President Donald Trump has a tendency to either make up stories or lie about stories or conversations he has with supporters. The Washington Post pointed to one tale he told during the Hanukkah celebration at the White House that he’s told several times, but changes the name of the person he was talking to.
Ruth Ben Ghiat, a Professor of History at New York University who writes and speaks on fascism, war, racism, authoritarian rulers and propaganda, explained to radio host Ian Masters that the president’s thousands of lies distort not only his reality but the reality of those who support him. It ultimately then gets echoed by the Fox News machine.
“He makes up facts to make the reality of what he wants it to be,” she Ghiat said.
She called it a “power play” and a “cult of personality,” where a leader can say something that everyone knows is wrong, but none of them are willing to stand up to him and call him out on it.
One key thing Trump does is accuse his enemies of doing things that he himself does.
“It’s all about power and subjection,” said Ghiat. “And the more he is threatened, and there’s not much more threatening than impeachment. The more he needs to have this ritual humiliation of the very people who, in the case of the GOP, the very people who he depends on. So, a lot of the things he does go contrary to a lot of human logic and psychology if you’re not a toxic narcissism like he is and out for power at all costs.
Listen to the full discussion in the SoundCloud embed below: