Dear MAGA: You’ve been lied to for too long — and we’re here to help

Well, now we — and all of MAGA-land — have discovered that Donald Trump and all the senior law-enforcement officials around him have known since May that his name is in multiple places in the Epstein documents, at least according to the Wall Street Journal.

That would almost certainly include the senior law-enforcement official, Todd Blanche, who on Thursday was due to interview Ghislaine Maxwell in prison. Totally without bias, of course. No way the guy who was Trump’s personal criminal defense attorney is going to try to get Maxwell to point the finger at Bill Clinton and away from Donald Trump, right? Right…..

It’s a tough time for the true believers, and that may signal a real opportunity for us in the reality-based world to wake up some of our brothers and sisters in MAGA-land.

Recently, one of the Trump-following MAGA faithful called into my radio/TV program about Epstein. He’d called in before, usually spouting some random rightwing talking point as if it would instantly win him an argument; the strategy usually doesn’t work out well for him, but he keeps trying.

This time, though, the topic was Epstein and he seemed lost. All he could do was dismissively call me “Tommy” and “liar.” He sputtered a bit and then hung up before I could say more than, “You’re on the air.”

Increasingly, as Van Morrison sings in his song Brand New Day, MAGA cultists are saying out loud, “I was lost, double-crossed” by Trump. They’d believed him when he was campaigning in October 2020 and was asked, on an NBC town hall, about QAnon:

“[What do you think about their] theory that Democrats are a satanic pedophile ring and that you are the savior of that?”

He replied:

“Let me just tell you, what I do hear about it, is they are very strongly against pedophilia. And I agree with that. I mean, I do agree with that. And I agree with it very strongly.”

In other words, Trump suggested, yes, there is an international ring of rich and powerful men running pedophile rings, and they’re associated with the Democratic Party and Democrats more generally.

Now that it’s come out that there was, in fact, a major pedophile ring which abused, exploited, and raped over 1,000 girls and young women — a ring run by Trump's “best friend” Jeffrey Epstein — MAGA followers are reeling from the cognitive dissonance.

If you are one of those Trump followers — or pass this note along to somebody who is — here’s, as Paul Harvey used to say, The Rest of the Story.

Dear MAGA follower,

Trump didn’t just nakedly lie to you when he promised you he’d smash the pedo rings and “drain the swamp,” he’s been lying to you his entire political career.

He lied to you when he told you that Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States; that lie was promoted by billionaire-owned media like Fox “News” that wanted Trump in office. Why? So he could do favors for the morbidly rich who give him money.

He lied to you when he said he supported blue-collar workers; in fact, Trump appointed a professional union-buster (Eugene Scalia) as Labor Secretary in his last term, and his current Labor Secretary (Lori Chavez-DeRemer) went so far as to brag to Republican senators that she “fully” supports virulently anti-union “Right To Work For Less” laws that have gutted union membership since the Reagan Revolution. Why? Because billionaires who give Republicans money hate unions.

He lied to you when he said he’d clean up the environment; instead, he’s dismantling the Environmental Protection Agency, has shut down their scientific Office of Research and Development, fired thousands of employees and scientists, and has rolled back over 100 rules that protect our air, water, and soil. Why? Because the fossil fuel industry and big polluters gives him money.

He lied to you when he said he wanted a good future for your children; here in the reality-based world, Trump killed Biden’s efforts to reduce student loan debt, is pushing programs to defund public schools, and has all but shut down the entire federal Department of Education. Why? Because the private school industry gives him money.

He lied to you when he said he’d lower healthcare costs; because of his and the GOP’s massive cuts to Medicaid and his deregulation efforts, giant insurance companies that administer Affordable Care Act policies are rolling out rate increases of as much as 75% for next year. Why? Because the giant insurance companies give them money.

He lied to you when he said he’d protect Social Security; instead, he laid off 7,000 Social Security workers, causing absolute chaos in the agency and hours-long (sometimes days-long) telephone waits for help or to sign up for new benefits. Why? Because the big banks, which want to take over Social Security, give him money.

He lied to you when he said he’d bring home manufacturing jobs; instead, his erratic tariff policies have discouraged American companies from building facilities here because they can’t rely on the tariffs being around (like they would be if, like the Constitution says, they were imposed by Congress instead of the president). Because of his freezing Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act funds for helping entrepreneurs with new factories, many are shutting down, leading to a loss of over 100,000 manufacturing jobs since his inauguration. Why? Because (illegally) wielding tariffs gives him a sense of power and forces other nations’ leaders to come groveling to him with flattery worthy of Idi Amin and billion-dollar bribes for himself, his company, and his family.

He lied to you when he said he’d lower the cost of groceries; instead, he’s pushing for more monopolies in the grocery sector, his tariffs are driving up prices, and his refusal to do anything about climate change is making crop yields continue to collapse (driving up produce, meat, and egg prices). Why? Because tariffs give him power and bribes, and the fossil fuel industry gives him money.

He lied to you when he said he’d lower the cost of housing; instead, his gutting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is letting rip-off mortgage lenders have a field day. Why? Because the banking industry gives him money.

He lied to you when he said he’d give working class people a tax cut; instead, virtually all of the new tax cuts from the Big Ugly Bill go to the top 1 percent of Americans and in 2 years taxes will go up on working-class people. And he gutted the IRS so they can no longer effectively audit morbidly rich people. Why? Because he’s a billionaire, 13 of his cabinet members are billionaires, his buddies (like Epstein) are billionaires, and none of them (particularly Trump) want to pay their damn taxes.

He lied to you when he said, “I’ll eliminate the federal debt…”; instead, Trump has added more to the national debt, faster, than any president in the entire 249-year-long history of the United States. Why? He’s forcing our government to borrow money our children must pay back in order to give that cash to himself and his billionaire buddies.

He lied to you when he said, “We’re going to rebuild America” with a “trillion-dollar infrastructure bill”; instead, he not only never offered such legislation but is actively kneecapping the trillion-dollar infrastructure bill that Democrats passed during Biden’s presidency. Why? Because billionaires hate paying taxes for things that benefit the “little people” who need roads and bridges while they live on their estates and travel by private jet.

He lied to you when he said he was only going to arrest undocumented immigrants who’d committed crimes and were “the worst of the worst”; instead, over 70% of the people ICE has arrested in recent months have had spotless records in the US, and many were already approved for asylum or other status that allowed them to stay in the US or even work on becoming citizens. Why? Because he’s a racist and has been ever since he was a kid when the feds busted him for writing a big “C” on “Colored” people’s rental applications for his father’s apartments so they could be turned down.

The list goes on: Trump said he’d protect voting rights and instead is trying to make it harder for women and minorities to vote; he said he’d protect women’s rights and instead women in Red States are bleeding out in unprecedented numbers; he said he’d protect our democracy but instead is taking an axe to it; he said he’d respect the law but has taken bribes and violated the Hatch Act since taking office; he said he’d protect veterans and instead is gutting the VA; he said he’d respect police but instead led a charge against them that killed three officers.

Why all the lies? Because he’s a compulsive liar and he found advantage, either politically or financially, in each of his lies. He thinks of you, dear MAGA, the same way he thinks of the people who’ve patronized his university, bought products from his failed businesses, or paid the absurd fees to join his seedy gulf motel clubs: All of you are, in his mind, suckers!

So, dear MAGA, please reconsider your slavish devotion to this lifelong liar, convicted felon, and adjudicated sexual abuser and rejoin the rest of us in the real world. You’ve been lied to for too long, and we’re here to help with your reentry into normal, civil society.