Trump’s Strategy of Lies and Division Work for Him, but How About the Rest of Us?

The efforts to reform Donald Trump into a reasonable, rational, decent human being are failing.

Ok. I’m kidding. I don’t even know that anybody around him has made the effort.

We certainly can’t count on his evangelical “spiritual advisers” to hold him to account, and according to Trump, his supporters are as reprobate and vile, adverse to the truth, while reveling in chaos and attacks on others, as he is.

Don’t get mad at me, Trumpsters. He said it.

In a new interview with Axios, the president made it clear that “winning” at any cost is all that matters. Truth, integrity, and peaceful discourse be damned.

He’s not here to heal or unify a nation. His entire goal is for himself.

So what if you’re a member of the media and you try to call him on his actions?

You get attacked. You’re the “enemy of the people.”

“It’s my only form of fighting back, I couldn’t be here if I didn’t do that,” he told Axios in a segment released Thursday when pressed about whether he believes some people might take his anti-media message and turn it into violence.

Trump added that his attacks help the media correct “wrong” stories.

“I think I’m doing a service when people write stories about me that are so wrong,” he said.

He routinely attacks news items that turn out to be completely, provably correct. He doesn’t slam them for being “wrong.” He slams them because they’re inconvenient to or critical of him.

This is coming after a rabid Trump supporter, Cesar Sayoc, was arrested after sending potentially explosive devices to those he perceived as “enemies” of Trump, including to CNN’s offices.

So is there anyone in his family or administration that is willing to call him out and tell him it’s time to tone it down?

“Not too much,” he said. “Hey, I’m here! It got me here.”

Yeah. That’s all that matters, right? It’s always only about you.

In another interview with ABC News, he even opined about how it takes effort to be truthful.

He struggles with not lying.

“Well, I try. I do try,” Trump said when asked about an earlier promise not to lie. “And I always want to tell the truth. When I can, I tell the truth. And sometimes it turns out to be where something happens that’s different or there’s a change, but I always like to be truthful.”

When you can?

I get not being at liberty to discuss certain things, especially as president, but when that happens, you say, “I’m not at liberty to speak on that matter, at this time.” It’s not nearly as hard as he makes it out to be.

Unless you’re just so used to lying to business partners, investors, wives, etc…

He further discussed his plans to send 15,000 troops to the southern border, in order to halt the advancing caravan of migrants.

That has been a hot topic for several weeks, and the 15,000 proposed troops to the border seems like overkill.

In the ABC interview, he defended his decision, saying that “we have to have a wall of people.”

“You have caravans coming up that look a lot larger than it’s reported actually. I’m pretty good at estimating crowd size. And I’ll tell you they look a lot bigger than people would think,” Trump said.

Anybody familiar with the kerfuffle regarding his inauguration size, or some of the falsehoods he’s pushed about rally crowds is getting a good giggle over that particular statement – which takes us right back to his inability to tell the truth.

Here’s what @realDonaldTrump told me when I asked about a promise he once made to never lie. “When I can, I tell the truth. And sometimes it turns out to be where something happens that’s different or there’s a change, but I always like to be truthful.” https://t.co/zuIqHH6EyT

— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) November 1, 2018

Truly, if the last couple of weeks have shown us nothing, we see the need for a steady hand and a calming voice from the biggest platform in the nation is critical.

What we have is the exact opposite of that.

President Trump is willing to inflame tensions and turn American citizens against each other, as long as it keeps him in the White House.

He’s weaponizing the ignorance and angst of his base, because he needs that MAGA army, and if things get messy in service to him and his wants, so be it.

Those words he reads from the teleprompter that are meant to console in light of Pittsburgh, or after a week of fear and tension, regarding targeting of media figures and Democrat lawmakers were not his words.

If you want to see how he really feels, watch his Twitter feed, or watch his rallies.

He is a spiteful, petty, dangerous little man. He pushes anger and division for personal gain, and until his target audience change their own desperately dark hearts, I fear this crazy train will only gain steam as it speeds towards the edge of the cliff.