Abstract
Although most presidents have lied to the public, Pfiffner argues that President Trump’s lies differ in volume and kind. He distinguishes four types of Trump’s lies: (1) trivial lies, (2) exaggerations and self-aggrandizing lies, (3) lies to deceive the public, and (4) egregious lies.
He analyzes the consequences of these lies with respect to public trust, misinformation encoding, and the relationship of lies to loyalty and power.
Trump’s most serious lies are egregious false statements that are demonstrably contrary to well-known facts. Pfiffner concludes that Trump’s lies are detrimental to the democratic process, and that his continued adherence to demonstrably false statements undermined enlightenment epistemology and corroded the premises of liberal democracy.
For comments on an earlier version of this chapter, the author would like to thank MaryAnne Borelli, Jeffrey Crouch, Bob Deitz, Chris Edelson, George Edwards, Jim Finkenstein, Nancy Kassop, Chuck Lamb, Martha Kumar, Jeremy Mayer, Hugh Sockett, Thys Van Schaik, Joe White, Andrew Wilson, and John Woolley.
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Notes
- 1.
Only a few philosophers condemn all lying, for example, St. Augustine and Immanuel Kant.
- 2.
This chapter does not address philosophical issues concerning the nature of perception and reality, such as idealism, empiricism, deconstruction, or post modernism. This chapter adopts the enlightenment argument that reality is accessible and amenable to empirical investigation, evidence, and logic.
- 3.
Flip-flops may be hypocritical or opportunistic, but not necessarily lies. Before the 2016 election , Trump said that the Electoral College was “a disaster for democracy.” But after he won the election due to the provisions of the Electoral College, Trump said “the Electoral College is actually genius” (Kessler 2016). He also claimed that US unemployment statistics were fake during the Obama administration, but when he was president, he used Bureau of Labor Statistics data to claim that unemployment decreased because of his policies as president.
- 4.
- 5.
The Federal Election Commission certified that Clinton received 2,868,686 million more votes than Trump’s 62,984,828 (Clinton won 48.18 percent; Trump won 46.09 percent of the total votes cast) (Federal Election Commission 2017, 5).
- 6.
If Trump had been referring to the nominal rate of taxation of corporations, he would have been close to accurate, with the US ranking near the top, at 35 percent. But the nominal rate, because of deductions, was not the effective rate, which according to the Government Accountability Office was 22 percent (GAO 2016). But Trump did not bother to distinguish corporate taxes with the general level of taxation.
- 7.
He also tweeted in 2018 that crime in Germany was “way up” because of Angela Merkel’s policies toward immigration. In fact, German crime was down by 10 percent since 2016 and the lowest since 1992 (Taylor 2018).
- 8.
According to official DHS figures, Naturalization of Iranians was 11,623 in 2013; 9620 in 2014 and 10,344 in 2015. https://www.dhs.gov/immigration-statistics/yearbook/2015/table21; Iranians granted lawful permanent resident status were 9658 in 2013; 8894 in 2014; and 9074 in 2015. https://www.dhs.gov/immigration-statistics/yearbook/2015/table2. The Joint Plan of Action was signed on November 24, 2013; the following year, 2014 the number of naturalizations and green cards granted decreased from the previous year.
- 9.
Trump is no Hitler, but Hitler had some insight into lies and propaganda. In Mein Kampf he argued that the “big lie” could have powerful effects on the masses. “[I]n the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted … they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies. … It would never come into their head to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously” (Hitler 1939, 196).
- 10.
People have argued that in order to tell a lie, a person must know (or think he knows) the truth. Thus, if Trump makes up his own “facts” as he goes along, he cannot be lying. Harry Frankfurt has argued that some politicians spread “bullshit,” that is, the liar “does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose” (Frankfurt 2005, 56). Such an attitude in a politician would undermine the idea that there is any objective reality; but self-delusion is no excuse when lies are exposed, and yet the misinformation is repeated or its inaccuracy not acknowledged.
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Pfiffner, J.P. (2020). The Lies of Donald Trump: A Taxonomy. In: Lamb, C., Neiheisel, J. (eds) Presidential Leadership and the Trump Presidency. The Evolving American Presidency. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18979-2_2
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