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Saturday, May 14, 2016

Does Trump think we're all morons?

A quarter-century ago, Donald Trump was in the (insanely self-serving) habit of pretending to be someone else. He would routinely masquerade as the spokesman for Donald J. Trump.

I heard about this on the Rachel Maddow show Friday night. Although the Washington Post broke the story, Maddow addressed Trump's subsequent, flat denial of the Post's story by digging up Trump's admission of his fakery, and his apology for it, out of the pages of People magazine a quarter-century ago.

(Caveat: I believe the MSNBC link is the correct one, but I didn't watch the embedded video because I won't allow Adobe Flash to run on my system.)

First, I must admit that I've gotten so caught up in Trump's response to the Post's story that I nearly lost track of the story itself. (This is undoubtedly part of Trump's strategy and the reason for his bluff denial.) It's worth remembering that the story itself is surpassingly weird. Who pretends to be his own spokesman? Who is so obsessed with controlling his reputation that he tries to pass himself off as a third party to testify to his own character?

The word "narcissist" doesn't come within smelling distance of 1990s-era Trump. And nothing suggests his self-obsession has lessened since then.

But back to Trump's denial. Maddow dismantles it in no uncertain terms, so we can dispense with considering whether he's telling the truth and ask whether he's actively lying.

There are two choices: either Trump's memory is so bad he can't remember his '90s behavior, or he's a bald-faced liar.

I don't think you can manage the grind of a presidential campaign if you're significantly brain-damaged, so I assume Trump isn't. Thus I can only wonder if, with lies he can't be bothered to make even a tiny bit plausible, he thinks the electorate is significantly brain-damaged.

Do you think we're all morons, Donald?

Why are you lying about your embarrassing past when it's so copiously documented?

Trump's acting on the adage, "If you can't dazzle them with science, baffle them with bullshit". Trump's confidence in uttering his nonsense doesn't change what it is. It's bullshit.

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