The Boy Who Lied Wolf

Donald Trump has a problem with lying. I'm not saying that he's a pathological liar, though he very well might be. And I won't even wade into the controversy Wall Street Journal Editor in Chief Gerard Baker found himself in by saying that when covering Donald Trump he would "be careful about using the word ‘lie'" because "'lie' implies a deliberate intent to mislead." Whether Donald Trump is intentionally misleading Americans or is simply historically uninformed makes little difference to me; either case is terrifying.

But yesterday, the Russian hacking scandal saw another element drizzle out: allegations that Donald Trump has been compromised by Russian blackmailing. The speed of the story and the journalistic standards involved in reporting on some of the specifics is concerning, and Donald Trump went to Twitter, as per usual, to protest:

He would eventually attempt to offer some evidence, but Russia protesting its own innocence is hardly convincing. Notably, the phrase "witch hunt" was used last week by both Donald Trump and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov to describe the greater leaking scandal. Trump for his part decided to use it immediately before receiving his classified briefing on the Russian hacks. Which means he used it before he was actually briefed on the allegations, all the while claiming to keep an open mind on the investigation. And this style of Trump, to counter-punch before he even steps in the ring, is part of a pattern every time Donald Trump has felt under attack, a feeling that has been particularly pointed over the last three days.

Consider two tweets from Mr. Trump's skirmish with Meryl Streep and Serge Kovaleski:

If you've been reading us, you won't be surprised to know that there are two major points here (whether Trump mocked a disabled reporter and whether said reporter had recanted a story critical of Trump), and they're both lies.

And then we have Donald's war with the media on whether Mexico will pay for the border wall: spoiler alert, they won't.

Trump has pushed this idea repeatedly, but there is no agreement in place, and all we have to depend on is Trump's word that it will happen: when you're in a hurry, "you start, and then you get reimbursed." I wonder how that philosophy worked out for contractors on Trump properties.

He calls something a lie when it's at worst debatable, and then throws his own lie onto the pile to one-up his perceived slighters. Other than noticing he was holding the shift-key down while he typed, how do I differentiate between these interactions? How do I differentiate his response to policy questions to accusations that he was blackmailed for videotaped sex acts?

I am troubled. In nine days, a man will take the oath of office as President of the United States who defends Russia even as evidence mounts that Vladimir Putin attempted to meddle in our democratic processes. His persistent attacks on the press and threats to launch an actual "witch hunt" should not go unnoticed, especially as his allies in Congress make it easier for them to punish recalcitrant civil servants. His choice of language, labeling those who disagree with him his "enemies," and his expressed affinity for "opening up" laws aimed to protect journalists who are critical of public figures, are all part of the intolerable soup we'll be forced to stomach nine days from now.

President Trump will thrive by exhausting us on false equivalence. By making every critique an "us vs. them," "me vs. the enemy," and "dear leader vs. biased media," Donald Trump wants us to grow tired. If everything is a witch hunt, then nothing can be. He wants us to place all of these issues as perfectly equal, when the only real equivalents between them are his own thin skin and the certain factual inaccuracy in his response.

I do not know what we'll find as these newest allegations are thrust into the light, but I know that we as a country can survive this and come out stronger on the other side. I have to believe that, because a man that I trust told me it was so.

Yes. We can.