Deception. Seeded and cultivated by those determined to profit from it, deception has driven many wars and resulted in incalculable destruction, heartache, and loss of human potential. President Johnson told us not to “worry about Vietnam” and sent thousands of boys into a war he knew was unwinnable. President Bush pressed us to believe Iraq had WMDs, with no credible evidence, and started an unnecessary war. While shy of nefarious, these are examples of the disastrous consequence of “leaders” choosing to deceive people to advance their own agenda and hold onto power.
Tragically today, Trump and Republicans are vigorously promulgating gross distortions of the truth in a concerted effort to grab power. Their strategy, quintessentially Machiavellian, is to always look just, while doing whatever is necessary to gain and hold power. Here are a few examples.
Perhaps the most pervasive deception Trump and Republicans are promulgating is that the economy is doing terribly and that Trump did a better job handling it. This needs to be broken down into three parts: jobs, inflation, and immigration.
With respect to jobs, the facts are that during Trump’s presidency, the US lost 2.7 million jobs. During Biden’s presidency, the US gained 16.2 million jobs. To draw appropriate conclusions from these facts, they must be understood in the context of time, tax cuts, and the pandemic.
While Trump inherited a steadily growing economy, “conservative” Republicans chose to spike the economy with a $1.5T tax cut, the majority of which went to those already wealthy. Tragically, when Covid hit, Trump downplayed it, refused to encourage masking and vaccinations, and allowed the depth and duration of the pandemic to grow unabated—leaving us in worse shape than many other countries. The result was a health and economic shock that’s reverberating through the economy to this day.
While job gains during the Biden presidency can partly be attributed to a bounce back from the pandemic, the rise in inflation was also driven by the bounce back. With deaths and illnesses shrinking the workforce, significant disruptions in supply chains, consumers eager to buy again, and corporations eager to take advantage of that demand, prices surged. While Trump continues to blame Biden and Harris for inflation, the truth is that Trump’s bungled handling of the pandemic and corporate greedflation were the real drivers of inflation.
To Americans struggling financially, Republicans have chosen to feed prejudices, demonize immigrants, and feed the lie that “they’re taking your job!” In fact, immigrants filled jobs most Americans didn’t want and boosted economic growth. Tragically, many have bought into Trump’s lie that mass deportations and tariff increases will benefit them. Republicans know these plans would substantially increase inflation and create a recession but they continue to deceive people into believing these policies would benefit them.
Another significant disconnect is that while Republicans extend sympathies to those suffering the ravages of hurricanes, they easily forget that they rolled back the very environmental measures that restrain the global warming pollutants fueling these hurricanes. While in office Trump rescinded nearly 100 environmental regulations, including 28 that restrained global warming air pollutants. Tragically, Trump has already promised oil executives more environmental rollbacks if they help him win.
Perhaps the most damaging deception Trump continues to lead people into is that our elections are rigged. Despite 63 court cases finding no election irregularities in 2020, Trump continues to lead tens of millions of people into fervently believing he won and, by implication, that if he doesn’t win again, it will be because of fraud. This attack on the integrity of our elections seriously undermines our democracy, and when taken together with Trump and Republicans’ other deceptions, hopefully gives all ample reason to abandon Trump and all of his enablers.
