Firehose #2

Continuing with Trump’s firehose of disinformation.

Here is a quote from a December 9, 2017 NYT article by Brian Stelter that at least partially explains Trump’s firehose of disinformation: “Before taking office, Mr. Trump told top aides to think of each presidential day as an episode in a television show in which he vanquishes rivals.” In other words, it’s all theatre to impress his supporters (and himself) that he is a winner.

Keep that in mind as we look at a few more examples.

California Water (again)

Last time (January 30 post) I wrote about Trump taking credit for ordering the “military” to turn on the water flow to southern California. It was, in fact, the Bureau of Reclamation that restarted water pumps that had been turned off for maintenance. After that news got out, Trump really did order the Army Corps of Engineers to release water from two reservoirs in California. Between January 31 and February 2, over 2 billion gallons were released.

This is how Trump described it at a prayer breakfast. “The water comes down by millions and millions of barrels a day and I opened it up. It wasn’t that easy to do. But I opened it up and it’s pouring down.” Another time he said “…we’re giving Los Angeles and the entire state of California virtually unlimited water”.

The released water will not reach Los Angeles (and the fires) which is another 200 miles farther south, and is basically wasted. Furthermore the water in these reservoirs was intended for agricultural irrigation next summer. Releasing it now could put farmers at risk if next summer should be hot and dry.

Harris’ CBS Interview

Donald Trump is suing CBS (for $10 billion) for “doctoring” an interview with presidential candidate Kamala Harris in October. In two different clips from the interview Harris gave a different answer to a question about Israel-American relations.

Trump claimed political bias calling it “election interference” and “the biggest broadcasting SCANDAL in History”. Another rant: “CBS and 60 Minutes defrauded the public by doing something which has never, to this extent, been seen before”. He then demanded that the program “60 Minutes” and the network CBS be “immediately terminated”. Trump’s new Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr started a formal investigation.

CBS released the full unedited tape on Wednesday proving that the interview was not “doctored or deceitful”. In her response to the question Harris made both statements. One news clip (Face the Nation) used the first part of her answer, another (60 Minutes) used the last part. This is a normal television news editing procedure.

The irony here is that Fox News and the other Right-wing broadcasters have for years been editing interviews and speeches of Trump to make him look better (or at least less idiotic or mentally deranged). There is even a name for it – “sane-washing”. No one is suing them. After all America’s constitution protects freedom of the press.

USAID Bribing Politico

On February 6 Musk and other MAGA leaders accused USAID – the federal government organization that oversees all foreign aid – of paying the Washington news organization Politico millions of dollars, presumably to bribe it into writing favorable articles about the Democrats. One of Trump’s posts reads (in all caps): “LOOKS LIKE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS HAVE BEEN STOLLEN [sic] AT USAID, AND OTHER AGENCIES, MUCH OF IT GOING TO THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA AS A 'PAYOFF' FOR CREATING GOOD STORIES ABOUT THE DEMOCRATS”. One of the Trump supporters parroting the lie was Rep. Lauren Boubart (R-CO).

Turns out that the millions in question was paid, not to Politico, but to its pricey data subscription service called Politico Pro. The total included $44,000 from USAID over two years, and millions for years of subscriptions from many other government departments. Even Boubart’s office has paid Politico Pro $7,150 for a one year subscription. Last year USAID paid Politico Pro $24,000.

Meanwhile there have been 80 million views of the false claim. How many of those do you suppose will ever hear the truth (and believe it)?

Many of the social media posts accusing USAID of corruption come from Russia. Putin will be more than happy to jump in and help out the countries that America has abandoned, thus increasing his sphere of influence as America’s shrinks. Other USAID lies originating from Russia include the story that actors Sean Penn, Orlando Bloom, Ben Stiller and Angelina Jolie had been paid millions to travel to Ukraine. They all funded their own trip and didn’t get a penny from USAID.

Victor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, even got in on the action claiming that the entire left-wing media in Hungary was financed by USAID through Politico. It isn’t.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for a retraction or apology for these or any of Trump’s lies. There won’t be one. There never is.

 

Sources

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-6-2025

https://www.yahoo.com/news/cbs-reveal-truth-60-minutes-212144479.html

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/11/california-water-trump

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/business/usaid-conspiracy-theories-disinformation.html