Trump’s Power Lies

The central aspect of Donald Trump’s character, and the thing that qualifies him as evil (rather just a buffoon), is that he is a congenital liar. The Bible clearly states that “all liars” will go to hell (Revelation 21:8). The Book of Mormon teaches that the devil is “the father of all lies” (2Nephi 2:18).

The Washington Post has been keeping a searchable database of Trump’s lies since he took office. In October 2020, the month before the election, Trump increased his rate to an average of 50 lies a day. The sheer volume of lies has made it hard for the Post’s Fact Checker to keep up.

Asserting power

The Trumpian lie is different. It is the power lie, or the bully lie. It is the lie of the bigger kid who took your hat and is wearing it — while denying that he took it. There is no defense against this lie because the point of the lie is to assert power.

Masha Gessen

Donald Trump’s lies are designed to make him look good. For a malignant narcissist, this is to be expected. But, more than that, Trump’s lies are expressions of power. He uses lies to dominate others. Writer Masha Gessen calls this the “power lie.” — the type of lie told by a bully.

This is a strong psychological control mechanism that has long been very successful for him. Trump does not care if you believe what he says, he wants you to support him whatever he says. He wants people to adore him, not agree with him. He doesn’t care what you stand for, he just wants to know whose side you are on.

Siding with the bully

The power lie conjures a different reality and demands that you choose between your experience and the bully’s demands: Are you going to insist that you are wet from the rain or give in and say that the sun is shining?

Masha Gessen

People who make a habit of accepting (if not believing) Trump’s lies soon lose their objectivity — along with their critical and analytical thinking skills. They have sided with the bully and thereafter bow to and serve his wishes and whims. Their world becomes narrow, black and white, our side or the bad guys. Reality is whatever Trump says it is.

A strong example of this is the 2020 Republican National Platform. There isn’t one. The Republican National Committee decided that their party would stand for and support whatever Donald Trump said. The Republican Party no longer has any objective goals or principles, they simply serve Trump.

Controlling reality

Trump’s lies are outlandish because they are not amendments or embellishments to the shared reality of Americans — they have nothing to do with it. When Trump claimed that millions of people voting illegally cost him the popular vote, he was not making easily disprovable factual claims: he was asserting control over reality itself.

Masha Gessen

Millions of Americans have adopted Trump’s reality. To them, anything he says is true (no matter how ridiculous, or self-serving, or self-contradictory) and anything said to the contrary (no matter the source, no matter how logical, no matter how well-documented) is “fake news.”

This deliberate, self-chosen, narrow-mindedness is nothing short of voluntary brainwashing. To put it another way, these people have sold their souls.

LDS theology has a name for people who are willing to deny reality, to deny the sun is shining at noon day — and that name is not “Saint.”

I advise all of you to be careful what you do, or you may by-and-by find out that you have been deceived.

Joseph Smith

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Sources: Masha Gessen, Surviving Autocracy, Riverhead Books, 2020. Chapter 12.
Glenn Kessler, “In 1,316 days, President Trump has made 22,247 false or misleading claims,” The Washington Post, August 27, 2020.
Glenn Kessler, “Trump is averaging more than 50 false or misleading claims a day,” The Washington Post, October 22, 2020.
Joseph Smith, “The King Follett Sermon,” April 7, 1844, (reprinted in Ensign, May 1971).