Brian Cahn/ZUMA
President Donald Trump woke up angry on Saturday morning, called six members of Congress “savages,” and then went golfing. Fresh air and green spaces are proven to have a restorative effect, but Trump’s just a different cut of grass. So, a little while ago, he tweeted a direct-to-camera appeal to his voters (though it was filmed by government workers, not campaign staff) in response to perhaps the worst week of his presidency:
They are trying to stop ME, because I am fighting for YOU! pic.twitter.com/xiw4jtjkNl
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 28, 2019
I’ve never really been on board with the term “gaslighting”—”lying” is a pretty useful word and it’s gotten us this far. But this kind of speech really deserve its own special brand to distinguish it from more pedestrian forms of misinformation.
Trump says Democrats “want to take away your health care”—but his administration is currently fighting in federal court to get rid of Obama-era protections that force insurance companies to cover people with pre-existing conditions. In other words, he’s suing to take away people’s health care. He says Democrats “want to take your vote”—but Trump, whose election was aided by voter suppression efforts in Wisconsin, spent the first few years of his presidency pushing false claims about voter fraud in order to lay a foundation for new voter restrictions.
