The media pretends that some of Donald Trump’s policy positions are a mystery – as though his first term never existed.
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If you clicked on this story based on the headline, then it’s probably because you thought: “Well, that’s a silly question. We already know that he would do a poor job because he would be more motivated by how people perceive him than by minor issues like whether hundreds of thousands of Americans die.”
You are correct, it is a silly question.
The entire world witnessed how Trump (and the leaders of other nations) dealt with a pandemic, so there is no point in even asking that question. It would be a different matter if the question were: “What has Trump learned from the global pandemic?” in which case the answer probably is “Nothing,” or perhaps, “Talk less about people injecting bleach into their bodies.”
The point is that we already know how Trump handled any number of issues because of his first term in office.
Therefore, it is absolutely flabbergasting that media outlets seem to have a hard time figuring out where he stands on issues… or when he is just making stuff up because it may appeal to moderate voters.
A great example of this is how the fact-checking site PolitiFact addressed Kamala Harris’s claim that Trump wants to “cut Medicare.”
You can read the entire thing for yourself here, but, essentially, the main argument for rating this statement “mostly false” is that, while Trump proposed cuts to Medicare every year he was in office, he now says that he no longer wants to reduce funding for the healthcare program.
There are two ways to treat this issue: One is to let his record speak for itself rather than the former president’s statement. After all, his record is an actual, verifiable thing, while the things Trump says are usually lies.
The other is to believe him (never a good idea) and point out that this is a massive flip-flop (since the media loves to cover those).
And you can do this for issue after issue.
Instead of trying to divine what Trump means when rambling on and on about stuff in his two-hour rallies, journalists could just look at his actual record.
For example, rants about electric boats and sharks are not an example of the former president’s “commitment to maritime wildlife.”
Another great example is Trump’s recent waffling on reproductive health issues.
On abortion, the former president has held almost every stance imaginable… and several of them in the past week.
So, where does he actually stand? That’s not difficult to figure out because we know that Trump is the person most responsible for getting Roe v. Wade repealed. And he is proud of it.
There is no need to pay attention to anything he says now… other than for the purpose of stating that, if he is not lying (a stretch), then he is the greatest flip-flopper in US political history.
This is especially important in the case of someone like Trump, who will just say stuff, exaggerate, lie, etc., as long as it is a means to an end.
While some media outlets do this some of the time, all of them should do it all the time instead of trying to make sense of Trump’s word salad.
