“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
JOSEPH GOEBBELS
It’s fascinating that Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s propaganda officer, understood Donald Trump so well. After all, Trump hadn’t even been born during the 12 years of the Thousand Year Reich.
But Trump makes Goebbels look like an amateur. Indeed, I’m not sure there has ever been someone who lies as forcefully and repeatedly as the former president.
There’s really only one person who comes to mind.
Of course, this is a fictional character.
One might argue that Trump is nearly as fictional. Until “The Apprentice” became a hit television show, he was sort of a clown prince of rich people, best known for his mentions on Page Six and his headlines in all the tabloids.
His show allowed him to present a different image, a dignified and successful businessman.
But politically, he lied from the get-go, and ironically, Herr Goebbels even came into play peripherally. Apparently Trump didn’t want people to play up the connection with his ancestors, so he used to say his grandfather had emigrated from Sweden.
Clearly, though, he was fascinated with the Third Reich. A large part of his bedtime reading was a book containing translations of Hitler’s speeches. And he showed through all four years in the White House that his strong tendency was to be an authoritarian leader.
Clearly he never intended to admit losing his re-election bid. The worst part of it is that it has been nearly 21 months since the election and he is still insisting– without any evidence — that the election was stolen.
And of course the most outrageous part of it all is that Trump hasn’t just said he won. He has said many times that he actually won by a landslide, which would imply that at least 10 million votes and probably more were registered for Joe Biden when they should have gone for Trump.
He keeps saying it.
And those who love him keep believing it.
Goebbels was right.