‘Fake’ Trump

The truth was dismissed a long time ago, ever since he entered the campaign. Nothing he says has credibility. Not even his worst decisions, which may be rendered ineffective or revoked if it suits him. Those who count his misrepresentations have recorded three lies, inaccuracies or exaggerations per day since he arrived at the White House. There are a handful of such misrepresentations – at least a dozen – in the State of the Union address, according to the first reviews, starting with the false benefits that he claimed credit for during his first presidential year, and – most outstanding of all – the good economic progress, as if it were due to his judgment and way of governing.

The only certainty is his intentions, which he showed from the beginning, and which are not exactly kind. Most notably, indefinitely maintaining the legal limbo that surrounds the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, which George W. Bush established to address the global war against terror with a free hand and thus circumvent American legal guarantees, the Geneva Conventions concerning humanitarian treatment of prisoners of war and United Nations conventions on human rights.

It is strange that Donald Trump has taken a year to sign the order that turns Guantanamo into a permanent prison, revoking Barack Obama’s first order, signed upon entering the White House, which ordered a closure that never happened. The order was blocked by Republican congressmen, many of them supporters, like Trump, of waterboarding or drowning with water as a method of legalized torture and who did not approve a budget to close the facility and authorize the transfer of the inmates to prisons in the U.S.

Trump’s position is not different; his defense of torture adds to his fixation with Obama’s presidency, which Trump would like to erase every last trace of. As for the stain of Guantanamo, Trump has added an even bigger mark, which links immigration with crime and terrorism and justifies the construction of the wall with Mexico, the revocation of family reunification and the limitation of visas with economic criteria.

Of Trump’s many lies, there are some funny ones, like when he talks about “precious clean coal” – coal being a black mineral, dirty and polluting – to justify his withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. But most lies are sinister. This is the case of “A new tide of optimism is already sweeping across our land,” or the assertion that “I am extending an open hand to work with members of both parties” in a country governed by a president that favors racist supremacism and a fierce division between Republicans and Democrats.

The most fake Trump is the one who reads a moderated speech smoothing over the mistakes, malice and imprecations that he usually uses spontaneously, especially when he is in front of the television typing his messages on social networks. His monotonous recitation, interrupted by the ceremonial applause of the Republican caucus, sounds hollow and is effectively hollow, but it is the only truth that matters to the conservative right, satisfied with the repeal of Obama’s progressive legislation, the appointment of judges on the extreme right and tax cuts. All the lies of the world serve the truth of these crude interests. Enough is enough with a “fake” president, a teacher of “fake news” and his dirty work.