"Alternative Facts" frame the failed Donald Trump administration

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/

Trump is breaking records on lies he tells to the American people

Another excellent echo opinion letter published in one of my favorite newspapers, the Tulsa World, in Oklahoma.

Echo: We all agree that honesty is an admirable quality in an individual. 

Unfortunately, power often trumps the truth, and dictators are made by persistent suppression of the truth.

Donald Trump told his first lie as president when he claimed the number of people at his inauguration surpassed all others. The falsehood was later explained by Kellyanne Conway’s incredible oxymoron as “alternative facts.”

The White House has been utilizing them ever since. And who can forget Rudy Giuliani’s, “truth isn’t truth,” statement when defending why Trump shouldn’t testify.

That little phrase perfectly captured Trump’s ideology.

I believe truth eventually prevails, but if excessively prolonged, a dictator is born in the interim.

According to the Fact Checkers database, Trump has made false or misleading claims 20,000 times as of July 2020. That’s an average of 23 lies a day to the American public.

Now that’s extreme audacity and what it takes to be a dictator.

Daily, I’m amazed at how so many Oklahomans are not alarmed by this and even find ways to defend Donald Trump.

Amazingly, the defense usually is “that’s fake news,” or even worse, admitting to the falsehoods, but stating, “He’s good for the economy.” (??)

Or putting it another way, “I don’t care if he’s a liar, as long as he puts money in my pocket.”

Perhaps now the question is not whether people know about Trump’s character, but do they care?

Kenneth Calabrese, Tulsa, Oklahoma