It’s Not Just a Conspiracy Theory

Morning Dispatch

A few days ago, somebody posted the following images on Truth Social (Donald’s social media company which has lost almost 45 percent of its value since going public because Donald is a business genius):

Donald quote posted with this mature analysis:

Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport? There was nobody at the plane, and she “A.I.’d” it, and showed a massive “crowd” of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST! She was turned in by a maintenance worker at the airport when he noticed the fake crowd picture, but there was nobody there, later confirmed by the reflection of the mirror like finish on the Vice Presidential Plane. She’s a CHEATER. She had NOBODY waiting, and the “crowd” looked like 10,000 people! Same thing is happening with her fake “crowds” at her speeches. This is the way the Democrats win Elections, by CHEATING - And they’re even worse at the Ballot Box. She should be disqualified because the creation of a fake image is ELECTION INTERFERENCE. Anyone who does that will cheat at ANYTHING!

As often is the case with Donald’s extended written or spoken word salad, it’s hard to know where to start, so let’s go with the low-hanging fruit: This is a lie. Or, rather, this is a series of lies. The original lie—that this is an AI generated image—upon which the others are base, is absurd. Despite the ease with which the attendance at the tarmac in Detroit can be verified, he promotes the lie about it anyway. I’ll get to the more problematic lie in a minute.

Second, this is the Republican candidate for the presidency. This man once had the nuclear codes and tens of millions of people and the Republican Party apparatus will do nearly anything to make sure he has them again. And yet this is what he concerns himself with—crowd size. His fragile ego is so wounded by the fact that Kamala Harris is beating him at his own game, that he is having a very public temper tantrum. It’s embarrassing.

Third, this isn’t simply a lie. Said presidential candidate is spreading disinformation. This isn’t Four-Chan or Eight-Chan—Donald Trump is single-handedly mainstreaming conspiracy theories. This is criminally irresponsible, but the impulses prompting him to do it are pathological. The corporate media (many years too late) might want to start looking into Donald’s psychological and emotional unfitness.

Finally, Donald makes the argument that Kamala Harris personally cheated by lying about her crowd sizes (“She had NOBODY” writes the man who has nobody), and then generalizes this to, “This is the way the Democrats win Elections, by CHEATING.” The final two lines of his rant are pure projection: “She should be disqualified because the creation of a fake image is ELECTION INTERFERENCE. Anyone who does that will cheat at ANYTHING!”

First of all, it is Donald who cheats at anything. Second, since 2016, Donald has been preparing his followers to believe that if he loses, the election must be rigged. That is one way he protects himself from the terror of being labeled a loser (we saw how this worked out after the 2020 election). But more importantly, it’s also voter subversion—convincing people not to believe in the legitimacy of our free and fair elections is dangerous and leads to events like the attempted insurrection that occurred on January 6^th. And it is utterly disqualifying