Donald Trump can’t decide what he hates more — being held accountable for the crimes he’s committed or having a public that obviously detests him. After going back and forth with Democratic Congressional leaders over funding for the border wall, the general sense that Trump is a racist was back all over Twitter.
But Trump is never one to admit he’s been bested. In fact, even in situations where it’s blindingly obvious that he looked terrible, he still pretends like nothing ever happened.
One of the worst examples — or best, depending on how you mean it — was back in October. Donald Trump was in full-on defensive mode about his unwarranted visit to Pittsburgh following the brutal killing of 11 Jewish worshipers inside Tree of Life synagogue. Presumably, Trump has seen the reports of his motorcade being turned back by large groups of protesters, and felt the need to respond, which he did — by simply lying about it:
Melania and I were treated very nicely yesterday in Pittsburgh. The Office of the President was shown great respect on a very sad & solemn day. We were treated so warmly. Small protest was not seen by us, staged far away. The Fake News stories were just the opposite-Disgraceful! pic.twitter.com/9B9HgCF1G9
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 31, 2018
Even if you click through to the video clip that Trump sent along with the tweet, you’ll find that there is no footage of the President or anyone with him inside the temple; they were kept outside while there were any cameras present and there is no evidence yet that Trump was ever allowed inside the temple.
More importantly, footage actually does exist of the protests. Film of his motorcade being forced to take an alternate route exists.
This is gaslighting in its highest form.
When we reported the night before that his motorcade had been turned away, we got some of the most incredible comments of support from across the country on our article that we have ever seen — not for us, but for the people of Pittsburgh, who turned Trump back with their grief and their anger.
Now he wants to erase not just the people of Pittsburgh, not just the families of the dead who turned up in the streets telling him to stay away until he fully denounces white nationalism, but erase all of the Americans who took pride in seeing their brothers and sisters in the grief-stricken city stand up for their right to bury their dead before Trump stormed in with his photo-ops and lies.
BREAKING: Trump just attacked Pittsburgh residents who protested him yesterday. He called the protests, that had so many people his motorcade had to turn around, small. And called the stories about the protests fake news and disgraceful. Trump is a small and pathetic disgrace.
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) October 31, 2018
We’re not having it, Mr. President. Expect these “small protests” that are somehow big enough to turn you away everywhere you go.
Featured image via screen capture
