In the novel "Catch 22" there is a passage where an officer is talking to an enlisted man, and the officer is asking about troop deployment information. The enlisted man gives great detail to the officer, giving crisp answers, and impressing the officer. After the officer leaves, the enlisted man is asked by one of his buddies who watched the exchange, "Wow, how did you know all that?" The buddy replies, "I didn't. I just made it up. Thing is, the officer won't remember what I told him about the troop deployments, but he will remember me as the 'smart guy that knew all that stuff.'"
Now back when Catch 22 was written, the idea of "fact checking" existed, but it was much less immediate than it is today. But even though it is relatively easy to do nowadays, it still takes some effort, and why bother if what you are hearing is stuff you like?
The word "Lie," is pretty charged, and so most news outlets are loathe to use it. There is also a question as to whether a statement is a lie if the person uttering it believes the statement. Trump has admitted to basically making things up during negotiations, he seems to consider it a negotiating tool (although it also seems he just isn't very good at remembering specific facts), but a lie is also a two person way street, in that the person receiving the information has some responsibility for believing it, particularly when the speaker is known to regularly utter "falsehoods."
The problem of course is, it appears that this technique is at least politically effective. Trump has a base that cheers him on. What is less clear is whether they are unaware of his "falsehoods," and believe his statements, or if they simply feel that his "falsehoods," really are more indicative of an off the cuff style, and not as important as his "results." Of course, that begs the question as to what "results" his supporters are really pointing to.
It seems to me that 10 falsehoods in one News Conference (a News Conference with Theresa May in England) is a lot, but the question is whether those falsehoods are at all important to American Voters...
- Stormy Daniels
- Trump Charity lawsuit by New York Attorney General
- FBI investigation (it keeps being called a Russian Collusion investigation, but I'm pretty sure more to it than that at this point)
- North Korea
- The Space Force
- The Border Wall
- Alien Children Detention/family separation
- Presidential Pardons
- Civil War Monuments
- Muslim Travel Ban
- China Tariffs/Trade
- Canada-G7 Tariffs/Trade
- NAFTA
- Puerto Rico response
- Military Parade in Washington
- World Trade Organization
- Covfefe Syndrome
- NATO
Giuliani still there as Lawyer
John F. Kelly still there as Chief of Staff - 6-29-2018 Trump says "Things Happen."
Jeff Sessions still there as Attorney General
Sarah Huckabee Sanders still there as Press Secretary, rumors continue to be denied.
Mike Pompeo - Secretary of State
John Bolton - National Security Advisor
Marc Short - White House Legislative Affairs Director - no denial of plans regarding his departure prior to the 2018 midterms.
Kirstjen Nielsen - Homeland Security Secretary
Joe Hagin - White House deputy Chief of Staff is resigning.- reported June 19th
Scott Pruitt - EPA Director - Resigned 7-5-2018
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