Trump and his team of attorneys fought really hard to prevent Jack Smith’s superseding indictment from being released prior to the election, because he knew how damning and detailed that indictment would be. They lost that fight, and the superseding indictment was filed and made public, with the appropriate redactions. Any reasonable human being who reads that indictment can only come to one conclusion: Donald Trump is guilty of subverting the electoral process in a months-long multi-pronged effort and, as part of that effort, fomenting the worst attack on our government in the nation’s history.
Yet, somehow, he is still allowed to seek election to lead the government of the nation for which he has demonstrated contempt.
Lies are literally all that Donald Trump and his campaign have left to run on. We should expect those lies to increase, both in number and in absurdity, as he has demonstrated this week.
Honorable Mention
Stomping on the Downtrodden
Transphobia is one of the cornerstones of the Trump campaign and of the corresponding MAGA mindset. Demeaning and threatening trans people aligns perfectly with Trump’s overall approach to life and politics — always disparage people who you believe have lower social standing than you do.
Maligning transgender folks isn’t just spreading misinformation; it’s putting lives at risk. Hundreds of anti-trans policies have been enacted into law in many states. The demonization of trans folks has led to a dramatic surge in anti-trans violence in the Trump era, up to and including murder.
Trump’s statement this week on Kellyanne Conway’s show on Fox Nation wasn’t as blatant as some of the anti-trans bigotry we’ve heard from Trump and his cronies. But it’s noteworthy because it was interwoven into a rant about how terrible he thinks our education system is.
“We want reading, writing and arithmetic. Right now, you have mostly transgender. Everything’s transgender. Some of these school programs I looked at the other night, they’re destroying our country.”
— Donald J. Trump. 09.30.2024
I’m not entirely sure what this blithering idiot means by that. No one is learning long division in school anymore because they’re spending too much time learning to be kind and accepting toward each other?
This most recent anti-trans nonsense comes on the heels of Trump claiming that schools were apparently offering outpatient gender reassignment surgery as an elective.
But Trump never met a minority whose lives he didn’t want to make worse.
Bronze Medal:
The Endorsement That Almost Was
On Friday, Donald Trump posted an image that stated that Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, had endorsed him as a candidate. Trump seems like he’s aching to bolster his ridiculous economic policies, which seem to consist entirely of “Let’s put a tariff on it.” An endorsement from a financial industry titan would lend an air of legitimacy.
The problem is that Dimon never endorsed Trump or his economic plan. Almost immediately after Trump’s post went live, Joe Evangelisti, a spokesman for Dimon, called into CNBC and stated that no such endorsement existed.
Oh, but there’s more. Caught red-handed, Dastardly Donnie lied some more. He claimed that he had no idea how that got posted on his account and that he had nothing to do with it. (It doesn’t speak well for the cybersecurity of Trump’s own social media platform, Truth Social, if some unknown entity can post to a presidential candidate’s account, thereby potentially changing the outcome of an election.)
To add insult to injury, Trump — having been duly notified that this post was there — still hasn’t removed the post, as of this writing.
Silver Medal:
More Truth Social Lies
Trump may not take credit for this week’s Bronze Medal, but he’s certainly not shying away from this Silver Medal winner:
Trump’s posts on his failing social media site are becoming increasingly like those “What’s Wrong With This Picture” games in kids’ magazines. There are so many lies in each post, it’s hard to know where to begin.
OK, I’ll give it a shot:
“Lyin’ Kamal [sic] Harris, who refuses to do interviews or press conferences because she has no idea how to answer the questions,
She’s been doing interviews and she has proven, both in the interviews and in the debate that you lost so badly, that she knows how to answer questions.
and is now losing in the polls,
Actually, while the race is still too close to call, she is tied or ahead in virtually all the polls.
continues to make a thing called Project 2025 the central theme of her campaign, advertising and all.
No, Donnie. You’re inextricably tied to Project 2025. Your VP candidate wrote the introduction to it. Huge chunks of that right-wing policy statement were written by members of your administration. You’ve spoken numerous times to The Heritage Foundation and you’ve accepted campaign contributions. Stop lying, Donnie.
“Lyin’ Kamala has been informed, legally,
What does that even mean? That some Trump lawyer sent her a threatening letter unrelated to any law?
that I have, and had, nothing to do with it, NEVER READ IT, NEVER SAW IT,
The 900+ page document that name checks you more than 300 times and that’s as close to a policy statement for your campaign that anyone has seen, but you’ve never even read it? That doesn’t sound even a little bit plausible.
but her ads continue, full blast.
You seem indignant that you got found out.
When you see them talking about Project 2025, remember, Kamala is lying, just like she lied about working at McDonalds (she didn’t!), or added 818,000 new jobs that didn’t exist (a fraud!), and sooo many other lies.
Why are you so obsessed with McDonalds, Donnie? Is it all that Big Mac grease clogging your veins? And why do you focus so much on a college job that Harris did, in fact, have several decades ago? Is that really the best you’ve got? And, by the way, Donnie, how did that half-hour as a fry cook at McDonalds go for you this week? What? You mean you didn’t do what you promised? Consider me shocked.
Just like San Francisco and California, itself, she would, if given the chance, COMPLETELY DESTROY OUR COUNTRY!
Um, Donnie. California is doing just fine. If California were a country, it would be the 5th largest economy in the world, more productive than the United Kingdom or India. Unlike most so-called “red states,” California is the second-least reliant state on federal funding (only behind Vermont).
Cities in California face the same interrelated issues that cities in every state face — homelessness, housing affordability, addiction-related crime. But those issues are part of a much larger set of societal issues, unrelated to state government. You can’t pin that one on Kamala Harris. But you can bet that she’ll address those issues more than you ever did when she’s President.
Gold Medal:
A Category 5 Hurricane of Lies
There was no question in my mind which lie (or, more accurately, vast coordinated collection of lies) would receive the Gold Medal this week. That’s because, all week, Trump and his Republican allies have been leveraging a national tragedy for personal political gain.
Trump’s cavalier attitude toward the disaster, coupled with his immediate impulse to show up in the areas worse struck by the storm, thereby potentially impeding rescue and recovery operations, made awarding the Gold a no-brainer. Hundreds of lives have been lost, and Trump’s first thought was, “What lies can I tell to gain some kind of political advantage?”
The week started with Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt claiming on Fox News (of course) that all of the FEMA funds had been given to Ukraine by the Biden administration. She even intentionally misquoted President Biden:
Joe Biden was asked what more can be done and he said, “Nothing, we’ve given them all they can have.”
— Karoline Leavitt, 09.30.2024
Click on the image below to hear for yourself exactly what Biden said on that same day. (Here’s a hint: The President outlined all that is currently being done for the people in the area hit by Hurricane Helene, as well as the plans for the foreseeable future.)
The next round of lies came from Trump himself, claiming that Biden hadn’t contacted any of the governors of the hurricane-ravaged states. He lied that FEMA wasn’t doing enough.
Reporter: “Have you reached out to President Biden about federal relief efforts?”
Trump: “No, I haven’t reached out to him. No. I, he, I think he’s sleeping right now. Actually being responsive. The federal government is not being responsive. If they’re having a very hard time getting the, getting the President on the phone, he won’t get on, and of course the Vice President, she’s out someplace campaigning, looking for money. So they’ve gotta be, they have to be focused over here. This is a really bad one, and the governor’s doing a good job, but he’s having a hard time getting the President on the phone. They’re being very non-responsive. We’re also going to be going, we’re talking with North Carolina. We’re trying to get them hooked up with communication. They’re totally closed right now.”
Of course, the governors of Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, as well as numerous local officials have not only praised the work that FEMA is doing (as well as Biden’s responsiveness) but also bemoaned the fact that misinformation is maliciously being spread.
Did all those rebuttals of Trump’s lies impede him and his cronies from making more false statements? You know the answer to this one. Hell, no.
Elon Musk, never one to keep his mouth shut when no one has asked him for his opinion, used his social media reach of millions of followers to spread misinformation lies that FEMA was shutting down airspace over the worst-hit areas of North Carolina. He had to be schooled by Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to keep his mouth shut. Secretary Pete was far more diplomatic than I am:
Trump’s lies swirling around Hurricane Helene and FEMA funding have reached hurricane force speeds, and the damage from those lies will be felt for the foreseeable future. But the storm of Trump’s lies shows no sign of abating. Let’s just hope those lies damage Trump’s chances of returning to the White House as much as he has damaged the nation.
Any thoughts, Everybody, about our boy, and his "GoFundMe", which, apparently, is up to four million, and where that money is actually ending up...