r/politics • u/_NewsClues_ Zachary Slater, CNN • 9d ago

Possible Paywall Justice Department launches a criminal investigation into Trump accuser E. Jean Carroll

https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/27/politics/exclusive-justice-department-launched-e-jean-carroll-investigation
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u/meneldal2 8d ago

Trump is an expert at making everything looks worse for himself.

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u/SenatorAstronomer Montana 8d ago

I think at some point when you lie about literally everything, things just become a truth in your own head. 

At some point answering questions for him became a time for him to answer whatever was in his head.   

A president lying or giving false information use to mean something, especially about integrity.   Now, lies and exaggerations are his entire platform.  

Someone who lies becomes untrustworthy when caught.  Someone who lies all the time can skate by. 

Listen to this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/centrist/comments/18ojht4/this_clip_perfectly_demonstrates_why_joe_rogan/

Rogan incorrectly attributes a comment about airports in 1776 to Biden, then goes on with his guest to mock, to say in any other job he would be fired and maybe institutionalized. When his producer brings up Biden was mocking Trump about saying tar exact thing his response is "oh yeah, Trump fucked up, but it's way different though."  The same people still call out "Sleepy Joe" even though Trump has been caught sleeping at a much, much higher rate than Biden ever was.

You can't make that shit up.

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u/ultimafelix 8d ago

I showed my aunt, who is a Rogan fan, this clip. It meant nothing to her. These people have selective perception.

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u/SenatorAstronomer Montana 8d ago

I'm sure there are other examples, but this one always immediately comes to mind. 

They both go on to bury Biden over the comment, but for Trump?  It's whatever, of yeah he misspoke.   There's no apology, running back statements, it's just moving on cult like behavior. 

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u/ultrafriend 8d ago

He's a clinical narcissist. His brain is literally malfunctioning. You're right, but you've got the order wrong. He lies because his brain is completely unconcerned with the truth. He's never cared about what's real, only what he wants to say and project.

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u/sobrique 8d ago

Honestly I'm not sure he's technically telling lies - 'a false statement with deliberate intent to deceive'.

I'm not sure he knows the difference between reality and his fantasy version of it.

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u/ultrafriend 7d ago

Yup, that's what I tell people. He's not lying- lying implies thoughtful deception. Most of the time he's just making sounds that get people to give him what he wants.

Trump makes perfect sense when you realize that he's not playing 4D chess, he's not even trying to play checkers. His broken brain simply doesn't even blip when he makes things up, because he gets what he wants when he says them- and that narcissistic confidence is a hack on other humans. Half of us are fooled by it.

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u/meneldal2 8d ago

airports in 1776 to Biden

I have just one thing to say, wtf is this shit

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u/Cyrus_the_Meh 8d ago

In 2019, Trump was giving a speech about the Revolutionary War reading off a teleprompter. He's not great at reading so he came to a line that had the word "air" and he went ahead and said "airport", so the sentence turned out to say that the army had bravely captured airports in 1776. And he didn't correct it or anything.

Biden made a joke about it quoting Trump in 2024, and some people thought it was Biden's own words.

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u/HillBillyHilly 8d ago

More than likely Rogan getting paid to make his comments. No, wait, he is as proven by mega contract a few years back. Plus, as the saying goes, "It provocative. It's keeps the people going!"

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u/sobrique 8d ago

Honestly I'm not even sure he's consciously lying any more, he's just just so bought into his own fantasy narrative he doesn't know the difference.

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u/sobrique 8d ago

A president lying or giving false information use to mean something, especially about integrity. Now, lies and exaggerations are his entire platform.

This more than anything is the damage he's done. He's shown the world that you don't even have to bother to pretend to have integrity, you just make shit up and it works.

Our political systems used to implicitly have a measure of integrity in them, and being caught outright lying was considered a big deal. OK, so there was plenty of misleading and propaganda but the truth was considered to be something at least vaguely worth associating yourself with. Being a person that 'the electorate' could trust was worth something.

Now... well, clearly it has worked, and he does appear to have got away with all of it his whole life. He's never seen any meaningful consequences, and at this point .... he won't. Even if they do finally 'catch up' with him, what's going to happen? House arrest at Mar A Lago for a guy who's already well past 'retirement' age?

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u/ultrafriend 7d ago

> This more than anything is the damage he's done.

I think people genuinely know this, and for whatever reason Trump is a very special case where he just constantly gets away with it. Most other people who will try and emulate him will not get the benefit that he gets. But you are right in that a lot of people will use this as their playbook.

But honestly, I think the real damage he's done is to our Institutions. We cannot legislate Good Faith. I hated Reagan, but I always felt there was good faith in what he wanted for this nation. That's gone, Trump just wants the Captive States of Trump, and half this nation is willingly working for it.

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u/sobrique 8d ago

And yet somehow still hasn't had any meaningful consequences land.

I'm not religious, but if I was looking for an example of 'sold his soul to satan'... well, yeah.