Journalists are warning that Donald Trump should be believed when he threatens to punish his enemies in a prospective second term. But the media spent eight years telling the public not to believe a word Trump utters, notes journalist Bernard Goldberg.
So, which is it? asks Goldberg. “Is [Trump] a compulsive liar or a man who should be taken at his word?" |
It’s not really about honesty, says Goldberg. It’s about politics. “Donald Trump is a liar when calling him a liar helps Democrats and he’s a truth-teller when calling him that helps the Democrats.”
Goldberg doesn’t think Trump could follow through on his more authoritarian promises anyway. For one thing, the American system has a lot of checks and balances in place to prevent that — including a Supreme Court majority that, though conservative, wouldn’t go along.
Just look at Trump’s first term. He made a lot of promises on the campaign trail that he couldn’t enact once in office. Hillary Clinton never was put behind bars.
“I wouldn’t vote for Donald Trump even if he ran unopposed,” Goldberg says. “But the United States has survived a Great Depression, two World Wars, 9/11 — and we’ll survive four more years of Donald Trump if he’s reelected.”
Read the op-ed at TheHill.com. |
Welcome to The Hill's Views & Opinions newsletter, it's Friday, Dec. 15. I'm Daniel Allott, bringing together a collection of key opinion pieces published from a wide range of voices. |
