Vox-
Trump’s administration is deeply dishonest, and it’s foolish to trust them
Don’t trust liars — especially about matters of war and peace.
The sheer range of things Trump lies about —is mind-boggling and goes way beyond any kind of normal political process.
Part of Trump lying about everything is that he frequently says things specifically about Iran that are not true.
Back in July, for example, Trump tweeted about the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal that misstated the amount of money involved, misstated the duration of the deal, and fabricated secret Iranian violations of the agreement.
It was not particularly clear at the time why Trump was lying about this stuff.
But he lies so routinely about everything that people scarcely bother to inquire about what might be driving those specific lies.
Trump, from time to time, even lies about his own past statements on Iran, spending one day in September complaining that the media reported he’d said he was willing to meet with Iranian leaders without preconditions when he clearly said in both an interview with Chuck Todd and a press conference with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte that he was willing to meet without preconditions.
The point is that the probative value of a Trump statement about Iran is, to be generous, roughly zero. And Pompeo is no better.
Mike Pompeo lies a lot (albeit not as much as Trump)
In the early Trump years, false things Pompeo said would often be contradicted by members of his team who valued their standing in polite society over loyalty to Trump.
Over time, people like former Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats who were in the habit of doing that have been pushed out in favor of people like Pompeo.
As the former CIA director, Pompeo distorted intelligence about Russia to fit Trump’s preferred narratives.
Then, as secretary of state, he misled the public about his role in the Ukrainian aid holdup that led to Trump’s impeachment.
The sheer range of things Trump lies about — including recently claiming that the prime minister of Canada edited a version of Home Alone 2 to remove a Trump cameo — is mind-boggling and goes way beyond any kind of normal political process.
Consequently, I understand the psychological impulse to set aside years’ worth of Trump fact-checking and put men with suits on television to explain what’s happening with their secret intelligence.
But this is a poor forecasting principle.
Back in May, there was a sudden outburst of enthusiasm about Trump’s nuclear diplomacy with Iran, complete with media scolding of churlish liberals who refused to give credit where due for a breakthrough.
I was skeptical, based on the principle that you shouldn’t trust liars, and I was right. Now the latest is that Trump’s Korean diplomacy has completely collapsed, but it’s being overshadowed by Iran news.
The sad fact of the matter is that the world is a scary place. Powerful people lie, including about important matters. They sometimes don’t get caught, and even when they do, they don’t always suffer for it.
I hope there was some kind of good reason to bomb that Baghdad airport and some kind of plan to deal with the aftermath.
But all we really know is that the people in charge of explaining to us what happened and why aren’t worthy of our trust.
Since taking office, Trump has made 15,413 ‘false or misleading claims’.
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