Donald Trump’s ‘Big Liar’ Technique

There’s also a deep diffidence about pointing out uncomfortable truths. Back in 2000, when I was first writing this column, I was discouraged from using the word “lie” about George W. Bush’s dishonest policy claims. As I recall, I was told that it was inappropriate to be that blunt about the candidate of one of our two major political parties. And something similar may be going on even now, with few people in the media willing to accept the reality that the G.O.P. has nominated someone whose lies are so blatant and frequent that they amount to sociopathy.

 

The Trump strategy for success? Fire everyone.

Despite what you may learn watching “The Apprentice,” you can’t just fire your way to success.

.. Well, they’ll probably be different generals, to be honest with you,” Trump retorted, later adding that current personnel have led to “the worst and you could even say the dumbest foreign policy.”

At no point did Trump provide guidance on what he’d be looking for in new military advisers — other than, of course, a public endorsement of Trump — or what his or their secret master plan for defeating the Islamic State should look like.
.. Just a few weeks earlier, Trump suggested he might soon be cleaning house in the country’s intelligence agencies, too. On Fox News, he said he didn’t trust the U.S. intelligence community and planned not to use “the people that are sort of your standards.”
It’s not just the national security apparatus that deserves to be purged, in Trump’s view. As president, he would also cleanse the entire executive branch of career civil servants appointed during President Obama’s tenure.

Trump Time Capsule #92: ‘How the Media Undermine American Democracy’

The argument of the previous 90-odd entries in this series is that Donald Trump is something genuinely new in the long history of major party nominees. He has absolutely no experience in public office. Almost every day he says or does something that by itself would have disqualified previous nominees. He does not have policies so much as emotional stances. What he has done renders irrelevant the normal “Trump says, but critics answer” approach to journalism.

.. The print version says that Trump is “shelving” his deportation plans and making a dramatic shift toward a more favorable tone on Mexicans and immigrants. The online version says the reverse.

.. Rather it was the seeming demonstration of the journalistic instinct to be on the lookout for a “spirited bid” like this, since it is what reporters think “should” be taking place. After all, this is what a “normal” candidate would do; implicitly the story presents the Trump campaign as normal.