Rick Stiebel | Columnist
Dishonest Donald never met a lie he didn’t like.
If Trump racked up frequent flyer miles for his falsehoods, he could have circled the globe for free in his first few months in office.
It’s gotten to the point where the media can’t keep up with the tsunami of deceit. I don’t know who’s more disturbing, the devout base who guzzle enough Trumpade to believe everything he says, or those who accept it all as part of the price paid for the ends justifying their means.
For some that means building a border wall, minus the original sin that Mexico would pay for it.
For others, including evangelical conservatives ready to ransom park their Christian character beliefs, the payoff is Trump stacking the Supreme Court to obliterate a woman’s right to abortion. None would blink tomorrow it if Trump said it rained so hard last night that there were puddles on the lake.
We all grudgingly accept that elected officials lie to the point that it’s become part of the bedrock of our political landscape.
Canadians can take some comfort in a free press who calls it out when we catch them, even if it’s too late to do much besides politely complain until the next time.
No politician in the free world, however, has turned deception into an art form like Trump. While you expect that kind of behaviour in an authoritarian regime, Donald has managed to trump them all, even lying about lies.
Look at his tweet last week admitting he that he knew he lied about the purpose of Dishonest Don Junior’s meeting in Trump Tower with Russians. He’s even flipped his falsie on a payment to a porn star for an affair he denies took place, despite $130,000 reasons to believe that it did.
Another favoured fable that gets trampled with regularity is Trump’s promise to drain the swamp.
For someone who insisted they would hire only the best, he has surrounded himself with enough gators to recreate the Florida Everglades in Washington.
Trump’s first choice as national security advisor, Michael Flynn, currently facing FBI charges, was fired for lying before he could organize his desk.
His campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and his henchman, Rick Gates, are up to their armpits in a trial low-lighted by charges of bank fraud, tax fraud and money laundering.
His longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, is squirming under Bob Mueller’s microscope while he awaits charges.
New York representative Chris Collins, the first congressman to endorse the Donald, was indicted last week for insider trading and faces 150 years worth of charges. Of course, he is playing his trump card, proclaiming his innocence and his determination to run again in November.
The only people in Trump’s orbit I feel any sympathy for are his wife Melania and his press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Although at some point you have to take responsibility for whoever you decide to crawl into bed with, those are two jobs I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
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Rick Stiebel is a Sooke resident, and semi-retired journalist. He’s not expecting a greeting card from Donald Trump at Christmastime.
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