OPINION: Stretching the truth

One of my friends from a long time ago had a little trouble sticking to the facts. It took me a while to figure out her stories were not always accurate and, eventually, I realized she was nearly incapable of speaking without stretching the truth. I learned to take everything she said with “a grain of salt.”

During my lifetime I’ve known a few other people like her. Most times, their exaggerations could be tolerated as long as it wasn’t harming anyone. I just accepted it was a part of their nature to make stuff up.

We have a president like that. He makes stuff up. This president is famous for fabricating stories, embellishing facts and exaggerating numbers. It’s well known the number of easily identified falsehoods he told during his first administration exceeded 30,000. He’s on track to pass that number during this second term.

His inability to stick to the facts has actually created jobs for people. Full-time fact checkers are assigned by the media to monitor the president when he speaks. They scrutinize his speeches and other commentary, and read his comments on Truth Social in order to correct and report accurate information to their readers. They are dedicated to helping American citizens separate factual information from fiction, especially information that affects their daily lives.

Unfortunately, there are news outlets, opinion writers, press secretaries, podcasters and social media posters who routinely repeat the president’s misinformation. They spread his falsehoods with no concern whatsoever of how it negatively impacts the American people.

I’ve been trying to understand why the president finds it so difficult to stick to the facts. Why on earth does he say things like he’s reducing the price of prescriptions by “400, 500, even 600%?” Fifth grade students know you can’t reduce the price of anything more that 100%. You would think his staff would correct him, but they never do.

He says he won the 2024 election in a landslide, and only lost the 2020 election because it was rigged. Winning by 1.5% is hardly a landslide and the 2020 election was thoroughly audited by both parties and cleared of fraud.

He said our fight with Venezuela was about drugs, then talked more like it was regime change. Now, it appears the goal is more about controlling their vast oil reserves.

He claims he’s turned over complete control of the Trump Corporation to his sons while serving as president, but it’s obvious there’s little separation between U.S. foreign policy pursuits and Trump foreign business pursuits. The family’s wealth has increased by billions during this first year he’s been back in office.

He tells us food prices are way down - totally opposite of what we can see with our own eyes. He claims tariffs have brought $18 trillion into U.S. coffers. The latest business reports are that tariffs have earned just $200 billion. His numbers are always inflated: thousands become millions, millions become billions, billions become trillions. When he makes these claims, people naturally question his honesty and mental acuity; meanwhile, his staff brazenly repeat his false assertions with a straight face.

There must be reasons why someone finds it so difficult to tell the truth. I’ve read where people who lie compulsively may have deep-seated issues like low self-esteem, insecurity or underlying mental health conditions such as personality disorders, anxiety and ADHD. Lying is often an ingrained habit developed over time to avoid shame, gain approval, feel important or escape reality. Unfortunately, it can become an automatic, hard-to-control response that alters their perceptions of truth.

Lying becomes a compulsion that can’t be stopped, even when it causes problems with relationships, careers and other aspects of daily life. People with this problem will lie even when there’s no reason to do so, and it’s likely they begin to believe the lies themselves.

The president demonstrates several of the characteristics listed above. His constant desire for recognition and to feel important is evident every day of his presidency. One obvious example is his cabinet meetings where members go around the table heaping lavish praise and compliments on him. Their over-the-top fawning has become a source of ridicule among the public, but as he basks in their adulation, he never seems embarrassed by their flattery. Nor do they.

It all demonstrates an insatiable need for approval.