By Robert B. Talisse
For much of his political career, dishonesty has been without cost for Donald Trump. He entered into national politics with the birther lie, claiming that Barack Obama was not born in the U.S., and that did not prevent Trump from winning the 2016 GOP nomination.
His persistent false statements about crowd sizes, electoral outcomes and the birthplace of his father barely garner press coverage today.
What’s more, the admission that Trump lies seems to have had little impact. On the campaign trail during the 2024 presidential race, vice-presidential candidate JD Vance acknowledged that Trump’s story that Haitian immigrants were eating pets in Ohio had been “created.” That confession had no discernible effect on Trump’s popularity. In fact, some measures indicate that Trump’s supporters admire his untruthfulness.
More recently, however, things have changed. Data now indicates mounting regret and disappointment among his base.
The administration’s failure to sustain convincing messaging about the Iran war, the Epstein files, the tariffs and inflation have left some supporters feeling duped and abandoned by Trump.
The president’s recent approval numbers are registering this shift.
This might suggest that fact-checking efforts are paying off. But, as a philosopher who studies the cognitive and emotional aspects of citizenship, I think this is incorrect. There is a better explanation for why, at this point, Trump’s followers are reacting negatively to his assertions.
When falsehoods aren’t lies
Although fact-checking can be successful in establishing the facts among people who have not already made up their minds, it is generally ineffective among true believers. Once someone has formed an opinion, debunking their belief can backfire, driving them to commit even more strongly to their mistake.
To explain the emerging shift among Trump’s base requires looking elsewhere. Specifically, I think it requires abandoning the idea that Trump’s more outlandishly false statements are lies at all.
I realize that this may sound odd.
To explain, let’s begin by noting that it is surprisingly difficult to give an adequate definition of lying. Intuitive characterizations – “A lie is something that isn’t true” – fall short.
For example, lying isn’t merely uttering a falsehood. Honest mistakes and statements made from lapses of memory are not lies. You could say instead that lying is deliberately asserting what one knows to be false.
But that won’t work, either.
President Bill Clinton lied when he claimed that “there is not a sexual relationship,” which, at the moment he said it, was true.
At the very least, the definition of lying must include speaking with the aim of causing one’s audience to adopt a falsehood. But that would make stage actors liars.
We should say instead that lying is a matter of speaking with the intent to deceive. Though difficulties remain, that’s a workable definition.
Betrayal by contempt
Given the ease with which many of Trump’s false statements are debunked, I think it’s unlikely that he aims to deceive anyone. No one really believes that Trump has stopped eight wars, defeated inflation, brought gasoline prices below US$2, cut a deal with the CEO of Sharpie or has 100% approval for his military incursion in Iran – all things he has said.
As he is not attempting to deceive, Trump isn’t lying when he makes such claims. Rather, he is doing something else entirely, something arguably more pernicious.
From my perspective as a political philosopher, these and other similar claims indicate he is speaking falsely as a way of demeaning or taunting his detractors. By resolutely asserting unbelievable falsehoods, Trump is expressing contempt. He is deriding the enterprise of journalism, in effect forcing reporters to write stories about his incredible statements, thereby indirectly controlling the news cycle.
It seems to me that his purpose is not to convince anyone, but rather to declare to the press, and perhaps also to his opposition, “You cannot stop me.” For a political movement rooted in the idea that U.S. politics is a swamp in need of draining, Trump’s defiant style has been successful.
But here’s the catch. It appears that Trump’s supporters are now beginning to feel that they, too, are on the receiving end of his contempt.
His recent claims that grocery prices are falling, his tariffs are working, the economy is roaring and the operation in Iran is a “little excursion” that has already been successful are not only obvious falsehoods.
In asserting them, Trump belittles those who must bear the effects of a struggling economy and an ill-conceived war. From this perspective, the shift among his base is not due to their realization that Trump lies. It’s that he has betrayed them.
Robert B. Talisse is W. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University.
Pogo says
Mr. Talisse:
This easily ranks in the top one percent of everything I’ve ever read on the Conversation site.
Bless ya sir, thank you for a true service to a suffering world.
Laurel says
Trump has a history of not being excepted by the part of society he desires.
He is not your retribution, you are his.
the Dude says
Dennis will be the last one in the room.
Speaking of D:
“Knappy hair, big ass, smells like lotion”
Another of his greatest hits from X.
PaulT says
Is that ‘X’ excerpt ‘Dennis In Praise of Trump’…?
R.S. says
One of the social-media “experts” claimed that he can lie a lot faster than his critics can invest time into showing him wrong. There’s some truth in that analysis. But even when all the evidence is ostensive and in one’s face, he lies without blushing. Language can be informative or performative. It’s the latter for him all the time; the former, never.
PaulT says
Isn’t it likely that Trump isn’t aware of all those lies because he’s delusional. He makes up a story embellishes it then repeats it to himself until he believes every word of his inventions?
Google’s explanation fits Trump perfectly (to a Tee?)
‘Delusional individuals are not only convinced of their thoughts, but they are entirely unable to be convinced otherwise, regardless of factual evidence. A clinical delusion is a fixed, unshakable belief based on an inaccurate interpretation of…..(everything?)
His apparently incurable narcissism probably doesn’t help.
Deborah Coffey says
That might be true at this point in his life. But, Trump began lying when he was a toddler because it worked for him way back then. Lying is his “con card” and he’s always been expert at it…until now. So, I’m going with the “con card” being worn out because “delusional” would be way too kind for someone so empty of any morals, ethics, empathy, love and intelligence.
Laurel says
No, he’s lying and he knows it. He is doing what his past advisor, Steve Bannon, calls “flooding the zone.” That’s where so many lies come forth that by the time someone fact checks, he’s already several lies ahead.
He just doesn’t care. He gets his way, and mocks his constituents in the process.
Americans are now dying in his war. He goes and plays golf.
FlaPharmTech says
Epstein files?! Impeach the
POS already!
Dennis C Rathsam says
Thanks for all the kind words from the TDS fools. I have the balls to put my name on my posts, Im not affraid of you mental giants. I speak my mind, as I have for 73 yrs! If you don’t like what I say, don’t read it…..But you cant stop, your hatered of TRUMP, now caries after me. You Fagler simpletons think I care what you say or think, your totally nuts. I sleep well at night, I fear no one. You cant take away my freedom, or hurt me with your Jackass bullshit. I stand with my president, along with the 77+million Americans, who were feed up with the lies, the cover ups, & the fraud, from the democratic party. Poor kids starved because of moneies, stolen by DEMOCRATES. TRUMP put an end to Thier slush fundes, & Medicare fraud, Look at all the money our VP found in such a short time. Its started already, the jackasses have taken to the streets & riot. Its gonna be another summer of love.
Deborah Coffey says
I read you, Dennis, and I hear you. The only thing I can offer is prayer that God will give you a heart that loves and eyes that will see the TRUTH in all things. Meantime, you should at least see that you and Trump cannot take away our freedom and continue murdering innocent people, separating babies from their parents, locking up innocent people, blowing up speed boats with fishermen in them, and killing 120 school children and 36 others in Iran. Those are facts. I hope you can see them.
Chris says
So what you are saying is that you are still drinking the kool-aid in greater quantities then before! You just keep believing the BS he feeds you . By the way , how is pumpkin heads health care policy working out for America ? Where exactly are the riots taking place ? Last one that I watched was in DC on January 6th , now after he pardoned them all , he now wants to pay them for killing police and destroying the Capitol ! What a LOSER !
R.S. says
Mr. Rathsam, would you care to supply references for the facts you’re claiming? Name-calling is cheap; supplying evidence is a bit more of a challenge. If I delete the insults, you are saying: [Americans] “who were feed up with the lies, the cover ups, & the fraud, from the democratic party. Poor kids starved because of moneies, stolen by DEMOCRATES. TRUMP put an end to Thier slush fundes, & Medicare fraud, Look at all the money our VP found in such a short time.” I’m sure that neither party has an undaunted commitment to the truth or a reluctance to engage in fraud. But which poor kids have been starved by way of stolen money–if not by Trump, who shut down USAID to the rest of the world with a devastating impact on poor countries. What slush fund are you speaking of? And what money did the Vice-president find where if not by increasing the debt of the country by trillions? I’m educable and I’m sincere; so please tell me.
Sherry says
Dear RS. . . You’ll never, ever get any credentialed facts from dennis. Unfortunately, he is a very, very mentally ill person who likes nothing better than to rant and rave on Flaglerlive, and apparently plaster even more horrific, racist things on (unfiltered) X.
Hopefully the sheriff is monitoring him. He could be very dangerous, if he has a gun.
DaleL says
There is a term for what Mr. Trump does. It is a “Gish Gallop”. “…an avalanche of nonsense presented as fact.” It is a favorite tactic of creationists such as Ken Ham.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trumps-weird-debate-strategies-come-from-creationist-tactics/
I really do not understand how Mr. Trump is a legitimate president of the United States. The January 11, 2021 impeachment charge was for Incitement of Insurrection. Even though he was not convicted of this charge in the Senate, the majority of the Senate voted for conviction. (57 to 43) Thus a majority of the Congress voted that Donald Trump had engaged in an insurrection against the Constitution of the United States. I cannot fathom how he is not disqualified from holding office based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
R.S. says
You may be right, Sherry; but one must try, I’d think. Coming back at him with the same barrage of abusive name-calling doesn’t help anyone; but that’s what I see here too often.
Sherry says
You are right R.S. arguing, and even trying to debate, with someone who is not mentally healthy is likely to throw fuel on the fire of anger and hate. For years, I’ve begged dennis many times to get the counseling he d so desperately needs. . . but, apparently to no avail. That’s why I’ve stopped reading anything he writes. The only person who can help dennis is dennis. That may never happen, no matter what.
He hurts people every day with his words. I just hope it doesn’t go beyond that.
Sherry says
Meanwhile, trump is thumbing his nose and spitting in the eye of every US citizen that still lives in “fact based” reality and does not “worship” him as the second coming of Christ!
This is the demented, twilight zone, sh$% show “YOU” have created for us all to deal with, Maga cult members! This is absolutely “On YOU”! Now, get out there, find your lost critical thinking and moral compass and VOTE for HONEST, SANE, PRINCIPLED people, so we can regain some sense of decency and hope for the future! Thank You! Joy! Peace! Love!