Donald Trump finds a way to sink to a whole new low
Once upon a time, we had an expectation that our president would be a straight shooter and tell the United States the truth. Our first president, George Washington, is purported to have stated, “I cannot tell a lie.” With “President” Donald J. Trump, the reverse appears to be the case, with his words and actions implicitly telling us, “I cannot tell a truth.”
The latest example of this is his remarks on Saturday morning. Trump laughingly told the press as he was on the White House lawn:
“In the history of our country, there has never been a president that’s been more transparent than me or the Trump administration … I want everyone to testify … There’s never ever been transparency like this.”
As a public service to Trump, who does not read and does not appear to understand what any bigly beautiful words he uses mean, the Merriam Webster online definition of “transparent” is:
2a: free from pretense or deceit : FRANK
b: easily detected or seen through : OBVIOUS
c: readily understood
d: characterized by visibility or accessibility of information especially concerning business practices
If one does a plain meaning comparison of what Donald Trump and his administration are doing against the cited definition, Trump is right that there has “never ever been transparency like this” before. There is no transparency, as the administration does not keep visitor or call logs. Trump uses his private cell phone for the business of the nation. The administration is actively fighting in the courts efforts by Congress to follow its explicit authority to obtain his financial records and ignoring the House’s subpoenas, instructing current and former administration officials to ignore them and not appear before Congress. The only transparency being conducted by the Trump administration is making clear that when history looks back on this time in our history, it will be the most corrupt administration ever led by Corruptus Maximus.
Daniel is a lawyer writing and teaching about SCOTUS, and is the author of the book “The Chief Justices” about the SCOTUS as seen through the center seat.