Subterfuge via BullSh*t: How Trump Mastered the Post-Truth Presidency

 

POTUS has an incredible real tan in this picture as he just came off the golf course after winning the Master's Golf tournament in Georgia.  The coal miners look on with admiration and belief, as it helps bullshit to go down easier when you really want to believe something. Your brain does want to puke though, as it tries to process "beautiful, clean coal."  The miners can't help but think, "Dear Leader, when were you last in one of our coal mines?" Oh right, never,,, and it wouldn't matter anyway. The rent check is due, and I need to stop at Walmart for groceries after this is over. Coal really is beautiful and clean, he said it was so, it must be true.

Let’s talk about bullshit. Not the kind you shovel out of a barn, but the refined, weaponized, democracy-eroding variety perfected by Donald J. Trump and his merry band of enablers. Bullshit, as philosopher Harry Frankfurt famously observed, is distinct from lying. A liar knows the truth and seeks to conceal it. A bullshitter, however, doesn’t care about truth at all—they simply say whatever suits their purpose, reality be damned.  Trump also uses lies as well, as America's newly crowned Dear Leader has not reached full dictator mode yet, but is quickly moving to a point where even lying is not required.

Why Bullshit is Worse Than Lies

Lying at least acknowledges the existence of objective truth—you’re trying to hide it. Bullshit, on the other hand, obliterates the very idea of truth. It’s the rhetorical equivalent of setting fire to a dictionary and then insisting words never mattered anyway.

The Trump administration didn’t just lie—it drowned America in an endless sewage spill of bullshit, conditioning his base to accept absurdity as fact and fiction as reality. The result? A country where up is down, facts are “fake news,” and the only truth that matters is whatever Trump says at any given moment.

A very limited Compilation of Trumpian Bullshit

Let’s stroll down memory lane and revisit some of the most egregious, galaxy-brained bullshit Trump fed to the masses (saying this is an exhaustive list would be bullshit. The truth is you can't even keep ahead of all of Trump's bullshit and lies):

1. "Mexico Will Pay for the Wall!"
   A promise so brazenly false that even a child could see through it. Not only did Mexico laugh in his face, but U.S. taxpayers footed the bill for his vanity project—which, by the way, never got finished. Classic bullshit: say something impossible with enough confidence, and the rubes will cheer.

2. "Obama’s Birth Certificate is Fake!"
   The racist conspiracy theory that launched his political career. Even after Obama released his long-form birth certificate, Trump kept winking at the birther crowd because the bullshit was more valuable than the truth.

3. "The Biggest Inauguration Crowd Ever! Period!"
   Spicer’s first press conference was a masterclass in gaslighting. Photos clearly showed Obama’s crowd was bigger, but facts didn’t matter—only the spectacle of insisting reality was wrong.

4. "I’m a Very Stable Genius."
   The self-proclamation of genius is always a red flag (see: every mediocre man on LinkedIn). Trump’s desperate need to convince people of his intellect only proved the opposite.

5. "I Won the 2020 Election in a Landslide!"
   The Big Lie, the mother of all bullshit. Sixty-plus court cases, recounts, and his own DOJ confirmed Biden’s win, but Trump bulldozed ahead, convincing millions that democracy itself was a scam.

6. "Tariffs Aren’t a Tax on Americans!"
   Basic economics: when you tax imports, consumers pay more. But Trump, a man who once bankrupted a casino, insisted that trade wars were “easy to win.” Spoiler: they weren’t.

7. "You Won’t Be Able to Flush Your Toilet Under Biden!"
   Ah yes, the legendary water pressure panic. A bizarre, baseless claim that somehow resonated with people who’ve never once worried about their showers.

8. "The Greatest Economy in History!"
   Pre-pandemic, sure, the economy was fine—but “greatest ever”? Not even close. The bullshit here was the insistence that no previous president (especially Obama) could possibly have done better.

The Bullshit Legacy: A Nation Untethered from Reality

The danger of Trump’s bullshit isn’t just that he lied—it’s that he made lying irrelevant. Why bother with facts when you can just invent your own reality? Why worry about credibility when your followers will believe anything as long as it comes from you?

The result? A GOP that no longer even pretends to care about truth. A base that thinks science, journalism, and expertise are all part of a deep-state hoax. A country where millions will nod along when told that up is down, rain is dry, and Donald Trump is a blameless victim of… everything.

Conclusion: The Bullshit Will Continue Until Morale Improves

Until Americans collectively decide that facts matter—that reality isn’t just a buffet where you pick and choose what you like—the bullshit will keep flowing. And the next Trump-like figure will be even better at weaponizing it.

So the next time a politician tries to sell you obvious nonsense, ask yourself: Is this a lie… or is it something worse?

Because bullshit isn’t just dishonest—it’s democracy’s kryptonite. And we’ve been inhaling it for years.