THREE OUT OF FOUR

In an earlier post I mentioned that if President Trump wants us to believe he's going to be savaged by the new tax bill, he needs to whip out his returns and let us have a look.

Because his position seems suspect on the face of it. The legislation was called the "Tax Cut and Jobs" bill, and the "jobs" part of that meant rich folks and corporations were to be rewarded with huge tax cuts so they could use the money to build factories in this country and put American citizens to work.

Since the tax cuts were based on a percentage of income, only the wealthiest would be expected to break ground on new installations, which was why they got the biggest share.

All along we've been hearing from Trump how rich he is. Billions and billions, he says. So it simply made no sense for him to suggest a rich guy like him wouldn't benefit from the new bill. And in an online search, I found most sources agreeing with my assessment. Trump and his family will benefit bigly.

In the process of tooling around the Internet, I came across a site called PolitiFact, folks who rate Trump on his honesty. They list 482 claims made by Trump, going back to April 2011.

(I think you know where this is headed.)

PolitiFact assigned each statement to one of six categories: True, Mostly True, Half True, Mostly False, False, and Pants on Fire.

Giving Trump the benefit of half the items in the Half True category, the man scored in the Honest Zone 23.4% of the time. Less than one fourth.

Some time before his resignation, Richard Nixon went on TV to say (famously): The American people want to know if their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook.

(He was.)

I don't recall Trump being pressed to make a similar statement, though his catch phrase ("Believe me!") peppers his public pronouncements. And his ability to deny he said some of the sillier things he in fact did say (on tape or on camera or on Twitter) is legendary and no doubt an inspiration to fellow politicians.

("Deny, deny, deny!" is the slogan of their profession.)

Still, three out of four statements in the Crap Zone may be some sort of record.

Should a guy who knowingly lies that often be president? Or if a guy is unaware he lies that often, is he mentally well enough to be president?

Remember, Trump never says anything that isn't designed to help his cause, to make himself look good or some other guy look bad. His lies have a cynical purpose, and often they divide the country along political lines.

Or religious ones.

Currently the man is obsessed with repeating his new pledge: This is again a country where folks say "Merry Christmas." No more Happy Holidays or crap like that. No more namby-pamby political correctness.

And if non-Christians don't like it, they can hit the bricks.

Is that some sort of challenge? Yeah, it probably is. Trump clearly wants no more Muslims coming to this country. And the next step will be to rid ourselves of the ones who are already here. Maybe it starts with making them feel unwelcome.

America First, and America for Americans!

Trump wants to be the one to decide who can be called American.

After which he can deny he ever said it.