The pedlar-in-chief of mistruths

Trump’s troubled relationship with the truth will surely go down as the hallmark of this presidency

It was the bluntest of questions, but that was what gave it its power. When US President Donald Trump chose the veteran Huffington Post correspondent S.V. Date to pose a question at one of his White House press conferences he clearly had no idea what was coming.

“Mr President... after three and a half years, do you regret at all, all the lying you’ve done to the American people?,” he asked.

A clearly confused Trump had to ask for clarification of the question, which duly came, before quickly moving on to another reporter without giving an answer.

The question will not go away though.

For, even as Trump presides over the disastrous mishandling of the Covid crisis and an economic collapse, it is his troubled relationship with the truth that will surely go down in history as the hallmark of this presidency.

The Fact Checker run by the Washington Post calculates that he has made more than 20,000 false or misleading claims since being elected three-and-a-half years ago, an average of 12 a day.

Yesterday, not surprisingly, he was at it again. This time giving credence to what amounts to a racist conspiracy theory against one of his main Democratic rivals.

If you think that sounds familiar, that is because it is.

The so-called ‘birther’ rumours about Kamala Harris, the California-born vice-presidential candidate whose father is Jamaican and mother Indian, falsely claim she does not qualify to stand for the post because she was born outside the US.

It is exactly the same trope used as propoganda by Trump and the far right against former President Barack Obama when he ran for office.

As a former attorney general of California, Harris will be hardened to political battle and will not flinch from such mud-slinging.

She may reflect though that the slur is a sign that she is being viewed as a serious threat to Trump’s hopes of confounding the polls and winning a second term.

The latest polling in the States suggests that her appointment as Joe Biden’s running mate has proved popular with much of the core support which the Democrats will be hoping to inspire in the voting booths in November.

That is a glimmer of hope for all who yearn for truth and decency in public life.