Donald Trump has obviously told far more lies than any other president. Had he been re-elected he might have gone on to tell more lies than all of his predecessors combined.
Q3 2020 hedge fund letters, conferences and more
Did Trump Win The Reelection?
Perhaps his biggest – and surely his most important – lie is that he actually won reelection. That lie is so big that he even telegraphed it months before Election Day by insisting that the only way he could lose would be if the election were rigged.
Mary Trump, the president’s niece and a clinical psychologist, who wrote a bestseller about her uncle, is probably the leading authority on his psyche. She has emphasized how, whenever he got into serious trouble, his daddy, or someone else, bailed him out.
But if he lost his re-election bid, there wouldn’t be anyone to even help him deal with this monumental loss. This would likely result in his becoming even more psychologically unhinged.
She was certainly spot on about that! Just look at the “Dream Team” he assembled to fight his case in court. The judges, some of whom were appointed by Trump himself – or previous Republican presidents -- berated Trump’s lawyers for trying to argue cases without presenting credible supporting evidence.
And yet, seemingly unfazed, Trump continues to maintain – without any proof – that widespread voter fraud cost him the election. And that he – and not Joe Biden – was the actual winner.
An Alternate Universe
Largely, because reality is so painful, Trump has constructed an alternate universe in which he actually won reelection. And the sustenance of this universe is an unending flow of lies happily swallowed by his ardent followers.
Even though Joe Biden clearly won the election, a concession from Trump would label the president a loser – the worst thing you could call him. Even four years ago, when he won the election, he was very unhappy that Hillary Clinton received nearly three million more votes. Not wanting to be a “loser”, he repeatedly made the absurd claim that three million illegal aliens voted for Clinton just in the state of California.
According to Mary Trump, this fear of losing was instilled in all the children of Fred Trump, the family patriarch, who strongly believed that in any transaction or contest, one person won and everyone else lost. Far more than his siblings, Donald Trump absorbed that lesson. To this day, then, when faced with defeat, the president constructs an alternate universe in which he is the winner.
In this alternate universe, there is no coronavirus threat – and even if there were one, it would quickly disappear. A big beautiful wall would keep out all the undesirables. Obamacare would be replaced by a really great healthcare plan. And – wink, wink – America would be made white again.
In this wonderful universe, Trump would be president for life, his political opponents would be thrown into prison, and when he was finally finished, his children would replace him.
If believing all his lies makes Trump feel better – and increasingly able to cope with his loss of the election – then what’s the harm in letting him indulge in his fantasy? The real problem is that seventy-four million Americans bought his pack of lies. And most of them will continue to believe them for years to come.
Almost every Republican running for elective office will have to pay homage to this monumentally flawed individual. Trumpism may live on long after Trump is gone.
