive liar and gullible audience for baseless conspiracy theories.
- But we don't always get confirmation like Bob Woodward's taped interviews showing the president blatantly lied to the American people about the transmissibility and deadliness of the coronavirus.
- Trump and the GOP's flirtations with the far-right, anti-Semitic conspiracy-theory movement QAnon have emboldened its adherents, who are now causing chaos in the response to the West Coast wildfires.
- He's a bully, a liar, and a gullible dunce. And he makes Americans unsafe.
- This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
While it can be easy to get lost in President Donald Trump's morass of falsehoods, and his conspiracy mongering can lead you to assume "nothing matters," two recent events stand out as sober reminders of just how dangerous Trump's presidency actually is for the American people.
First off, Trump lied to the American people about what he knew about the deadliness and transmissibility of the coronavirus. That's why so many of his supporters believed for months that COVID-19 is "just the flu" and why the simple act of wearing a mask in public continues to be seen as a form of surrender in the "culture war."
People died, and continue to die, because Trump is a compulsive liar, an incompetent executive, and a deeply unserious person.
Tapes and transcripts of Bob Woodward's interviews with the president have been made public to coincide with the release of Woodward's new book, "Rage." There's no ambiguity to these tapes. No "out of context" accusations can be credibly leveled against Woodward. They simply show Trump at work.
There's a lot of available evidence to make the case that Trump bears responsibility for presiding over the developed world's worst coronavirus response.
Undermining states' early lockdown orders. Suggesting dangerously unscientific remedies could help eliminate or treat COVID-19. Putting his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and a gaggle of his fellow trust-fund babies in charge of procuring sufficient personal protective equipment for the country's medical workers.
But nothing quite compares to Trump's explicit lies about the threat he knew the coronavirus posed in the weeks before the World Health Organization declared it a pandemic.
"It goes through the air," Trump said on February 7. "That's always tougher than the touch. You don't have to touch things. Right? But the air, you just breathe the air and that's how it's passed. And so that's a very tricky one. That's a very delicate one. It's also more deadly than even your strenuous flus."
Trump lied to the American public about the coronavirus on that day, and many days after.
A chief executive so rarely gets caught as red-handed as Trump has, but his supporters don't care that Trump is not only a shameless liar; they also are cool with his being an unhinged conspiracy theorist, a teetotalers' version of Alex Jones.
Trump is the QAnon president
The second reminder of the dangers posed by Trump as president relates to the recent wildfires consuming large swaths of the West Coast.
QAnon supporters — they of the far-right internet movement that baselessly alleges Trump is heroically battling a Washington, DC-based deep-state Democratic-run satanist pedophile ring — have flooded social media with disinformation accusing activists associated with Black Lives Matter and antifa of deliberately setting the fires.
Gov. Kate Brown has said Oregon is preparing for a "mass-fatality incident." Meanwhile, law enforcement and first responders have been inundated with calls inquiring about these conspiracy theories, and journalists have reported being confronted by armed militia types hunting for left-wing arsonists.
QAnon accounts are directly responsible for turning this hoax theory into a crisis. It'd probably be as good a time as any for Trump to denounce QAnon.
But other than one QAnon supporter being disinvited to speak at the Republican National Convention at the last minute, and Vice President Mike Pence canceling an appearance organized by QAnon supporters, the movement is still cozy with Trump and the Republican Party. And now this movement, fostered by Trump for political gain, is causing real problems for people trying to respond to a devastating disaster.
When asked about QAnon in August, Trump said "these are people who love our country." When Marjorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon supporter, won the Republican nomination for a Georgia congressional seat, Trump endorsed her.
Trump's game of footsie with the unhinged and deeply anti-Semitic QAnon movement could suggest a calculated campaign strategy to shore up his base, but that requires Trump having a plan.
The celebrated author and New Yorker staff writer Masha Gessen told me in July, "I don't think anything in the Trump universe is by design." Trump has not latched onto a grand plan perfectly calibrated to own the libs and stoke the passions of the MAGA right, Gessen said; instead, his "incompetence is militant."
All presidents lie, but the sheer volume and audacity of his most easily disprovable lies separate him from the pack. And Trump would hardly be the first senior-citizen Fox News addict taken in by nonsensical conspiracy theories spread on Facebook.
But Trump's most enduring legacy will be the degree to which he was comfortable with blatantly lying and happy to engage with conspiracy theories. And it will be just how many lives were put at risk, and ultimately lost, because of those traits.
Trump, as president, continues to reveal his character. He's a bully, a liar, and a gullible dunce. And he makes Americans unsafe.
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I would not have been so generous...
He's a bully, a liar, and a gullible dunce. And he makes Americans unsafe.
This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
In my opinion, the author is a dunce
Yes, but it's a very accurate opinion.
We know that tens of thousands of Americans have died because Trump chose to hide the truth about the virus. He is a liar, that's not an opinion, that's a fact. He is a bully, that's a fact. As to whether he's a gullible dunce, the evidence supports that claim but that is just opinion.
bull.
The pubic is not gullible enough to believe a person who's told 30,000 lies
And that's a fact
/s
So your defense of Trump hiding the truth is that no one should believe him anyway because he lies so much? That's the guy you're desperately defending here every day?
Wow Texan, it is hard to argue with all your evidence to support your claim of it being "bull".
You know, like you demanded of someone else on a different thread........
It is bull.
Tell you what--you prove that anything Trump did cost tens of thousands of lives and I'll retract my comment.
If you can't, stop bothering me with your trifling nonsense.
You're up---GO!
Trump knew the seriousness at least a MONTH earlier, not just a week. The facts prove his incompetence and that he now has tens of thousands of Americans blood on his hands. He hid the truth, that is an undeniable FACT. We all heard the tape, he KNEW. All he would have had to do was say the exact same thing he told Woodward on February 7th to the rest of America and he would have saved lives. Instead, for political expedience and not wanting the financial strength which was his core campaign issue to suffer, he chose to lie to the American people and tell them it wasn't a big deal and it would just "go away, like a miracle".
Only in demented, sick minds is Trump responsible for the virus.
No one is saying he's "responsible" for the virus. What he was "responsible" for was telling the American people the truth about the virus and informing our nation of the threat while also supporting the recommendations from the CDC about mask wearing and social distancing. And it wasn't just that Trump was silent on the matter and simply didn't tell Americans the truth, he actively lied about the risk and undercut the experts and downplayed the threat. He has blood on his hands, period. If just one American life could have been saved by telling the truth February 7th when we know he knew how dangerous this was and he chose not to say anything, then he should have done so. But it's obvious Trump doesn't give a fuck about the American people, he only cares about himself and how telling the truth might have hurt the stock market and what he see's as "his numbers".
Your attempt at dishonest deflection claiming people are blaming Trump for the virus falls flat on the face of it, but please do try again to twist and contort reality to fit your preferred delusion.
He didn't tell the truth and the stock market tanked anyway.
So the American people are double losers
I am impressed with how many false things you can pack into a couple of paragraphs.
Kudos for that.
Thank you for that inciteful rebuttal of the facts.
You are very welcome!
Any time!
And I'm impressed with your apparent inability to refute a single fact I presented. Just more rhetorical denial.
“If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell” - Carl Sandburg
Your table pounding is rather amusing.
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You're making the claim, it is up to you to support your own claim.....duh!
Read and learn, grasshopper.
A claim was made (NOT BY ME, BTFW) that trump is responsible for tens of thousands of lives lost.
Even using your OWN logic--the person making the claim should prove it.
Get back to me when you can keep up with the conversation, otherwise don't waste my time with your trifling nonsense.
Bullshit.
Your claim is that what Dismayed Patriot said was "Bull". So PROVE IT WAS BULL....
Your next step is to:
jeez, I get so tired of explaining the very basics to folks who should know better..
the claim was made, I called bullshit and asked for proof.
can you not follow the conversation?
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“If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell” - Carl Sandburg
Your table pounding is rather amusing."
It's called the Whiny Little Bitch syndrome.
Sorry forgot, option 5 - just lie about it.
"I called bullshit and asked for proof." - You said 1 word in that comment. LOLLOOLLLOLOLOL!
It's a good thing you remembered option and selected it. I'll remember it next time you make a claim with absolutely no evidence.
Now from here your choices are:
See? Now you can just select number five, instead of having to do all the typing for the same thing. (trying to make it easy on you)
yawn, sosdd
you gave got to start reading before posting.
I asked you specifically for proof in post 2.1.5
proof you have conveniently declined to provide.
so please spare me your lectures
Is he fing serious? Even if you give him stacks of facts, he still would not retract.
yes. I AM serious, do YOU want a crack at it now?
If by that, it is meant that Trump is a confidence man. Donald did not care about not "panicking the public," like a salesman he thought he could 'limp' the government along without telling them about the possible dangers in the air they were inhaling near and of each other! At least long enough for the spring "heat" and other professionals to take charge of the germ. Donald, "went big" and many people are dead who did not have to die. Certainly not the exact people who have suffered!
Their used to be consequences for such epic failures and damages to the public trust! It will be seen if on November 3rd and thereabouts if we still punish "dirty dealing" in this country or have we reverted back to might makes right!
Republicans and conservatives are saying leave it to the people; well people, the fate of Donald - the confidence man - is in your hands!
Assessments and assumptions based entirely upon out of control emotional dysfunction and lies are not facts
Still laughing, I am.
That's odd since I have yet to hear any explanations from you, it's all been a lot of hot air "Nuh Uh!"'s.
I gave you numerous links showing that if we had had even a week earlier warning to social distance and wear masks it would have saved 36,000 lives.
Your response? To claim somehow I was accusing Trump of being responsible for the virus. No refutation of the study, no counter argument offered, just empty rhetoric. I get it, you have no defense for the blood on Trumps hands so you can't argue with facts, a deflection or dodge is your only recourse. So no doubt you're tired of deflecting and blowing hot air, but "explaining the very basics" isn't something I've ever seen from your comments.
Blood on Donald's and his surrogates' hands is broken-ness. They should ask for whichever God they serve to forgive them!
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We don't have to accept these insults. Back at ya. Trump supporters have no pull with Donald Trump. Unless they individually and collectively support and/or play a part in his lying, deceptions, and manipulations! Donald has not changed much if at all since becoming president. So what does that say about the support he gets from his constituents?
As far as conservative judges go, the system will be pulled to come up back to the 21st century, because it can't exist in the past, or those "life-long" justice appointees will be heaved out on their backward, unreasoning, ears! No one can reasonably exist out of step with time itself! The rest of the world will resist you and leave you standing still in a puddle of "pee."
One more thing: You so-called, "Whiny Little Bitches," this is your wake up call to get up and go vote for somebody who will here what goes for a whimper or cry from you in November 2020! Because Donald Trump ain't got your back! That one is for the other crowd!
Nope, the whiny little bitch syndrome belongs to the 'president' and his supporters.
If the shoe fits . . .
Necessity is the mother of invention. Remember that as you set sail for Conservative-Land America!
You be careful what you wish for too. The democrats might just 'forget' themselves and began to act like Trump conservatives in a bid to take over every damn thing and leave nothing but scorched earth in the offing! It happens when people are pushed too damn far!
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sorry but no... the author has been infected with tds and requires mental help
The willful blindness of the right continues....
They'd rather stab their own eyes out than admit they're wrong. They can't even admit the President got caught hiding the truth about the pandemic that has cost tens of thousands of American lives. For them, he could have killed those tens of thousands with his own hands shooting them on 5th Ave and his sycophants would find someway to justify his criminal actions. It's truly insane.
Trump never cared about anything but self glorification. An east coast wealthy elitist, a once upon a time Democrat, a once upon a time pro-choice advocate, who admitted years ago in an interview if he ever ran for office he would switch parties to Republicans and run as a Republican because he knew their base would be stupid enough to vote for him.
He drags them to indoor rallies on the taxpayer dime, which literally killed Herman Cain with Covid. If he did not care enough to protect his highest profile black supporter you think he cared about the rest of the crowd?
They are supporting the global empire of Trump who has global interests over the American people.
Trump Flails In Attempt To Defend High-Risk, Indoor Campaign Rally In Nevada
Ryan Grenoble National Reporter, HuffPost
Donald Trump attempted to defend his decision to hold an indoor campaign rally in Henderson, Nevada , on Sunday by blaming Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) and ignoring the possibility that he’s risking Americans’ health.
Speaking with the Las Vegas Review-Journal after the rally, Trump didn’t answer a question about attendees potentially getting COVID-19 ; instead, he talked about how he isn’t putting his own health at risk.
Here’s the line of questioning from Review-Journal White House correspondent Debra Saunders:
I just checked the latest numbers. Trump is ahead in the inbred knuckle dragging states, especially UT where the men are men and the sheep are nervous. Biden is way ahead in the states that actually matter.
I bet that's what Abuela Hillary thought, too!!
lmao!
This is the bottom line. Democrat blame America first pessimism vs. GOP Morning in America optimism. The defining nature of the race. Whether it’s foreign policy, defending our borders, our national defense, energy independence, economic vitality, or combatting the China virus, it’s good old belief in America, its culture, history, traditions, and values, or a dour pessimistic hatred of and contempt for all the above and that America is inherently evil and systematically racist and that only secular socialism can impose transformation upon the unwilling deplorables. We stand with America, optimism, and Trump!
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