Donald Trump is now calling reports of his coup attempt a “hoax” – referring to the January 6, 2021 violent attack on the Capitol in hopes of illegally stopping the certification of votes of President Joe Biden as if it never happened.
According to Rolling Stone, during a rally in Wyoming on May 28, 2022, campaigning against US Rep. Liz Cheney, Trump claimed that the entire January 6 insurrection didn’t even occur, calling it a “hoax” and “a load of crap.” This is, or course, in stark contrast to the facts.
WAS IT A HOAX?
Millions of people watched live on television as Trump’s followers mounted a violent insurrection at his behest. The vicious mob caused millions of dollars in damage to the Capitol and severely injured at least 140 police officers. Trump’s insurrection led to at least 5 deaths. Yet Trump says it is a hoax, that it didn’t happen.
Cheney, a long-respected member of the Republican party, serves on the bipartisan Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol. Cheney confirmed on CNN’s “State of the Union” that there is enough evidence to make a criminal referral against Trump for his plotting and attempting a coup.
Over 800 people have been charged in the insurrection, with 300 having pled guilty so far. The FBI’s search for additional insurrectionists is ongoing.
DOWN IN GEORGIA
This is not the first time Trump has tried to change history just by saying it didn’t happen. He also claims he didn’t try to bully Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in an attempt to make him “find” thousands of nonexistent votes to reverse his loss in the presidential election. This despite a recording of Trump attempting to do just that.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis is mounting a criminal investigation into Trump’s attempt to illegally overturn his election loss in Georgia. Willis has as many as 50 witnesses expecting subpoenas for a special grand jury that will begin hearing testimony this week.
EXTREME GASLIGHTING
In the US News article “Trump is Gaslighting America”, contributing editor Nicole Hemmer describes how the failed businessman turned politician goes about trying to change history in the minds of his gullible followers. It’s called gaslighting.
“He’s gaslighting you,” notes Hemmer. “It’s a technique abusers use: Through manipulation and outright lies, they so disorient their target that the person (or in this case, the country) is left defenseless.”
Trump’s gaslighting is not limited to the January 6 insurrection. He has said he never settles lawsuits, despite the fact that he has settled over 175 cases against him. He also claimed that Covid-19 affects “virtually nobody” at the point US death tolls from the virus had reached over 200,000.
MORE LIES
Another famous whopper from Trump is his claim that he has never met adult film star Stormy Daniels, who he had an affair with while his third wife Melania was recovering from childbirth. As if the pictures of Trump with the porn star aren’t enough to prove he is lying, there’s also the fact Michael Cohen, his lawyer at the time, has confirmed that Trump paid Daniels $130,000 to keep the affair quiet.
In another example, Trump claims that he has done more for the black community than any president since Abraham Lincoln. By contrast, Trump’s actual history of deliberate and ongoing racism can be traced back to his very first mention in the New York Times in the 1970s when the US Department of Justice sued him for discrimination.
Since the 1970s, Trump’s blatant racism has continued to grow and fester. Many of his associates have gone on record saying he regularly used the N-word. In a Newsweek article, Bill Pruitt, co-producer of The Apprentice, stated he and other staff had witnessed Trump use that ugly term referring to black contestants on the show.
THE BIG LIE
There are literally hundreds of cases of Trump’s blatant gaslighting, none bigger than what has been labeled “The Big Lie” in which he claims he didn’t lose the 2020 election. Trump lost the election by over 7 million votes – and the results have been repeatedly confirmed by Trump’s own government appointees and employees.
Trump’s Big Lie is what the name suggests – just another lie from a man who doesn’t seem to know how to tell the truth.
The Washington Post documented over 30,000 times the twice impeached Trump lied while in office. According to Trump he never said those things or that his remarks were “perfect.”
The more facts that come out and the more witnesses that come forward confirming Trump’s many crimes, the more the reality show figure doubles down on his lies.
DARK MAGA
Trump’s gaslighting and the gullible fools who believe him has bred a new dark cloud in politics. Dark MAGA is a political movement that seeks to put Trump back in power with a specific purpose of inflicting vengeance on all the people who wouldn’t go along with his lies.
As noted in the Charlotte Observer piece “‘Dark MAGA’? Tyranny? Cawthorn and Robinson’s Rhetoric Takes a Scarier Turn”, people identifying with the Dark MAGA movement aren’t just talking about any type of vengeance. They want to execute their attack in a “ruthless and unforgiving manner.’
In fact, North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson. while speaking at a church sermon this month, suggested the need for the violent overthrow of the government. He said that’s the reason he owns a number of AR-15 assault rifles.
In response, Gov. Roy Cooper denounced Robinson, writing “an elected official sworn to uphold the constitution advocating violent overthrow of our govt shames NC and puts our safety and our democracy at risk.”
But Robinson is not a lone lunatic, one-and-done US Rep. Madison Cawthorn said on Instagram “It’s time for the rise of the new right, it’s time for Dark MAGA to truly take command.”
EXTREMIST VIEWS
Cawthorn just lost his reelection bid, suggesting that like his idol Trump he is far more popular in his own head than in reality. In his attempt to stay relevant via Instagram, he warns that the Dark MAGA hitlist includes members of the Republican Party who don’t share the extremist views of people like himself.
US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s posts on Twitter suggest she is also aligned with the radical extremist Dark MAGA movement. As referenced in the Insider, the Dark MAGA movement often features white nationalist and neo-Nazi imagery.
Although Trump has not officially aligned himself with the Dark MAGA movement, his actions and public comments seem to suggest a deep alliance with these followers. Trump called neo-Nazi’s “good people” while he was in the White House.
When we were kids, there was always that one student who couldn’t seem to help but lie. It was the mentally weak kid who feared being labeled a loser, so they would make up bigger and bigger lies.
It seems, that Trump was that kid; and he never grew out of it. Emotionally he seems to be nothing but a tantrum-prone infant. The problem is, when you have gullible followers like QAnon and Dark MAGA, those lies can be damaging. But that doesn’t make them the truth.
Peace. Love. Trust.
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