False Witness

Look out liars and you high-life scum

Kristi Noem went on TV and said she sent Venezuelan detainees to El Salvador even though U.S. District Judge James Boasberg had issued a restraining order against it because Boasberg is an “activist judge” so she doesn’t have to do what he says. Shortly thereafter a DOJ spokesman said this obvious flouting of a judicial order “did not violate” said order.

Recently Judge Sara Ellis, who last month issued an injunction against the use of force by feds who’d invaded Chicago in Homeland Security’s stupid “Operation Midway Blitz,” released an opinion and order that, as reported by ABC News, details multiple instances in which DHS’ portrayal of violent incidents “contradicts the reality of what can be seen on agents’ body-worn cameras.” That is, you have the option of believing what DHS says or the evidence of your lyin’ eyes.

Hakeem Jeffries is in many ways a great disappointment as House minority leader, but he has tumbled to one useful tactic that many politicians and journalists have yet to discover: The virtue of calling Republican bullshit when its aroma is apparent. For example, regarding Pete Hegseth’s murderous rampage against Caribbean fishermen and the administration’s denial of the charge that, after sending the U.S. military to blow up one such vessel, Hegseth directed these servicemembers to go back to make sure any of its occupants still breathing would be left in no position to tell the tale, Jeffries said, “The White House is lying, but that’s no surprise, because they lie for a living, and the American people know it.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. But I think it may be useful to think a moment about why this administration lies so egregiously that, when a major opposition figure flat-out calls them liars, no one is shocked, and what the consequences of that might be.

It’s a truism that politicians lie. So do nearly all people in any profession, but political lying is unique in that, first, we all assume it’s a necessary part of the gig and, second, we the people are expected to serve, in a way, as the politicians’ conscience — to check them in their lies, if we choose, by turning them out of office.

As has been pointed out many times, the Trump administration’s lying in this term especially has been absurdly outsized and shocking even on the grubby terms of American politics — as when Tubby claimed he hadn’t lowered federal flags to half-staff when a Minnesota legislator was assassinated because Governor Tim Walz didn’t ask him to (to which he gratutiously added the insult that Walz was “a mess”).

In fact, it’s clear to me that many of Trump’s cabinet were chosen specifically for their lying skills rather than for any qualifications related to their actual jobs. Pam Bondi’s Florida AG tenure was mainly distinguished by her quashing a Trump scandal, and as U.S. Attorney General the boldness of her prevarications are her signal attribute; even if she never tops her now-you-see-them-now-you-don’t Epstein Files stewardship, she’ll be remembered as our lyingest AG.

Hegseth was obviously chosen for his comical tough-guy act, and Kash Patel for his bug-eyed belligerent affect, on the theory these qualities would distract us from the bullshit they dispense on the regular. Noem’s ever-inflating physiognomy is an almost too on-the-nose metaphor for her penchant for masking the truth. And the shit-eating grin with which economic advisor Kevin Hassett Baghdad-Bobs the crap Trump economy is already a national punchline.

I believe the lying is so outsize because, from the beginning, this administration was meant to be a smash-and-grab operation. They knew not even the weak-minded electorate would go for all the fascist acceleration their brain trust had in mind and that Trump’s ego would demand, so they decided to come out with guns blazing, hoping bluster, voter suppression, some lucky breaks and (in the last ditch) a more effective insurrectionary force would prevent them from being stopped.

Whether they’ll be stopped is still an open question, but polls show voters really aren’t happy with these guys. And while I understand that skyrocketing prices, ubiquitous footage of ICE and other fed goons acting like storm troopers, Tubby’s obvious caping for Russia, and other outrages are part of what spurs that opposition, I really think the administration’s egregious lying is an underrated factor.

Consider how the American people have turned on Israel. The Likudniks blame antisemitism, natch. The crosstabs of recent polling suggest Israel’s viciousness and brutality toward the Palestinians make the difference. I sort of agree, but I would suggest that the lying by the Biden and Trump administrations, and of course by the Israeli high command, about that viciousness and brutality makes it even more disgusting to Americans, particularly to those who were once inclined to give Israel the benefit of the doubt. When you see hospitals and schools bombed, non-combatants hunted for sport, and whole square miles of a nation blasted to rubble, and then hear the agents of this destruction not only claim it’s all a mistake but call anyone who objects to it an antisemite, what would you expect the reaction to be?

I really believe something similar — but much, much more intense — is happening with Americans and the Trump administration. (And notice Trump and his crew are also accustomed to call people who oppose their policies traitors to their country.) They’re not only fucking up massively, they’re trying to brass it out by lying on an industrial level about what they’re doing. I even think they wouldn’t be half so unpopular (which would still make them very unpopular, but nevertheless) if it weren’t so obvious to the voters how full of shit they are.

The good news there is they can’t help themselves — like Macbeths of lying, they are in bullshit stepp’d in so far that, should they wade no more, returning were as tedious as to go o’er.