Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDonald Trump: The Boy Who Cried Hoax - David Corn
So often when Donald Trump is cornered, he manages to escape thanks to a simple tactic: He cries hoax. With his latest troublescaused by his administrations declaration that theres nothing new to see or investigate regarding deceased pedophile and sex-trafficker Jeffrey EpsteinTrump is once again screaming hoax. Yet it is not quite doing the trick.
One of Trumps brilliant moves as a demagogic politician was to train his supporters to believe that he was the target of conspiratorial forces and fake news. So whenever he was hit by a critical news report or investigation, he could explain it away by declaring that he was a victim of evil forces that aimed to destroy the nation.
This began in the earliest days of his first presidency. As the press, the FBI, and congressional committees investigated Moscows attack on the 2016 election and interactions between Trumps campaign and Russia, Trump tried to swat all that away by declaring it was a hoax and a witch hunta product of fake news. No matter that the intelligence community, a special counsel, and congressional committees repeatedly confirmed the basic facts of that scandalVladimir Putin launched a covert operation to try to help Trump win, and Trump and his campaign aided and abetted that attack by repeatedly echoing Putins false denialsTrump consistently repeated these catchphrases. Russia, Russia, Russia became the derisive nickname he deployed to obliterate a significant reality of the 2016 election.
It worked.
His devotees fully embraced his characterization. Right-wing media constantly cast the Russia investigation as a scheme orchestrated by Democrats, something called the Deep State, and mainstream media. For Trumpland, it was indeed a hoax. For instance, Kash Patel, now Trumps FBI director, has routinely asserted that the Russia inquiry was the greatest political scandal in US history, describing it as a con job entirely cooked up by spooks, Dems, and journalists. He has gone so far as to claim absurdly that Russia did not intervene in the 2016 election
One of Trumps brilliant moves as a demagogic politician was to train his supporters to believe that he was the target of conspiratorial forces and fake news. So whenever he was hit by a critical news report or investigation, he could explain it away by declaring that he was a victim of evil forces that aimed to destroy the nation.
This began in the earliest days of his first presidency. As the press, the FBI, and congressional committees investigated Moscows attack on the 2016 election and interactions between Trumps campaign and Russia, Trump tried to swat all that away by declaring it was a hoax and a witch hunta product of fake news. No matter that the intelligence community, a special counsel, and congressional committees repeatedly confirmed the basic facts of that scandalVladimir Putin launched a covert operation to try to help Trump win, and Trump and his campaign aided and abetted that attack by repeatedly echoing Putins false denialsTrump consistently repeated these catchphrases. Russia, Russia, Russia became the derisive nickname he deployed to obliterate a significant reality of the 2016 election.
It worked.
His devotees fully embraced his characterization. Right-wing media constantly cast the Russia investigation as a scheme orchestrated by Democrats, something called the Deep State, and mainstream media. For Trumpland, it was indeed a hoax. For instance, Kash Patel, now Trumps FBI director, has routinely asserted that the Russia inquiry was the greatest political scandal in US history, describing it as a con job entirely cooked up by spooks, Dems, and journalists. He has gone so far as to claim absurdly that Russia did not intervene in the 2016 election
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/07/trump-epstein-hoax-russia-ukraine-charlottesville/]
3 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies

Donald Trump: The Boy Who Cried Hoax - David Corn (Original Post)
justaprogressive
Thursday
OP
I hope the old maxim proves true: "you can fool some of the people all of the time, and some of the people part of the
CTyankee
Thursday
#1
It appears that even the MAGA mob draw the line at messing with under age girls.
Trust_Reality
Thursday
#3
CTyankee
(66,590 posts)1. I hope the old maxim proves true: "you can fool some of the people all of the time, and some of the people part of the
time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."
emulatorloo
(46,012 posts)2. Another good quote:
But the MAGA crowd wants more. After years of the right promoting conspiracy theories that demonized Democrats and elites as cannibals and pedophilic globalistssee Pizzagate and QAnonTrumpers expected the Trump administration to finally produce the goods with presumed evidence from the Epstein case. Patel, Donald Trump Jr., deputy FBI director Dan Bongino, and other MAGA leaders had long demanded the Epstein files be released. Trump himself had indicated he would do that if elected to a second term.
Instead, nothing has been revealed, and Trump is saying its time to move on and castigating his fans who feel betrayed. Thats not playing well. Theres no telling yet if his familiar move of yelling hoax will work this time. His steady shouts of hoax over the years have themselves been a long-running hoax. Usually, his voters responded as he wished. This time they may see the real hoax.
Instead, nothing has been revealed, and Trump is saying its time to move on and castigating his fans who feel betrayed. Thats not playing well. Theres no telling yet if his familiar move of yelling hoax will work this time. His steady shouts of hoax over the years have themselves been a long-running hoax. Usually, his voters responded as he wished. This time they may see the real hoax.
Trust_Reality
(2,211 posts)3. It appears that even the MAGA mob draw the line at messing with under age girls.
Maybe.