THE TRUTH ABOUT TRUMP’S TOWER OF LIES

IN THE WORLD OF THE US PRESIDENT, BLACK IS WHITE AND WHITE IS BLACK, LEFT IS RIGHT AND RIGHT IS LEFT, UP IS DOWN AND DOWN IS UP. HIS MOST ARDENT SUPPORTERS EVEN CLAIM THAT ‘THERE ARE NO SUCH THINGS AS FACTS ANYMORE’. HERE US CORRESPONDENT ANDREW PURCELL I

ON WEDNESDAY night at the Municipal Auditorium in downtown Nashville, Donald Trump found respite from the strain of governing in the adulation of his fans. News channels don’t broadcast his whole speeches live anymore, but he still appears happiest at the podium, riffing off-script, occasionally pausing to drink in the chants of “Trump! Trump! Trump!”

Members of the audience carried signs saying “Promises Made, Promises Kept”.

“We have done far more, I think, far more than anybody’s ever done in this office in 50 days,” the president claimed. His supporters yelled “build the wall” and “lock her up” at the mention of his erstwhile opponent Hillary Clinton. The arena was a safe space for the evening, unthreatened by opposing viewpoints or inconvenient facts.

On the issue of healthcare, Trump issued a vague promise to “get something done”, notably stopping short of endorsing the bill drawn up by congressional Republicans, perhaps mindful of the Public Policy Polling survey published the same day showing just 24 per cent support for the legislation drafted to replace Obamacare.

He assailed a federal judge in Hawaii, Derrick K Watson, who had blocked his travel ban limiting immigration from six Muslim-majority countries. “This ruling makes us look weak,” he said, adding that he would take the case to the Supreme Court. Polls show a roughly even split for and against the new immigration restrictions, unless one discounts surveys which don’t support your own political position, as Trump does. “Any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election,” he’s tweeted.

Outside the bubble, it has been another tough week for Trump’s embattled presidency. Sebastian Gorka, a top national security adviser to Trump, had to deny reports that he was a member of and took an oath of loyalty to a Hungarian Nazi-allied group. If the claims are true it could have serious implications for the immigration status of Gorka – who was born in the UK, lived in Hungary, and became a US citizen in 2012.

As the healthcare bill came under attack from left and right, the travel ban was shot down, and Senate Republicans threatened to block Trump’s nominee for deputy attorney general until he produces evidence to support his claim that former president Obama tapped his phones during the campaign. Absurd claims that Obama used the UK’s GCHQ have been shot to pieces by the British intelligence community.

On Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show, Trump implied that he got the idea Obama bugged his office from the New York Times (which he’s ironically described as a source of “fake news”), and then claimed to have proof – “some very good stuff” – that would be revealed at a later date.

The chairmen of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, both Republicans, said there is no indication Trump Tower was targeted by the FBI.

Two leaked pages of Trump’s 2005 tax return, over-hyped by MSNBC presenter Rachel Maddow, provided a welcome distraction. The fact that only the front and back page from a single year were left in financial journalist David Cay Johnston’s postbox, showing $153 million income and $36.5m tax paid (but not the sources of the income) led Johnston to speculate that Trump had leaked the return – stamped Client Copy – himself.

On Fox, this was reported as “FAKE NEWS” (all caps) and proof that the left’s insinuations that Trump pays no tax are unfounded. Next to a graphic declaring “NBC’s Corporate Jihad”, the president’s friend Sean Hannity railed against “the altleft, propaganda, destroy Donald Trump media” and its underhand tactics (such as publishing a tiny, favourable portion of a federal income tax return, of the kind all other presidents since Richard Nixon have voluntarily provided).

Trump has used the term “fake news” 18 times on Twitter since the election, hijacking a term coined to describe conspiracy theory sites and employing it against the “dishonest” and “failing” mainstream press. White House press conferences and briefings have been given over to right-wing bloggers and Christian broadcasting networks, ignoring and effectively shutting out journalists who strategist Stephen Bannon, formerly of the far-right website Breitbart, refers to as “the opposition party”.

Conservative talk radio host John Ziegler said this was the culmination of a campaign to discredit the press, in response to liberal bias. “For decades, talk radio – and I was part of this – has effectively educated, and now I would say brainwashed, a huge portion of the conservative base in this country to not believe anything that the mainstream news media says.” In a Gallup poll last September, only 14 per cent of the Republicans surveyed said they trust the media.

“Conservatives are on a drug binge right now,” added Ziegler. “It feels good. In the early stages of getting on drugs very few people are thinking that they’re making a bad choice, but inevitably it ends up with you vomiting in the foetal position in the gutter. And that will eventually happen here.”

In the echo chamber, untroubled by fact-checkers, lies gain traction. Some 67 per cent of the Trump voters surveyed by Public Policy Polling last December said unemployment increased under Obama, 73 per cent believed anti-Trump protests were bankrolled by George Soros and 51 per cent thought the “Bowling Green massacre”, a fictitious terror attack dreamed up by Trump aide Kellyanne Conway, really happened.

For decades, talk radio shows have effectively educated, and now you could say brainwashed, a huge portion of the conservative base in the United States to not believe anything that the mainstream news media says