'Grasp on reality': Trump is declaring war on 'truth itself' — and may win: conservative

28 March

During Donald Trump's first presidency, his then-White House advisor Kellyanne Conway was relentlessly mocked by critics for using the phrase "alternative facts." Conway's term, in political discourse, came to symbolize distortions and conspiracy theories that were widely accepted as truth in far-right MAGA media outlets.

In an article published by The Bulwark on March 28, Never Trump conservative Mona Charen argues that Trump, during his second term, is escalating the use of "alternative facts" and waging an all-out war on "truth itself."

The veteran columnist and former Nancy Reagan speechwriter explains, "You say the Earth is warming, well we have data that say the opposite. It’s 'alternative facts,' but this time, it's not just Kellyanne Conway riffing with reporters — it comes bearing a government imprimatur. It would be easier to count grains of sand on a beach than to keep track of the lies emanating from this administration, but manipulating official government studies and statistics is a step beyond anything we've seen and a profound threat."

Charen emphasizes that "truth itself" is an important tool for Trump's opponents — the problem is that many of his supporters live in a bubble and are only exposed to so-called "alternative facts."

"We have seen one institution after another buckle before Trump's onslaught," Charen laments. "If Congress is conquered, and Big Tech won't oppose him, and big media is bending the knee, and big law is folding, and universities are crumpling, and the judiciary is a question mark, who is left? Only the voters. They retain the power to wrest control of Congress from the GOP in 20 months, which would slow, if not quite extinguish, Trump's attempted revolt. But what if the voters don't have a grasp on reality?"

Charen continues, "What if the inflation rate rises to 9 percent, bird flu is ravaging farms across the Midwest, unemployment is climbing, the economy is shrinking, measles is killing hundreds of children, crime is up — but the government has suppressed or falsified the data that would reveal those conditions? Lies have always been the engine of MAGA, but now, we face the prospect that many government statistics, on which businesses, health professionals, and our whole society depends, will be manipulated by Trumpists."

Charen notes that while the authoritarian government in Mainland China will "sometimes misrepresent economic statistics," the U.S. government "has been pretty clean in this regard — until now." And the Never Trumper stresses that the second Trump Administration will badly distort data in the months ahead."

"The Trump Administration is doing more than attempting to seize unconstitutional power for an unaccountable executive," Charen warns. "It is seeking to destroy truth itself, the last tool of the opposition."

Mona Charen's full article for The Bulwark is available at this link.

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