patrick.net

The pattern, by now, has become so predictable that it practically qualifies as a law of nature. A respected person or institution challenges, crosses, or inconveniences Donald Trump, and as night follows day, the attacks begin. Whether spewed directly from Trump himself or, increasingly, from a small army of willing surrogates, they begin assiduously chipping away, not at the criticism itself, but at the idea that there even is such a thing as respectability, authority, or honesty.

This isn’t new, to be clear. Trump has spent the last two years attempting to undermine the public’s trust in any person who presented a threat or institution that looked like an obstacle.

When elections appeared unlikely to go his way, they were declared “rigged.”

When a federal judge seemed dubious about his defense of the Trump University scam, Trump attacked the Indiana-born jurist for being a “Mexican” who was biased against him because of his anti-immigration positions.

When US intelligence agencies reported that they had overwhelming evidence that the Russian government interfered in last year’s election with the express aim of hurting Hillary Clinton and helping Trump, he tried to drag their reputation down into the mud as well. Seemingly at random he described them sometimes as grossly incompetent, and at others as the masterminds of a “deep state” plot against him.

It’s important to list these things, because in the chaotic day-to-day flow of news and information, we sometimes treat specific incidents as isolated from broader patterns, which can give them more credibility in the moment than they deserve.

It is of a piece with the current tone in Trump’s Washington, where the knee-jerk reaction, from the president on down, is to try to throw a cloud of doubt and suspicion over any person or institution that challenges the president, regardless of the long-term harm that might do to the country.

Much More: http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2017/07/23/

#Trump #Deception #Politics