By JAMES PRESTON ALLEN
Listening to the Trumpster’s endless rebukes, Twitter attacks and denials are enough to make one question the sanity of it all. As President Trump moves past his 1,000th day in office, it’s become almost passé to accuse him of actually lying even as he significantly steps up the pace of his favorite pastime of spouting exaggerated numbers, unwarranted boasts and outright falsehoods. By Oct. 9, his 993rd day in office, he had made 13,435 false or misleading claims, according to the Washington Post’s fact checker. Lies by any other name.
The former Ted Cruz staffer and avowed “Never Trumper” CNN contributor, Amanda Carpenter, revealed the shocking truth in her recent book, Gaslighting America: Why We Love It When Trump Lies to Us—they enthrall us—and she explains how we can avoid falling for them.
Carpenter breaks down Trump’s formula, showing why it’s practically foolproof, playing his victims, the media, the Democrats, and the Republican fence sitters perfectly. She traces how this tactic started with Nixon, gained traction against Bill Clinton and exploded under Trump. If you think Trump is driving you crazy, it’s because he is.