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VIEWPOINT - One hallmark of the Trump administration is cyclonic cacophony, an endless cascade of one astonishing adventure after another. Almost certainly by design, it is nearly impossible to keep up. The President careens from one chaotic initiative to another and the rest of us crash around trying to figure it all out.
Over the last couple of weeks, he has attacked Venezuela and forcibly deported its President, threated to take Greenland “the easy way or the hard way,” promised military action against Iran, asserted that at least one hundred thousand immigrant “murderers” are running amok in America, mouthed “F**k You” to a Ford assembly line worker and maligned wind power turbines with something close to a dozen lies in one breath.
It's no wonder that, almost daily, a virtual catalog of other vital issues disappears behind the smokescreen created by bloviating.
For example, most Americans almost certainly missed the fact that an agency in the Trump Administration has destroyed one of his favorite mantras – “thousands of illegal immigrants voted against Trump.”
Trump, certain that Joe Biden’s election was fraudulent, assigned the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security, to launch a huge audit of voter records, forcing state and local registrars to upload nearly 50 million voter records (thus far – the investigation isn’t complete yet).
The result, reported by the N.Y. Times: A spokesperson for DHS reports that about .02 percent of audited votes may have been cast by undocumented immigrants. Of some 50 million voters, roughly 10,000 noncitizen votes were found. Just as more than 70 lawsuits and voter registration investigations found no evidence to support Trump’s claim, so has his own DHS staff come up empty.
If there is any comment from the White House, it’s certain to follow the all-too common Trumpian approach: “It’s a lie.” “The data is corrupt.” “It’s a coverup.” Trump could have some difficulty rolling out his favorite, “It’s a Democrat Hoax!” since his own hand-picked DHS team is the source of the report. But that isn’t likely to stop him, since the other consistent hallmark of the President’s routine is always in play: He’ll lie.
The other fascinating development in recent days is a report which was also lost in the dizzying crush of Hurricane Trump comes from PoliFact. That organization has been factchecking the President since 2011. They have scrutinized 1,136 Trump statements. Of that number, exactly 36 Trump claims were certified as true. The rest – Half True, Mostly False, False, and Pants on Fire – cannot pass the smell test. Overall, The President is a staggering 78% untrustworthy.
Whatever he is discussing – voter fraud, lower grocery prices, immigration enforcement, foreign affairs, a workable health care plan – it is absolutely certain that there is one thing he cannot honestly say: “Trust me.”
(David M. Hamlin writes for CityWatchLA in addition to novels and short stories. Learn more about his work at www.dmhwrites.com.)
