Tranquillus in Exile
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Daniel Dale, Washington correspondent of the Toronto Star, is a long-time student of Trump's torrent of untruths.
Here, he is interviewed by the New York Intelligencer. [Extract]
You’ve documented the fact that Trump’s lying seems to be getting worse over the course of his presidency. You tweeted recently that it’s up to six per day on average, as opposed to 2.9 through 2017. Do you have any theories why?
The biggest change came right before the midterms. I think his peak was 240 false claims in a week. In many cases he’s lying just because that’s how his brain works. He’s been a liar for decades. But I think with the midterms, it was a concerted effort to use dishonesty as a campaign strategy, especially on immigration. So I think that was a big cause for acceleration.
Do you think that’s true of most his lying — that it’s strategic? Or is it just a reflex because he’s been doing it his whole life?
I think most of it is nonstrategic. He says things like, “My father was born in Germany,” and you’re like, “Why? What is the point of that?” To the extent that there’s a strategy, I think it’s often him just trying to escape a given ten seconds. Maggie Haberman has noted that he tries to win a particular exchange with no regard to what he said in the past or what he might say in the future. He’s just trying to get out of the moment. It’s pretty remarkable to witness.
Do you think Trump believes most of his lies in the moment he tells them, or do you think he’s consciously aware that he’s not telling the truth?
There are a lot of cases where I feel like I can tell that he knows he’s making it up. And there’s some where he clearly knows. One example that comes to mind: at campaign rallies he’d be bashing the media and he would look to the cameras at the back and point: “Look at that, CNN just turned its camera off.”
Of course, that didn’t happen. CNN has never angrily turned off its camera when he was criticizing CNN or the media. He’s literally looking his supporters in the eye and pointing at something that is not happening and telling them that it’s happening. And so for people who say, “Oh, he believes all these, he’s just delusional,” I think there are cases like that where he’s clearly deliberately making it up.
Do you think American journalists are more deferential in their approach than their Canadian or international counterparts?
I think there’s a level of deference with the presidency that you don’t often see in Canada with anyone. There’s something that seems to happen when people go into the Oval Office or when they’re dealing with him, where you call him “sir” a lot, sort of gently prod him if he says something wrong, but never directly. I think it’s been consistently softer than it needs to be, at least when it comes to one-on-one interactions with him.
Do you have a favorite, unnecessary lie that Trump has told?
One that stands out is an interview he did with The Wall Street Journal. He was boasting about the impact of his tariffs. Then, a bit later in the interview, the Journal asked him about some of the criticism of his tariffs, and he said something like, “No, no, I don’t have any tariffs. What tariffs? I’ve threatened tariffs, but I haven’t imposed any.” And so he went from boasting about this policy to claiming it doesn’t exist - because those two things suited those particular moments better. To me, it was a really revealing example of how his mind works with regards to dishonesty.
More ...
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/04/daniel-dale-president-trump-lies.html
Here, he is interviewed by the New York Intelligencer. [Extract]
You’ve documented the fact that Trump’s lying seems to be getting worse over the course of his presidency. You tweeted recently that it’s up to six per day on average, as opposed to 2.9 through 2017. Do you have any theories why?
The biggest change came right before the midterms. I think his peak was 240 false claims in a week. In many cases he’s lying just because that’s how his brain works. He’s been a liar for decades. But I think with the midterms, it was a concerted effort to use dishonesty as a campaign strategy, especially on immigration. So I think that was a big cause for acceleration.
Do you think that’s true of most his lying — that it’s strategic? Or is it just a reflex because he’s been doing it his whole life?
I think most of it is nonstrategic. He says things like, “My father was born in Germany,” and you’re like, “Why? What is the point of that?” To the extent that there’s a strategy, I think it’s often him just trying to escape a given ten seconds. Maggie Haberman has noted that he tries to win a particular exchange with no regard to what he said in the past or what he might say in the future. He’s just trying to get out of the moment. It’s pretty remarkable to witness.
Do you think Trump believes most of his lies in the moment he tells them, or do you think he’s consciously aware that he’s not telling the truth?
There are a lot of cases where I feel like I can tell that he knows he’s making it up. And there’s some where he clearly knows. One example that comes to mind: at campaign rallies he’d be bashing the media and he would look to the cameras at the back and point: “Look at that, CNN just turned its camera off.”
Of course, that didn’t happen. CNN has never angrily turned off its camera when he was criticizing CNN or the media. He’s literally looking his supporters in the eye and pointing at something that is not happening and telling them that it’s happening. And so for people who say, “Oh, he believes all these, he’s just delusional,” I think there are cases like that where he’s clearly deliberately making it up.
Do you think American journalists are more deferential in their approach than their Canadian or international counterparts?
I think there’s a level of deference with the presidency that you don’t often see in Canada with anyone. There’s something that seems to happen when people go into the Oval Office or when they’re dealing with him, where you call him “sir” a lot, sort of gently prod him if he says something wrong, but never directly. I think it’s been consistently softer than it needs to be, at least when it comes to one-on-one interactions with him.
Do you have a favorite, unnecessary lie that Trump has told?
One that stands out is an interview he did with The Wall Street Journal. He was boasting about the impact of his tariffs. Then, a bit later in the interview, the Journal asked him about some of the criticism of his tariffs, and he said something like, “No, no, I don’t have any tariffs. What tariffs? I’ve threatened tariffs, but I haven’t imposed any.” And so he went from boasting about this policy to claiming it doesn’t exist - because those two things suited those particular moments better. To me, it was a really revealing example of how his mind works with regards to dishonesty.
More ...
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/04/daniel-dale-president-trump-lies.html