Who's Still Buying This?
Donald is still telling the same lies. Reality hasn't changed.
Donald traveled to Wheeler High School in Marietta, Georgia yesterday to promote what he is calling “Trump Accounts,” a new federally funded investment program for children that is expected to cost taxpayers approximately $17 billion through 2028. Before he even took the stage, however, the most memorable moment had nothing to do with his latest proposal. Protesters lined the streets outside the school, and one sign in particular stood out. It read, “I thought sex offenders couldn’t be within 1,000 feet of a school.”
It was difficult to miss the point.
The timing of Donald’s visit also could not have been more revealing. Americans remain deeply dissatisfied with his handling of the economy. According to a recent Washington Post Ipsos poll, just 33 percent of respondents approve of his economic performance. Inflation remains elevated at roughly 3 percent, despite a modest decline last month that was driven largely by a temporary drop in gasoline and oil prices during the brief ceasefire with Iran. That respite did not last. Donald’s inability to secure a lasting agreement allowed the conflict to escalate once again, and the economic consequences have followed.
Gas prices have climbed back above four dollars a gallon. Brent crude is once again approaching ninety dollars a barrel. None of this is especially surprising. Donald has always been an extraordinarily poor businessman. He understands very little about economics, even less about foreign policy, and absolutely nothing about diplomacy. Every time he insists he alone can negotiate the impossible, reality eventually reminds us otherwise.
Donald opened his appearance at Wheeler High School the way he so often does, by relitigating elections and attacking the press.
Donald: Boy, I’ll tell you what a group. We have thousands of people outside on a weekday. The weather’s nice. But we’re in Marietta. We’re in Atlanta right by it. And I just want to thank everybody. Those are places. We had a tremendous victory here and it was a big, beautiful victory. We won by a lot and we have some great candidates running. They got to win by a lot. Otherwise, we’re going communist. I don’t think anybody wants that. We’re not going to do that. But I’m thrilled to be back in the great state of Georgia with thousands of proud, hardworking American patriots. That’s what you are. And with your help in 2024, we earned more votes than any candidate in Georgia history. We’ve never been anything like it. And when I say that, I have to be careful because look at all the fake news back there. They will correct me. They will say, “He said he earned more.” If I didn’t earn, if I was two votes short, they would say, “He’s lying. He’s lying. They are sick individuals in the fake news.”
Who is still buying this?
Seriously, who?
Donald lies constantly. He has always lied constantly. Yet somehow, people continue listening to him recycle the same grievances, the same fabricated victories, and the same endless complaints about the press. Nearly two years after the election, he is still obsessing over how many votes he received. He remains incapable of moving beyond his own need for validation because, fundamentally, he cannot imagine a world in which he is not the center of it.
Of course, his nostalgia for past elections quickly gave way to a familiar pattern. Donald once again insisted that America has never been more successful, that we are living through what he continues to call the “golden age,” and that manufacturers from around the world are rushing back to the United States.
Donald: Together, we’re making our country safer and stronger and far more successful than it’s ever been before. And that’s happening before your very eyes. That’s why I call it the golden age. This is the golden age of America. We’re building more plants than at any time in the history of our country. And not just AI and all of the different things you read about. Things like auto plants, the old-fashioned way. Toyota just announced they’re leaving Mexico and they’re coming in. They’re going to be building the largest plant anywhere in the world. They’re all coming back. They’re all leaving Canada, they’re leaving Mexico. They’re coming in from Germany and Japan and South Korea. They’re coming in from all over. And people that have been doing this, people like Scott and others that have been doing this for a long time, they’ve never seen anything like it. I don’t think you’ve ever seen anything like it.
No, they have not seen anything like it because it is not happening.
Much of what Donald described simply does not exist outside his imagination. Yet he continues making sweeping claims with absolute confidence, assuming that repetition alone will transform fiction into reality. It is an approach that has defined his public life for decades. If reality contradicts him, then reality must be wrong.
Donald also attempted to explain away rising prices with the excuse he always reaches for. Nothing is ever his fault. Every problem belongs to somebody else, and every success belongs exclusively to him.
Donald: And they tried to blame high prices on me. So think of it. When I inherited this thing on January 20th, we had the highest inflation in many, many years. Forty eight years they say. I say maybe ever. This is what I inherited. And when I had nothing to do with it, I walk into office, I have a press conference first or second day, and they’re screaming at me, “What are you going to do about high prices? What are you going to do?” I said, “I just got here. What are we talking about? Tell me. Eggs, eggs have gone up four times. Four times.” I said, “I just got here. Give me a break.” They did. They hit me with the eggs then. You remember that? Kelly, you remember I got hit with the eggs. First day, first press conference, nice friendly press conference. They treat me so nicely. What are you going to do about the prices? And they used the word first time I heard it. It was a word made up by the Democrats. Affordability. They said, “Affordability.” I said, “I’ve been here one day. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it. And we’re taking care of it. We’re taking good care of it.”
I honestly could not listen to much more of that.
When I ask how people continue believing Donald’s lies, I also wonder how they continue listening to him at all. Every speech sounds exactly the same. The grievances never end. The self-pity never ends. The stories wander aimlessly from one unrelated thought to another. He cannot stay on topic. He cannot speak with clarity. He cannot modulate his voice. He cannot communicate a coherent argument. And yet millions of people continue treating him as though he is somehow persuasive, credible, or trustworthy.
Donald also reminded the audience, falsely, that he presided over the greatest economy in American history during his first term. He lamented that he never received enough credit for his handling of COVID, despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of Americans died unnecessarily because of his catastrophic failures and deliberate dishonesty. Then, almost as an afterthought, he assured everyone that prices are rapidly coming down.
To be honest, it was difficult to determine exactly where he was trying to go. Perhaps you will have better luck than I did.
Donald: We had the best economy in history in my first term. A lot of people don’t because we had a COVID period went all over the world and we did a great job where they got no credit for it. We did Operation Warp Speed. And I’ll tell you, we did a great job, but we got very little credit for it. We should have been given big credit, but we got credit for everything else. And we had the best economy, but this economy is ready to blow everything away ever of any country. There’s never been anything like what’s happening in the United States of America right now. So I just want you to remember that if you’re paying a little bit more, a lot of it’s come down now. We got it coming down very rapidly, actually. Look at the number just released. But really, we inherited something from Biden and we’re giving it back to you thousands and thousands of dollars each family.
The reality is very different.
What Donald inherited from Joe Biden was an economy that economists around the world described as the envy of the world. What he inherited was steady growth, falling inflation, and an economy that had recovered remarkably from the global disruption of the pandemic. What he has done since taking office is inject instability into that economy through reckless policymaking, unnecessary international conflicts, and a profound inability to distinguish between governing and performing.
Perhaps the most revealing aspect of Donald’s presidency has always been this refusal to accept responsibility. He demands credit for every positive development, regardless of whether he had anything to do with it. Yet every failure, every setback, every increase in costs, every broken promise, somehow belongs to someone else. Leadership does not work that way. If you insist on taking all of the credit, then you also have to accept the blame.
Donald has never understood that distinction. And that, more than any speech he gives or any slogan he repeats, continues to define his presidency.