CNN
(CNN) — Yes, it’s happening again. Former President Donald Trump is back on the scene, and we are about to become the target of his relentless disinformation campaign. This effort has proven to be surprisingly successful in creating a new reality for large segments of the electorate. That’s why it’s so hard to beat Trump.
Appearing at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Tuesday night to declare victory in the Super Tuesday primary, President Trump unfurled an elaborate tapestry of misrepresentations, exaggerations, and outright lies, including The reality that awaits many of us in the future shocked many of us.
His dark vision of today’s America, divorced from reality, is aimed at scaring voters into supporting him. And his ultra-glossy reminiscences of his time in the White House, now that he’s president years later and those anxiety-filled worst days may have been clouded in the fog of our memories. trying to convince Americans that everything was great back then.
Fact checking doesn’t work for these common operations. It’s impossible to catch up. By the time smart pundits bring out the truth that Trump has been trying to hide, millions of people have already heard and accepted it, or at least absorbed the essence of Trump’s self-serving message.
When repeated regularly in front of a swarm of microphones and cameras, lies come to life and truth fades away. The facts laid out later barely scratch the surface.
That is Trump’s pernicious superpower. He repurposed the salesman’s snake oil skills into the mob-mongering rhetoric of the agitators. According to Merriam-Webster, a demagogue is “a leader who uses public prejudice or false claims or promises to seize power.” It’s almost a portrait of Trump and his Mar-a-Lago speech (and the speeches Americans will be bombarded with over the next eight months).
It was particularly amusing, and a little infuriating, to hear President Trump claim that “the world is laughing at us” because of President Joe Biden’s policies. In fact, he was the one who literally made the world laugh when he boasted at the United Nations in 2018 that “my administration has accomplished more in less than two years than almost any administration in our country’s history.” . The solemn venue burst into laughter at his absurd claim.
Later, NATO leaders were also caught on tape seemingly mocking the US president’s bizarre behavior. These are just a few of the times Trump has been ridiculed.
Given that President Trump has expressed admiration for dictators and disdain for NATO and other alliances, there is a strong possibility that he will become president again, and how a second term will affect global security. U.S. allies are worried as they consider whether to do so.
If President Trump had suggested that the world had lost respect for the United States under the Biden administration, he has reversed it. Poll after poll shows that views of U.S. leadership collapsed during the president’s tenure, in some cases falling to record lows, but have rebounded strongly since Biden took office.
President Trump called Biden “the worst president in our country’s history.” But when members of the American Political Science Association were asked to rank American presidents from best to worst, who do you think came last? Trump beat out Herbert Hoover and Jimmy Carter. He finished in 45th out of 45, which was far below him. (Biden is 14th, Abraham Lincoln is 1st). There was a reason for that. Few presidents have been as divisive as he. No one has been indicted, found by a jury responsible for hundreds of millions worth of fraud and sexual abuse, and no one has launched an effort to overturn the results of a democratic election. But Trump’s speech weaves illusions that turn darkness into light and shine into shadow.
Like his provocateurs, President Trump sought to paint the modern world as full of fear and danger, just as he did in his infamous “American Carnage” inaugural address in 2017. He says much of the country is experiencing an increase in crime. He claims the incident was perpetrated by evil illegal immigrants who are “invading” the country. As he told us, they are “poisoning the blood” of America by using their preferred language. When Adolf Hitler and white supremacists try to enrage their base against minorities.
In fact, violent crime has been on the decline recently. It increases rapidly, especially in large cities. Murders, assaults, rapes, and robberies are all down.But that’s not what most Americans believe, at least in part. Because political propaganda works. Regardless of the statistics, that menacing and distorted image of reality will help Trump.
In fact, crime skyrocketed under the Trump administration, with FBI statistics showing that homicides rose nearly 30% from 2019 to 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic. Assaults, robberies, and rapes all increased as well.
Of course there are crimes, and there are also crimes committed by immigrants. Any act of violence by immigrants, especially those with Hispanic names, is expected to garner significant attention as a weapon against Democrats.
Then there’s the economy, another area where President Trump is gaslighting the country with some success.
“We had the best economy in the history of the world,” he boasted of his presidency. But by almost any measure, the economy has fared even better under the Biden administration. More than 14 million new jobs will be created under the Biden administration, averaging 400,000 jobs per month.Compare this to 176,000 per month Average under Trump in front Pandemic. (Incidentally, the wealthiest country on earth has become one of the hardest-hit countries in the world due to a pandemic that President Trump mishandled.)
The overall economy, or GDP, is growing faster under the Biden administration than under the Trump administration, even ignoring the pandemic disaster, and the unemployment rate is at a 50-year low.
Inflation, another aftereffect of the pandemic, remains a problem but is declining rapidly.
President Trump lied about achieving “energy independence” during his term and appeared to suggest that U.S. oil production was declining because of Biden. In fact, the United States is producing more oil than ever before. In fact, we produce more oil than any other country has ever produced. Biden is not destroying the oil industry.
When hearing Trump’s ominous warnings, it’s helpful to remember his market predictions. “If Biden wins, he’s going to have a stock market crash like we’ve never seen before,” he confidently predicted during the 2020 campaign.
Since then, the stock market has posted record gains, supported by an economy that defied recession predictions.In response to one such record, the Biden campaign dug out the clip President Trump predicts market catastrophe.
“Good for you, Donald” Biden joked on X.
It was Biden and his campaign confronting Trump and his followers with the truth. But they are up against a powerful force, a force of brazen, shameless, and constantly repeated lies.
For Biden, it will be a challenge to overcome Trump’s routine — The Washington Post has documented 30,573 lies and misleading claims during his presidency. It is the duty of the media to cover his campaign without amplifying the devastating effects of his constant volley of lies. It’s not an easy job.
CNN Wire
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