A Tale of Two Speeches

The press’s responsible handling of Trump’s incoherent speech about US election integrity contrasted starkly with Friday’s farcical WHCA dinner.

Ever since Donald Trump thudded onto the national political stage, the press has had a difficult time handling the frequency, magnitude, and outlandishness of his lies. Trump lies to bolster his ego, to protect his business interests, to tear down his adversaries, and to burnish his political record (“Two years ago, our country was dead. Now we are the hottest country anywhere in the world”). Sometimes he seems to lie just for the hell of it, like when he claimed last year that the White House must mandate the return of plastic straws because paper straws sometimes “explode.” Too often, especially during Trump’s first term, the press let itself be hijacked as a megaphone for his bogus narratives and false information.