Unlike George Washington, Trump Lies Easily. Which Matters How?

Unlike George Washington, Donald J. Trump lies. All the time. That’s supposed to be something we do not do; lying is bad. American mythology even has a story about our first president, George Washington, who, after cutting down a cherry tree, admitted that he’d done it, saying that he “couldn’t lie.” Today, plenty of people lie: partners, spouses and friends who tell you the pants look great (the pants might, but you in them do not) are lying; your mother, who told you that “no one notices,” that enormous, oozing cold sore you developed as you go off to a first date or a speaking engagement, was lying.

There are also plenty of people outside of your immediate circle, who lie: politicians, about what they will do and what they will never and have never done; and advertisers, whatever product they are selling will never do as well or all that they say it will. And Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, lies; constantly, loudly, stupidly, about anything and everything: his weight, his height, his health, his “hair,” Epstein, Democrats, Venezuela, former President Obama, Iran, and 97.8 percent of the recent State of the Union speech are all examples of Trump’s distant relationship with the truth. And there is some small chance that these brazen lies, these uber-numerous falsehoods, may actually bring him down.

Presidents lie, per James Pfiffner, Professor Emeritus at George Mason University, whose primary areas of expertise include the Presidency and American National Government:

“Other presidents have lied for a variety of reasons, from legitimate lies concerning national security, to trivial misstatements, to shading the truth, to avoiding embarrassment, to serious lies of policy deception.”

But, unlike other presidents, Professor Pfiffner writes, Trump tells outrageous lies; lies about things that we all know to be true. He lies about facts. And therein lies one of Trump’s most dangerous and most effective authoritarian tactics: when he lies about facts, the fact itself is called into question.

His first-term advisor, Kelly Anne Conway, told us that there are, and I quote, “alternative facts.” To be clear, no, there are no alternative facts. There just aren’t. That was a hint about Trump, that facts have no meaning for him; he can ignore them, change them, or, however infrequently, pay attention to them. And, being untethered to facts, he can (and does) suggest or enact policies that have no relationship to the realities of how people live. The fact that there is climate change: No Matter! Trump doesn’t believe in it, so we can return to our climate-affecting behaviors. The fact that there are diseases that vaccines can eradicate: No Matter! Trump doesn’t need no stinkin’ vaccines, so he can appoint a vaccine denier to run the agency that makes sure we are all healthy! The fact that Russia invaded Ukraine to steal territory: No Matter! Trump berates and tries to make Zelenskyy jump through hoops, while he slathers praise on and drools over Putin. Where Trump is concerned, there are no facts that govern how he governs. None.

In fact, facts cannot be “alternative.” Facts are facts. Gravity is gravity, the earth is round, and the sun will rise in the East. Those are facts, and replacing facts with unfounded statements can be dangerous and deadly. Ingesting bleach is not going to cure any disease. If Trump were merely someone’s old, declining, mentally fragile relative interrupting a family get-together, his anti-fact convictions would simply be unsettling. When Trump lies about facts, he is signaling that we, as a nation, do not have to agree on the facts. And without agreed-upon facts, too many people cannot accurately judge Trump’s leadership or administration, leaving him free to do exactly as he wants with no accountability and almost no boundaries—including, as we are now seeing, going to war. Both are, again, features of autocratic leaders.

We are getting a glimpse of what might happen should Trump’s lying be laid bare by, you guessed it, the Epstein files. Trump campaigned for years about an alleged Democratic-run and financed pedophile ring. And, of course, when the Epstein case came to light, it was clear that Trump had been lying about that cult, which was not a Democratic cult, but a cult for the rich and powerful, political loyalties notwithstanding.

Trump also lied by omission, not mentioning that he’d been a close friend of Epstein for years. Through his decade of campaigning for president, becoming president twice, Trump promised all manner of actions that would expose this corrupt group, and, as we all now know, that is another lie. His administration is holding back a whole lot of paper (millions of pages), as well as anything that even points in the vague direction of Trump’s relationship with Epstein and his young victims. It’s not clear what we haven’t seen, but if there are millions of pages that the Department of Justice and Pam Bondi are holding back, and hundreds of pages that appear to redact information about the predators, rather than the victims, it seems a reasonable conclusion that Trump’s real-life relationship with Epstein and his victims may be something else entirely.

Trump excoriated Jeffrey Epstein and the sex cult he led for decades and vowed repeatedly to “clean up the swamp” to encourage his base to stay with him. As his base continues to be unhappy with his refusal to bring the full force of the Federal Government against Maxwell and the Epstein estate, there is a chance that the people who make up that base will start to leave him. One of the base’s most well-known personalities, Marjorie Taylor Greene, has broken with Trump, which seems to indicate that this may be the beginning of the end of Trump’s hold on power.

We may live to see the day when Trump is hoisted on his biggest, sharpest, most gold-leafed petard. A petard that, as the definition of “hoist on his petard,” points out, is entirely of his own making. Every so often, our universe certainly demonstrates a deep and satisfying sense of irony.

Margaret Henoch served in the Clandestine Service of the CIA for 25 years, at Headquarters and in the field, focusing on operations and counterintelligence and retiring as a Senior Intelligence Officer. She is a member of The Steady State.

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 390 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.