Originally posted on Meerkat Musings.
https://x.com/DrDinD/status/1750969522151170392?s=20
Frustratingly, I cannot seem to embed tweets into my posts, but the screen capture and link are hopefully good enough. I recently read a post that nearly made me laugh out loud. It described Donald Trump as an American Titan, which is interesting when you consider his legacy of failure.
One of the more outlandish claims (indeed, a fundamentally dishonest one, if one considers all the facts) is that Trump crushed his opponents in the Presidential Elections. Leaving aside that he lost to Biden (despite what conspiracy theorists will tell you), let's not forget that he lost the popular vote in both of the elections he contested. His misleading narrative about voter fraud was in play well before the 2020 election, in a bid to pre-emptively poison the well, and it worked. His supporters lapped up that narrative, even though Trump's own research debunked his claims!
The Donald Trump election campaign's efforts to show that thousands of ballots were cast in the name of dead people in the pivotal state of Georgia during the 2020 election resulted in a research report that in fact contradicted Trump's claims that widespread election fraud cost him the presidency, according to a report on Friday.
Joe Biden's victory in Georgia in 2020 was key and the Trump team's own information went against Trump's subsequent denial of the legitimate win by his opponent, according to the Washington Post.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/17/trump-research-voter-fraud-claims-debunked
It is claimed that Trump greatly reduced immigration by fortifying America's borders, yet whilst he slowed down legal immigration (the number of immigrants continued to rise)he did not do much to tackle illegal immigration, and his famous wall never materialised. Of course, much of the claims of an immigration crisis are ultimately a dog whistle to Trump supporters. Trump has been trying to derail efforts to implement solutions to the 'border crisis', so that he can take credit for it later. In other words, he is trying to ensure it is a problem, rather than working to to help. His efforts have caused consternation within the GOP. Trump's dogmatic followers believe the rhetoric, without stopping to think about how he's actively, deliberately, contributing to the problem.
Trumpist Republicans are using the surge of illegal immigration at the southern border of the US, as well as a surge of migrants seeking legal asylum, to threaten a government shutdown and no added funds for Ukraine.
They're using five lies to make their case.
1. They claim Biden doesn't want to stem illegal immigration and has created an "open border".
Rubbish. Since he took office, Biden has consistently asked for additional funding for border control.
Republicans have just as consistently refused. They're voting to cut Customs and Border Protection funding in spending bills and blocking passage of Biden's $106bn national security supplemental that includes border funding.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/12/whats-wrong-with-republicans-immigration-claims
We are meant to believe Trump is a great businessman. Well, he inherited a significant portion of his wealth from his father, and his business interests have declared bankruptcy on six occasions. He is not, and has never been, a self-made titan of business. His handling of the covid-19 pandemic ensured that he cost a lot of other people their wealth, jobs and security, so it appears trusting someone whose business ventures so frequently failed to handle a nation was not such a bright idea.
We are meant to believe the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan is the fault of Biden, yet people who make this claim conveniently forget Trump made the deal to leave. Could the Biden administration have handled this better? Of course. Does this absolve Trump of responsibility for the original terms that he tied the government to? No, yet a lot of his followers are quick to ignore this. What are the odds that if Biden had pulled out of the deal, Trump fans would have been on his case for that?
Trump's fans would tell us that he virtually single-handedly ensured world peace. For whom? Under Trump, airstrikes in Afghanistan rose by 330%. He escalated military action against the Houthis in Yemen. He launched more drone strikes in two years than Obama did during his entire presidency. Make no mistake, Trump withdrew from treaties with Iran that prompted them to work harder than ever to develop nuclear weapons, and nearly tweeted the USA into war with North Korea. It is a mistake to believe Trump is a bastion of global peace.
All of this is all-too-easily ignored, or declared to be a product of the deceitful Democrat-favouring media, by those who believe Trump's poisoning of the well rhetoric. It seems no matter what the evidence, no matter the numerous cases being brought against him, nor his decidedly mixed record as a politician and businessman, his supporters are determined to believe it is all a conspiracy. It's almost as though he could do no wrong. Trump himself once famously said "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" I fear that is true. He has convinced a lot of people to buy the lie, and I fear his polarisation of politics will carry an impact in the USA for decades to come.
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