The one thing President Donald Trump is fairly accomplished at is not business, or dealmaking, or any of the things he says he is, but gaslighting – manipulating and lying to people in order to have his version of the truth to be taken at face value.
He’s managed to do it to a substantial portion of our population and continues to rewrite reality as he sees fit, no matter where he is or what he’s doing, as he demonstrated this morning when he accused the British media of being “fake news” and misrepresenting the comments that he himself made in an interview with the Sun newspaper.
Yesterday, Trump stunned both nations when he tore into UK’s Prime Minister Theresa May for her and the Conservative Party’s admittedly poor handling of the Brexit negotiations – the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union – just hours ahead of a black-tie dinner at Buckingham Palace.
Now, however, after having met with May face to face, he’s changing his tune – and calling the audio of his own interview “fake news.”
Trump seems to think he came up with the idea of recording interviews to ensure accuracy.
"It's called, 'fake news,'" he says, referring to his attacks on May in his interview with @TheSun pic.twitter.com/CTHBMk2nfm
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 13, 2018
During this morning’s press conference, Trump was asked if he stood by the comments and had the astonishing nerve to deny that he ever said them. “I didn’t criticize the prime minister, I have a lot of respect for the prime minister,” said Trump, accusing the newspaper of misrepresenting the “tremendous things” he said about May. “It’s called fake news.”
The Sun has released the audio transcripts of the interview, in which Trump can clearly be heard saying not only his criticisms of Theresa May but also openly spouting white nationalist rhetoric, complaining about how immigration are “changing Europe’s culture.”
He doubled down on those comments today in a statement that will delight the knuckle-dragging UKIP voters and neo-Nazis but will appall and disgust anyone with even a shred of a conscience:
This is ugly.
Trump says that immigration is not "good for our country" because it is "changing the culture." pic.twitter.com/7zTXE9Miyh
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) July 13, 2018
For the president to imply that his own words on an audio recording have been doctored and that the media is purposefully lying about the things that he is on the record as saying is sadly nothing new for the pathological liar, but the embarrassment of watching him do it on the world stage is shame that we’ll never be able to shake off.
