Donald Trump pontificates profusely. He makes vociferous claims. He also contradicts himself. He prevaricates without pause. When he goes on a television show like ‘Meet the Press’ and has a discussion about retribution, deportation, and tariffs, it’s unnerving, but we also have to remember that he is prone to hyperbole, fabrication and the flip-flop.
In his previous term in office, Trump often waffled on talking points, people and campaign promises.
- The Wall
“Who is paying for the wall?” Trump would call out to his crowds. “Mexico!” was their response. But in 2017 and 2019, he asked congress for billions of dollars to pay for the wall. He later tweaked his rallying cry to: Mexico will “eventually” pay for the wall and then at a rally in 2023 it changed again to Mexico will pay for a “piece” of the wall. “So with all those losers out there that say – ‘Trump never got the –’ you remember, I used to say, ‘Mexico will pay for the piece of the wall.’” “I’ll say, ‘What’s gonna happen if they [Mexico] fight,’ I say, ‘The wall gets higher.’ We all had a lot of fun. But I said, ‘Mexico will pay, for a piece of the wall.’ Well, there was no legal instrument to do that.”
- The “I don’t know him very well” yarn
Steve Bannon, the former chairman of Breitbart News, was Trump’s campaign chief in August 2016. At the time, Trump said, “I have known Steve and Kellyanne both for many years. They are extremely capable, highly qualified people who love to win and know how to win.” But a year later, when Bannon and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, began butting heads and Bannon was fired, Trump in an interview with the Post said, “I like Steve, but you have to remember he was not involved in my campaign until very late. I had already beaten all the senators and all the governors, and I didn’t know Steve.”
There are so many examples of the “I don’t know him/her” lie:
-George Conway
“George Conway, often referred to as Mr. Kellyanne Conway by those who know him, is VERY jealous of his wife’s success & angry that I, with her help, didn’t give him the job he so desperately wanted. I barely know him but just take a look, a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell!” Twitter post from 7:51 AM · Mar 20, 2019. But there is a contradicting letter from 2006 published by the Washington Post in which he thanked Conway for his help on a problem in one of his buildings.
There is also:
– George Papadopoulos
– Gordon Sondland
– Stormy Daniels
Etc. (because the list is too long to keep going.)
Trump uses this little quibble in order to distance himself from problematic friends and as an attempt to diminish his foes as unimportant.
- The Golf Course
Trump repeatedly criticized President Barack Obama for golfing during his time in office. Obama played 333 rounds of golf in his 8 years serving as president while Trump played around 261 rounds in his 4 years as president. In fact, he told one rally crowd in February 2016, “I don’t think I’d ever see many of the places that I have. I don’t ever think I’d see anything. I just want to stay in the White House and work my ass off.” Trump golfed more often in his 4 years as president than not only former President Obama but also more than former Presidents Bush and Clinton.
- Immigration
Trump spent most of his campaign calling for mass deportations on his first day of office and he has said that migrants are “poisoning the blood” of this country. But in June 2024 after a Business Roundtable meeting, Trump appeared to support keeping high-skilled immigrants in the United States. Also in June on a podcast, Trump said foreign nationals who graduate from U.S. colleges and universities should “automatically” be given a green card upon graduation.
- More Flip-Flops: Trump’s position on marajuana, TikTok, abortion…again, the list is too long.
With his history of equivocation and waffling, it was not surprising that in his NBC interview on Sunday, December 9, 2024 with Kristen Welker on Meet the Press, Trump doubled down on some of his previous stances and seemed more flexible on others.
- Retribution: Trump indicated that he would not explicitly order his appointees to seek retribution against his political opponents but leave it to his appointees, Kash Patel and Pam Bondi, to decide whether to pursue investigations.“If they think that somebody was dishonest or crooked or a corrupt politician, I think he probably has an obligation to do it.” However, he also lashed out at the members of the House committee that investigated the January 6 riot and said they should all “go to jail!”
- Immigration: Trump intends to follow through with his campaign promise to deport millions of individuals from day one. He also reiterated his intent to end birthright citizenship though he did say he was open to finding a way to help Dreamers. “The Dreamers are going to come later, and we have to do something about the Dreamers because these are people that have been brought here at a very young age. And many of these are middle-aged people no.” “They don’t even speak the language of their country. And yes, we’re going to do something about the Dreamers.”
- Tariffs: Just like Mexico was paying for the wall, Trump has claimed in the past that China, Mexico and Canada would be paying for tariffs. In his NBC interview, he side-stepped the question of whether or not American taxpayers would carry the cost burden of tariffs. When asked by Kristen Welker, “Can you guarantee American families won’t pay more?” Trump answered, “I can’t guarantee anything. I can’t guarantee tomorrow. But I can say that if you look at my — just pre-COVID, we had the greatest economy in the history of our country.”
Donald Trump ran a campaign on retribution, prejudiced anti-immigrant rhetoric, cutting federal funding to schools, replacing the ACA (or Obamacare – the name was intentionally conflated by Republicans and media outlets leading to voter confusion), tax cuts and tariffs. At this point, who knows if Trump will follows through on his campaign promises and whether he flips or whether he flops remains to be seen.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/us/politics/trump-wall-mexico.html
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/30/politics/fact-check-trump-mexico-piece-border-wall/index.html
https://time.com/5582741/donald-trump-never-met-doesnt-know
https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/slideshows/donald-trumps-10-flip-flops
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-china-trade-talk-misinformation-tweet-claim-review-2019-05-13
https://trumptimer.medium.com/day-185-trump-hits-golf-club-for-42nd-time-2e072746eb5a
Image by Tom und Nicki Löschner from Pixabay
