Political scholar reveals the 'bald-faced lie' putting Trump at odds with GOP

President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune prepare to shake hands during a Rose Garden Club lunch at the White House in Washington, D.C., October 21, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

President Donald Trump is committed to rewriting reality when it comes to a certain "bald-faced lie," one political scholar wrote for The Hill, and it is one that is putting him on a collision course with his own party.

John Kenneth White is a professor emeritus of political science at the Catholic University of America, and on Monday, he published a piece for The Hill arguing that Trump has lost "all sense of reality" when it comes to the Jan. 6 Capitol Riots — and it is proving to be a massive headache for Republicans staring down tight races in the coming midterms.

"For years, President Trump and his fellow Republicans have sought to recast the events of that day. Trump called it a “day of love,'" White wrote. "Recently, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) told reporters it had been a 'self-made riot by people who hate Trump.' Today, the price of admission into Trump’s Republican Party is to accept the bald-faced lie that the 2020 election was stolen, and the violence of Jan. 6 either did not happen or was staged."

He added later: "But Trump’s version of history is running afoul of Republicans who fear voter retribution is coming this November. After Trump sued his own government for leaking information about his tax returns, the Justice Department announced a $1.776 billion settlement. The money, Trump said, is to be paid to people who were 'really treated brutally by a system that was so corrupt with corrupt people running it,' among whom he likely intends to include Jan. 6 rioters."

This plan, White noted, was a bridge too far even for Republicans, many of whom "demurred" at the idea. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said that he was "not a big fan," of the fund, while Rep. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin called it a "galactic blunder." This face-off between Trump and the GOP comes as economic matters are set to be the defining issue of the midterms, and Republicans sweat about the president's increasing obsession with frivolous and costly ideas at the expense of actual policy wins.

"Trump’s intentional forgetfulness about the violence of Jan. 6 and his role in it is akin to white Southerners’ rewriting of history after the Civil War," White continued. "Following the Confederacy’s defeat, the South recast the Civil War as a noble cause in defense of states’ rights. By the early 20th century, nearly 700 Confederate statues were erected throughout the South and the history books were whitewashed to make the conflict primarily about states’ rights, not slavery."

He added later: "Trump has adopted an even more aggressive stance when it comes to rewriting the history of Jan. 6. This month, the Justice Department began scrubbing its website of any references to the insurrection. The department said it is, 'proud to reverse' its 'weaponization under the Biden administration,' and 'will do everything in our power to make whole those who were persecuted for political purposes,' including removing 'partisan propaganda' from the Justice Department’s website."

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