Truth

Abstract

“Truth” aims to explain why Donald Trump lies more than any other public official in the United States today, and why his supporters, nonetheless, put up with his lies. The chapter combs the biographical record to highlight some of the most egregious examples of Trump’s untruths and then considers reasons behind Trump’s remarkable penchant for lying. For Trump, truth is effectively whatever it takes to win the moment, moment by moment, battle by battle—as the episodic man, shorn of any long-term story to make sense of his life, struggles to win the moment. Among the many reasons that Trump’s supporters excuse his lying is that they, like Trump himself, do not really hold him to the standards that human persons are held to. And that is because many of his supporters, like Trump himself, do not consider him to be a person—he is more like a primal force or superhero, more than a person, but less than a person, too.