~a column by Colleen O’Brien
The man has said, “You know that. And everybody knows that.”
He’s not talking about his own lack of honesty but about every subject he brings up. This is an oft-heard collection of words from a former President who averaged using it 154 times a day for the four years of his administration. He continued afterward, but was anyone still counting?
It’s not an evil quote; words in themselves are innocent. But it is word usage that in this case supports lies. The person using those words is lying, then including us in the lie [everybody knows…‘].
I don’t like the inference, his telling me what I know. By definition of “everyone” I am included, and I’ve never been crazy for folks who make assumptions about me.
Examples of other lies repeated over the years:
—“Good men and women arrested on January 6, 2021, are ‘hostages; they have been treated badly by prosecutors, judges, the law itself. Just like me.”
—“I’m building a wall that the Mexican government will pay for.”
—“I’m going to ‘fix’ Obamacare.” [60 or more times the fix did not get through Congress.]
—“I received more votes than any President in history.” This is, in fact, a fact. We have more people now. Trump received 74.2 million votes in 2020. Joe Biden received 81.2 million votes and won.
—When he says the Biden administration is the worst in our history, he’s lying; or I’ll give him the doubt – he seems often merely misinformed; it was Herbert Hoover, 1929-1933. This may change.
—Illegal immigration, the trade deficit, the federal debt — numbers he vowed to lower — went up even before the 2020 global pandemic began.
—Before the pandemic, in 2019, the U.S. added fewer than 2 million jobs —the lowest annual growth since 2010.
—And then the Coronavirus heaved its way in during March and April 2020, and the U.S. economy lost a 21.9 million jobs. Not his fault, but he never mentioned it.
—“It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear,” Trump said about the pandemic on February 27, 2020.
We’re still waiting on that “miracle.” He left office with 24,255,934 coronavirus cases and 402,269 deaths, (Johns Hopkins University). This death toll is nearly equal to America’s World War II death toll of about 405,000. (Department of Veterans Affairs)
This President retired after losing the election, leaving 2.7 million fewer jobs than when he floated down the escalator four years before. He is the first president in modern times to walk out on a net loss of jobs over his time in office; this is according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics that has kept monthly employment figures since 1939.
When Trump left office, the number of job openings stood at nearly 7.2 million — which was 27.9 percent more than when he took office.*
When Trump left office, there were 178,000 fewer people employed in manufacturing than when he became president. *
As candidate and President, Trump said the economy would rise 4 to 6 percent; it never rose more than 3 percent.*
In the four years since Biden and Harris took office, prices have risen by 20.9 percent, and wages have risen by 23.3 percent (since February 2020). So, during that period, Americans’ income has run ahead of inflation.*
“An ideologically diverse cross-section of economists agrees that the American Rescue Plan added a couple of percentage points to inflation but didn’t cause the wider spike. The primary causes were supply chain disruptions from the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” (Bureau of Labor Statistics*)
The best liar of all time dubbed his very own social medium “Truth Social.” To sway us from thinking he might lie?
Going over his words, promises and name-calling of the past few years, I have questions, several of them having been rolling around in my head, lo, these said years:
Why does he have to be covered by the media at all?
Could one interviewer stop him in his tracks and ask him why he’s lying?
Could one reporter ask him when he says, “What a stupid question.” “Lower your voice.” “You just asked your question in a very nasty tone.” And repeat to him the same?
I know he dislikes the Press, especially the Black female reporters, but acting like an unsophisticated person from the streets of Queens gets him what?
Why did he run for office?
Is he ever embarrassed by his faux pas?
Is his son embarrassed by him?
Why does he never mention Mary Trump?
Do his “friends” golf with him just so they can relate his cheating tactics later? Or do they all get to cheat? Does he cheat when Barron plays a round with him?
Has anyone ever told him what “projection” means, in relation to his behavior?
What if just one reporter would have said, “Oh, Mr. President, I feel so sorry for you.” And walked away.
“Nasty” is one of his favorite words to call women to their face. This is one of his biggest “tells” when it comes to his projection of himself onto others, making them him in his own psyche. He knows himself to be a nasty bugger. “You know that. Everybody knows that.” Even those who love him.
FYI: :According to Bing.com/news, Trump is worth $3.65 billion; Forbes says $7 billion. In case there is worry out there that he doesn’t have enough for his campaign or his legal fees and debts, no one has to buy the latest hat (pink) or the Trump coin, selling for $100, $30 worth of silver in it.
*Stats from Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
