Deconstructing the Lies About Donald Trump
Trump didn't mock a reporter's disability. It's just one lie among the countless lies perpetuated by the professional press and his myriad other enemies. Here's the proof.
The Backlash—In my last post, which endorsed Donald Trump the day before he won the US election, I won a lot of disdain from friends and acquaintances. Some severed ties. I was expecting this, but it still feels weird to have people I’ve personally known for years quickly turn their opinion, implying I’m a Nazi, racist, or misogynist—some kind of secret monster.
I hold no bad feelings. People have been deceived.
We’ve Been Lied To—The crux of my argument is this (and I suppose I need to repeat this as clearly, directly, and succinctly as possible):
There is a network of corrupt, entrenched institutions centered in Washington D.C. Some of them are directly part of government. Some are technically outside of the government. Some operate with impunity within the government.
Donald Trump is a threat to all of them, and that network—that leviathan—has been targeting him for nearly a decade.
Their primary tool is deceit. You, me, every person in this country, everybody in the world, has been persistently lied to this whole time.
Many of these lies are well concealed and difficult or impossible to disprove.
But sometimes they are shockingly easy to reveal. It simply requires referencing unedited video of events in question.
How To Change A Mind—While it’s easy to showcase many of these lies, persuading people they’ve been lied to is nearly impossible unless certain pre-requisites are met:
They must genuinely be open to the possibility that their model of the world may be missing information or have bad information.
They must be willing to invest the time necessary to examine the purported new information.
If persuaded, they must be willing to rework or completely abandon their old model, their old map of the world, in light of new information.
In short, it comes down to one word: Curiosity.
On Curiosity and Grief—To this point, I’ve seen shocking little curiosity from the political Left. What I have seen is a lot of mourning, like a beloved family member was killed. This is a little surprising to me, as I’ve never personally identified so closely with a politician that their loss felt like my own loss. Truth is, I’ve voted overwhelmingly for people who lose in politics.
I’ve seen people say there’s nothing to learn from this, which is false by any standard. Defeat is only useful as a teacher, and a more effective teacher than success. To say there’s nothing to learn is absurd. Notably, denial is the first stage of grief.
It isn’t confined to the fringe. Jen Rubin (pictured above) is an MSNBC contributor and columnist at the Washington Post. She has over 700k followers on 𝕏. She, like many others, is now vowing to boycott or at least reduce her time on 𝕏 as a protest against the “right-wing echo-chamber” that correctly predicted the election outcome better than any legacy institution.
I’ve seen many people (mostly professional press) insist their only mistake was underestimating the racism, sexism, and various phobias of the Right. When faced with a conflict of ideas, this is the easiest way to resolve in one’s own mind. “You disagree with me? You must be stupid, crazy, and/or a liar!” It requires no effort of the accuser while seeming to tie up any cognitive loose ends. It’s also the least likely to be true, and the most destructive to social dialogue. Not surprisingly, anger is the second stage of grief.
We haven’t gotten to bargaining, depression, or acceptance yet, but they’re coming.
But my focus in this post isn’t grief. It’s the reality of the lies we’re being fed.
Case Study: Trump “Mocked a Journalist’s Disability”
The examples of malicious untruths coming to us from the professional press are essentially too many to enumerate. It’s the job of the press to inform the population, but they’ve rejected that role in favor of propagandizing. They’ve taken up the mantle of Orwell’s Ministry of Truth. Just know that if they’re hammering a specific assertion against Donald Trump or his allies, you should be extremely skeptical by default.
The following example is a good place to begin drilling down to primary evidence to discern what’s accurate.
A friend of mine said Trump is “an obvious bully and cruel person”, that he “finds pleasure in causing people pain.” To prove his point, my friend cited the well-known example from 2015 where Trump purportedly mocked a New York Times reporter for his physical disability. Shown below is a thumbnail widely used to illustrate the point. It’s all on camera. It’s obvious. What more evidence could you need to show his innate cruelty?
My friend added “there is nothing you can do or suggest to me to get me to believe that act wasn’t bullying to me.” But I’ll try anyway.
So to my friend Michael, and anyone else reading, here is my answer.
There will be more examples of lies to deconstruct in future posts coming soon.
I’m glad you brought up that incident. You’re a student of media, so you’ll appreciate the importance of editing, juxtaposition, context, etc.
First, could you look at the below gif and tell me which one is Trump mocking the reporter?
They’re remarkably similar, so it may be hard to tell. That’s because Trump uses this gesture often, to make fun of anybody he thinks is frazzled or “groveling.”
Here’s a short compilation of Trump talking about a few different people—a banker, a US general, Senator Ted Cruz, and the New York Times reporter in question named Serge Kovaleski. If the Fox News logo is distasteful to you, please know there’s no color commentary, just the relevant clips.
The point should be clear. Trump uses this gesture with anybody who doesn’t have the answers he thinks they should have.
But there’s more.
It’s well known Kovaleski has a disability. His photograph (shown above) was widely circulated after Trump’s remarks. What wasn’t shown was any video of Kovaleski, who is traditionally a print reporter. So it wasn’t obvious to viewers that his disability doesn’t make him shake at all. Quite the opposite. He’s totally prevented from moving his right arm.
In this video from 2010, you can see the top of Kobaleski’s hand multiple times in the video. It doesn’t move once. There’s no shaking. That’s not the nature of his disability.
Is it possible Trump’s own account of this event is accurate? That he:
Didn’t know the reporter, or had met him so long ago he didn’t remember
Didn’t know what he looked like
Didn’t know he was disabled
Was using a gesture he uses often, in his words mimicking a “groveling person”
If that’s even plausible, then we should ask why none of the professional press (except Fox) gave that denial any credence whatsoever.
Here is his own account of the event in question. He publicly denied the accusation many times.
The next clip is from the 2019 Summit of the Israeli American Council. After his speech, Trump was met by the Israeli Shalva Band. You’ll notice the members of the band have disabilities, including Williams Syndrome, Down’s Syndrome, and blindness. Based on what I see here, I don’t think Trump has any problem with people with disabilities.
[If this doesn’t deep link the video for whatever reason, the relevant timecode is 1:03:59]
We were led to believe Trump is a fundamentally cruel person who would stoop so low he’ll mock a person’s disability. I think it’s the opposite. He has compassion for the weak, respect for the powerful, and absolutely no positive regard for those he views as corrupt and incompetent, regardless of their status. That is what we're seeing when Trump is “being mean.”
Here is a clip of Donald and Melania Trump on Larry King Live in 2005 Shortly after they were married. The whole interview is good, but I’m linking to a specific part where he mocks himself in a similar way.
[Relevant timecode is 7:45]
CNN loved Trump in 2005. So did Oprah, Whoopi Goldberg, all of Hollywood, and most of America. What changed when he decided to run for President? He went from celebrated, to mocked, to hated, to feared, and now is sincerely equated to Hitler or Mussolini. He hasn’t invaded any countries (unlike Presidents before and after him) and there’s no sign of a holocaust.
I think we should ask ourselves why these people want us to hate him, because they very clearly do.
This was one example where their reporting was misleading—lacking at best, deceptive at worst. It’s nine years old. Having personally examined many of these accusations, I’m telling you this what happens. It’s what they do. It’s the rule, not the exception. They’ll do whatever is necessary to make him look like a monster, and he’s such a brash personality it becomes pretty easy. There is a coordinated effort to get the American people to hate and reject him. Why?
It’s totally fine to criticize the US President or a wealthy tycoon. But the professional press hardly ever criticized Biden. He was defended even when there were obvious disasters happening right in front of us, like Covid, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Lahaina Maui, East Palestine Ohio, and Eastern North Carolina. They ran cover for his cognitive decline until it was absolutely undeniable during his debate, when they did a full seemingly coordinated about-face. CNN and others hammered on the startling reality until Biden announced he’d end his campaign.
They felt fine criticizing Harris. She was widely cited as the least liked VP in many years. That is, until she was the presumptive nominee. Then to criticize her was anathema. The professional press bent over backward to accommodate, elevate, and help her campaign.
They didn’t even criticize Donald Trump until he ran for President.
You don’t have to watch them very long to see the reversals. We’ve seen many in the past few years.
We should be asking why.
When Trump first ran for President, he promised to “drain the swamp.”
What does it tell us that when he promised to drain the swamp—to root out corruption in D.C.—that’s exactly when virtually every institution in D.C., Hollywood, and the professional press turned on him?
Something to contemplate. More to come soon.