After the first 60 days of Trump’s presidency there’s been a change in the balance of power between the White House, and the media. During the campaign, he was in the ascendancy, regularly accusing the media of creating fake news stories when they reported anything unfavourable to him.
In his first week in
office he was signing executive orders; and diverting attention away from
anything that reflected badly on him by making up his own fantastic tweets. Right from the start he tried to change the reality of even trivial matters
like the size of the crowd at his inauguration day; or more seriously the number of fraudulent
votes cast.
But federal court judges declared his first travel
ban on people from some Muslim countries unconstitutional, and then did so once again
to the revised order because, in their published judgement, they took his own
statements during the campaign, concerning excluding Muslims from entering the
US, at face value. This was the first collision between Trump’s habitual lying and the real world. When you're President of the USA, words matter and can no longer be treated as fleeting statements made in campaign speeches, easily said, often repeated, and then forgotten.
Trump is also facing a multi-organisational
investigation into links between him, his campaign team and Russia. Why would Flynn deny meeting the Russian
ambassador for discussions about sanctions only to resign when called to
account for his lying. 
In addition, why
would Sessions not disclose to the Senate confirmation hearing that he had met
the Russian ambassador twice during the campaign, and then withdraw himself from
the investigation. Everyone thinks there’s a smoking gun somewhere, which sooner or later will be found!
Trump, in his attempt to abolish Obamacare, has a grass roots revolt on his hands over the hardships that would be created
for many of his own supporters in terms of removing
or reducing their health care cover; so he has
used his familiar distraction tactics and accused Obama and
the UK of “wiretapping” him. This should have been a good tactic, because normally the policy
of the intelligence agencies is neither to confirm or deny such matters, but
this time the lie was such a whopper that even the Director of GCHQ condemned
it outright, as did the FBI and the NSA. Fox News his favourite TV channel has
now dropped the journalist who started the rumour. I think that’s as strong a statement on the matter as anyone else has made so
far.
Trump’s popularity is the lowest of any newly elected President at 37% but he so much needs approval and adulation that his response has been to organize campaign style
rallies in Florida and Nashville to bolster his ego. In the Florida rally he once again blamed the
media for all his troubles but, protected by the first amendment, they are
doing their job and exposing the untruths wherever they can.
Trump’s a better campaigner than he is a President and he’s
mobilised a lot of discontented people to support him, but his ignorance, and
his disregard for both the truth, and the institutions which exist in democracies
to limit the power of the executive, are catching up with him. The fight back is underway in the US mainly
because Trump has overreached himself very quickly, made numerous mis-steps and
is now on the back foot. I hope that we
are seeing the beginning of the end of the Post-Truth era in politics.
Now we need to apply the same degree of scrutiny and
resistance to spin and untruths over the Brexit negotiations, although with the
predominantly foreign owned, right wing, UK press that will be difficult.
Theresa May wasn’t part of the team of liars who led the
leave campaign, but she has now firmly allied herself with them. By
prioritising immigration control over trade and the economy she’s on the way to
confirming the UKIP/Daily Mail lies making immigrants the scapegoats for all
of the economic and social woes of the UK.
In the period when Osborne’s cuts to central government and local
authority budgets are beginning to really bite hard and affect the NHS and social care that is a gigantic
lie!
