Listening to any recent Trump-stump speech, if you can even call what he does at his rallies and events speeches, will have the most fervent (gullible?) among us believing any or all of the following:
Illegal immigrants are freely pouring across our southern border to the delight of our “border Czar,” Kamala Harris, who has never even been to the U.S./Mexico border. They come from prisons and mental institutions from as far away as the Congo, and busloads of them in “caravans” (a word Trump invented) from Venezuela are forming gangs and “conquering” small towns, or probably even the entire state of Colorado. Harris is also responsible for “losing” 325,000 immigrant children, most of whom are now presumed dead…. Trump did, in fact, build “the wall” and “Mexico paid for it with border agents.” Some 20 million illegal immigrants have crossed the border during Biden’s presidency, and due to prisons and mental institutions being emptied and sent here, crime rates are down across the world though they are soaring here. Trump’s chart, which he was fortunate to point toward or he would have been shot, showing an arrow on a timeline notes the all-time low for immigration in the United States that occurred during his presidency, and if FEMA weren’t desperately giving all its money away to immigration efforts, they would have been able to give assistance during two recent, catastrophic hurricanes (created by evil Democrats according to Marjorie Taylor Greene).
But just saying something doesn’t make it true, and every single statement above is patently false. CNN recently did a good job of fact checking his Univision performance and noted the following:
Harris was never appointed “border Czar.” This term was never used by Biden or Harris or the Biden administration, nor was she ever “put in charge of the border.” That job went to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. She did go to the border in 2021 and again more recently. Harris has always supported a strong but compassionate border policy, saying in 2019 she wanted to have a secure border but to also guarantee that we don’t treat those seeking to enter our country as criminals from the outset.
There is simply no evidence anywhere, not even in the Congo, to support the totally fabricated story that countries from all over the world are “emptying their prisons and mental hospitals and sending them here,” nor is there evidence that crime is down globally because of this (it is, in fact, up), just as crime rates in the U.S. are down (especially when compared to rates during Trump’s presidency).
Moreover, illegal immigrants are the least likely to commit violent crimes amongst the following three groups: illegal immigrants, legal immigrants and U.S.-born citizens. According to the National Institute of Justice, “Violent Crime Offending Rates” stand at 100 per 100,000 for illegal immigrants, 175 per 100,000 for legal immigrants, and 225 per 100,000 for U.S.-born citizens (more than double the rate of illegal immigrants).
Colorado has not been conquered, nor is any city or town in the U.S. in need of what Trump repeatedly refers to as “liberation.” When hearing wildly exaggerated stories coming from Trumpland of violent Mexican gangs overrunning his city, Republican mayor of Aurora, CO said that the gang “has not taken over the city” and problems “experienced at a select few properties do not apply to the city as a whole.” Of the 10 people linked to the crimes, 8 have been arrested.
And all those “lost children” assumed dead? The only statistic resembling that number is that ICE reported that more than 32,000 unaccompanied migrant children failed to appear at scheduled court hearings—this between 2019 and 2023, a period CNN reports that “notably includes two years and four months under the Trump administration.” And let’s not forget the brutal policy enforced by the Trump administration that separated migrant children from their families.
Trump claimed to have built “571 miles of wall,” when in fact he built 458, including many miles where barriers in existence were replaced, and yes, Mexico did increase its numbers of agents at the border, but that is a far cry from providing dinero to fund the big, beautiful promised wall.
Under the Biden administration, an estimated 10 million illegal immigrants have crossed the border, not anywhere near the 20+ million Trump and his campaign quote as fact, and the infamous arrow on the chart Trump loves to point to does indicate a time of lower border crossings, but this was during the height of the pandemic and is no where close to the “lowest ever” number of crossings.
And, no, FEMA is not broke. They have some 11 billion dollars in their budget, some of which, by law, does go toward assisting immigrants….
As I ponder the sheer absurdity of nearly everything he says, I do pause at the questions Bret Baier shot at Harris in her recent Fox News interview—“Why, then, do so many Americans support him? Are they dumb?” Forget that he was trying to nudge her toward a Hillary-like “basket of deplorables” moment; pondering these questions are for me at least as troubling as the daily litany of lies.
Just about any reasonable answers to Baier’s questions are disturbing. If you plan to vote for him even though you accept the undeniable—that everything is a lie (including the Big Lie, that somehow untold millions of votes were switched from Trump to Biden with no evidence at all—which led to a violent, deadly insurrection), you then have to find a way to justify to yourself that this extreme degree of prevarication and immorality doesn’t disqualify someone from being president. You have to ignore what having such an unabashed liar as president might mean in critical situations that demand moral fortitude—with the hope that other aspects of his character (or what he will bring to the office) will somehow benefit you personally.
My guess is that many who know he’s a scoundrel only support him because they think it will benefit them financially (right, Elon?). But looking with any scrutiny at his vague economic agenda should reveal to those of us not making 7+ figures that his “plan” will surely hurt most of us (just as his economic policies did during his presidency). His proposal to round up all illegal immigrants and toss them into concentration camps will not only cost us untold amounts of money, it would also likely lead to labor shortages in crucial fruit and other industries…oh, and it’s morally reprehensible. His only tangible proposal other than cutting taxes for billionaires is to enforce extreme tariffs (which seem to be growing ever-larger as he’s informed they won’t work and will act instead as de facto tax increases).
On the other hand, if you accept all the lies as truth, then you live in some parallel, terrifying version of reality, where “deep state” forces are working to destroy the foundations of our democracy by letting evil, bad-blooded aliens run rampant, killing, raping, poisoning our pure (white?) blood. These same forces somehow masterminded a nefarious, secret op to “steal” an election (executed so well they left no proof (even though their leader is a dottering, senile oaf (but then Obama is somehow secretly still running the show (even though Trump never stopped being president))))—and they may well even have created the hurricanes and somehow unleashed them only on Trump counties in North Carolina.
The sad reality is that the existence of these two groups of Trump supporters are equally troubling. Neither seems to have a problem with furthering restrictions on personal freedoms already set in motion by Trump’s radical right court. Both groups seem ok with the idea of letting authoritarianism emerge in a country specifically designed to suppress it (and also designed as a gathering place for the “weak and hungry” from across the globe).
Any way you slice it, Trump’s ten years of incessant lying and pitting us against each other have laid bare some disturbing truths at the core of our country. Sadly, this is not something that changes with one election. It comes down to wide spread, deep seated greed and selfishness coupled with equally rampant, willful ignorance. We somehow need to instill (teach) morality, greater generosity and kindness, even as we give citizens the ability to discern truth from lies—and the ability to be able to judge why that matters.
As a lifelong educator, improving our schools seems like an obvious place to start—but then I remember how far right governments in deep red states are banning books and not allowing any mention of actual U.S. history that makes us look bad, homosexuality or, god forbid, transgender issues.
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Philip Roth and George Orwell are somewhere above us all, screaming “ We told you so “…Too many of us did not listen. And right here on our planet Donald Trump is also telling us what he will do if we reelect him. He is a “liar, liar” but…
We had better listen to him and believe him now, before November 5, and VOTE.
Because now he’s telling us the truth.
Hmmm…this is from Marc, not Marcia!