The Liars and Sycophants Are Trying So Hard

You can’t fix a country with testosterone, obedience and lies, just because Trump and his henchmen think so

His false message last night: We should be very afraid. (Photo by Saul Loeb/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

There’s a reason you don’t want crackpots, sociopaths, malignant narcissists, misogynists, sadists, pathological liars and desperate sycophants in positions of power. A well-functioning government—a well-functioning society—depends on rational policies, fact-based decision-making and sensible people that filter out the worst impulses and behaviors of the aforementioned crowd.

But our daily life is now inundated with an unending stream of idiots and cowards eager to please an unfit White House occupant who prefers lickspittles over professionals. The result? The degradation of our institutions and a country subject to both ridicule and real threats from bad actors. Here are three examples from the last few days, including Trump’s fear-mongering from the East Room last night.

While the U.S. is in the midst of an expanding war with Iran, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth thinks the best use of his time is to produce a video authorizing mandatory testing of testosterone levels. Because, of course, the only thing America needs to conduct complex operations is more brute force. Because, in a military focused around a “warrior ethos,” Killer Pete wants to underline who’s masculine enough to get the job done. Because this is a next step in his efforts to deny promotions and even get rid of whoever he finds weak, especially women. Watch his two-minute tough guy video—entitled “The High-T Department of War”—and you can see that the “you” he talks about surely doesn’t involve the hundreds of thousands of women currently on active duty.

You might have thought it would be terrible if the obsequious Bill Pulte—the current acting director of national intelligence whose main credential is his willingness to assist vindictive prosecutions or anything Donald Trump asks—stayed in his job. You might have thought that Jay Clayton, the former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term and a U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, promised to be a far more upstanding individual to lead national intelligence. But it turns out that—as the hunger for power lured him closer to Trump—he has proven his readiness to degrade and be-clown himself to ensure he lands the position.

Over and over he was asked by Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff who won the 2020 election and over and over Clayton refused to answer in obvious fear of crossing Trump and having his nomination pulled. As Ossoff summarized the problem at Wednesday’s confirmation hearing, “You refuse to answer a basic question about who won a presidential election. But you ask to lead America’s intelligence community. Isn’t it humiliating to be unable to answer this question—to have to indulge the president’s delusions?”

Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly underscored what’s at stake when Clayton refuses to tell the truth: “You’re going to be in a room with him many times, and at times you should have a difference of opinion,” he said. “And if you can’t disagree with him when he’s not in the room, are you going to be able to disagree with him when you’re sitting across from him in the Oval Office or Situation Room?”

Last night Trump abused the power of his office to conduct a “presidential” address from the East Room. Was this to seek public support for a new phase of his unauthorized war with Iran? Was it to share a set of new policy initiatives to combat the economic struggles facing Americans? How about to describe his change of heart over the deadly, illegal practices of his federal goon squad deployed to rid America of immigrants?

Nope. Not this guy.

Trump—the nation’s most aggrieved victim and the sorest of sore losers—wanted to drag America through more debunked claims about the outcome of the 2020 election, sow more doubt about the coming midterm elections and push for his voter suppression bill, the so-called Save America Act. The main source of the problem, he insisted without new evidence in this faux urgent address: foreign interference from China and “shockingly vulnerable” and “broken” election systems. He repeatedly lied about “how vulnerable our elections continue to be.” He even argued that ABC and NBC, which chose not to air his propaganda live, “are part of the plot.”

This snarling speech can be seen as a starting point for a new chapter in his effort to take over our elections, which are constitutionally mandated to be run by the states. “If you look at voting today, it’s in such bad shape in so many states and we are committing to fix it,” he said, adding that it’s necessary to “fix the vulnerabilities before the midterms.”

We need not detail all his lies about election security and the alleged threat of China to see what he’s doing here. Just take a look at the March 10, 2021 report from the Directorate of National Intelligence entitled “Foreign Threats to the 2020 US Federal Elections.” The declassified document could not have been plainer in its judgement. “We have no indications that any foreign actor attempted to alter any technical aspect of the voting process in the 2020 US elections, including voter registration, casting ballots, vote tabulation, or reporting results.”

As for China specifically? “We assess that China did not deploy interference efforts and considered but did not deploy influence efforts intended to change the outcome of the US Presidential election,” the report stated. “We have high confidence in this judgment. China sought stability in its relationship with the United States, did not view either election outcome as being advantageous enough for China to risk getting caught meddling.”

But let’s not doubt that Trump—panicking over his plunging approval ratings and a potentially devastating Republican defeat in the midterms—will be deploying his confederacy of dunces and sycophants to spread more lies, more conspiracy theories and more threats to justify his regime’s efforts to deny the people’s will. This is where we are—and it’s important to be clear about the coming threats in order to successfully combat them.

Among the many discouraging aspects of my three examples here is how they waste our time when America and the globe face many real and complex problems. Yet they should remind us that an overwhelming turnout in November is a critical next step in ensuring that the future will not be led by crackpots and narcissists, liars and sycophants.

Value the writing here? Please consider becoming a paid subscriber for $50 a year or just $5 a month, if you’re not already. This helps sustain and expand the work of America, America, keep nearly all the content free for everyone and give you full access to the comments sections.