How reporters working together could break through Trump’s wall of deceit

 

It must be difficult for reporters to listen to Trump’s lies without correcting him. I assume the media don’t push back because they fear losing access to him, but the silence after Trump’s televised lies is not just painful to watch, it’s one of the main reasons Trump's followers continue to believe him.

Every time Trump lies during a press conference and it goes unchallenged it reinforces the lie for the public. This enables Trump’s malignant behavior in the same way his sycophantic cabinet members enable him when they treat him like a monarch; praising qualities he doesn’t possess, professing their gratitude for the privilege of serving him, behaving as if he is some kind of minor deity.

If the President says something false, he needs to be corrected at the time. If he makes a vague statement, he should be asked to clarify. If he responds with “You know what I’m talking about,” he should be told, “No, no I don’t. And nobody else does either; so please explain.”

In a town hall the other day, Trump was asked about downplaying the virus. He responded by saying he actually “up-played it” if you look at his actions. Why didn’t somebody say, “Can you please give us examples?” If they had, he’d have mentioned the ban on travel from China (because he always does). And that’s when somebody needs to say “You mean the ban that exempted thousands of residents of Hong Kong and Macao, failing to prevent 8,000 residents of those territories from entering the U.S. within the first three months after the ban was imposed? Is that the ban you are talking about?”  Or, “What about all the people who came in from Europe and infected large parts of the U.S. with a different strain of Covid-19? Why didn’t you bother to protect them?”

These details need airing for two reasons. First, we need context. Second, we need specifics. Trump’s ability to manipulate reality for himself and his followers depends on keeping context and specifics out of the discussion. If we force them back in, he’ll do one of three things (as he always does): make something up, implode, or have meltdown.

This is what we want. We want to expose him for what he is, a fraud incapable of leading this country.

We also need to expose the truth, which is more than stand-alone sentences or decrees. The truth can be complicated. Without context and specifics, it is not possible to know the truth. With it, we can connect the dots between everything we’re seeing and hearing and attempt to make sense of it all.

Trump has claimed that he built “the wall.” What he doesn’t say is that U.S. taxpayers are paying $30 million/mile for it. Every time he claims that he’s delivered on that promise, somebody should say, “But wasn’t the promise that Mexico would pay for it?” Or, “I’ve heard the money is coming from the military budget; if so, how can you claim you have beefed up the military?” Or “How are you going to resolve the fact that the land you want to build on is private land, and the government isn’t allowed to build on private land? Whose land will you be confiscating in the name of eminent domain?”

Trump says he wants to protect medical coverage for pre-existing conditions but never mentions the legal battle his administration has been fighting since they took office to remove that coverage. His actions are so often in direct opposition to his statements and promises, nothing he says can be taken at face value. Yet his followers refuse to challenge him.

This election is not going to be an easy victory for Biden. We have everything working against us when the Attorney General, an entire news agency (Fox), and most of the Republican members of Congress are all willing to lie or cover for Trump. But if we start demanding context and details from him, he will falter.

Reporters, working together, could break through the president’s wall of deceit.

Trump lives for the media spotlight. He won’t stop the press conferences because they feed his insatiable need for attention. If reporters force context and details into the dialogue during live conferences, he’ll have no choice but to respond to the requests or show his inability to do so. If he ignores one reporter and moves on to another, the next person he picks should repeat the unanswered question. This would provide much needed information to the public, while also chipping away at Trump’s façade. It’s what reporters do with other high-level officials. They must stop being afraid to do it with Trump.

If we want to reach the people who have succumbed to the Trump cult of celebrity, we need to show him as the bumbling and irrational fool he is. It’s the only way his base of Fox News watchers will ever see the real Donald Trump.