Trump's Truth Social Insanity

Today I am going to write about what might become a recurring topic. That is cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump's Truth Social posts. Trump loves attention and is happy to have media appearances most days. He is not shy about press conferences or interviews with reporters. But, more often than not, Trump's preferred communications medium has become Truth Social, his social media network. Trump is liable to post a so-called "truth" at nearly any hour of the day. I have frequently accused Trump of attempting to "rule by Sharpie" because of his attempt to use executive orders as dictatorial edicts. But, lately, Trump appears to be attempting to rule by social media posts.

If you are not familiar with Trump's Truth Social feed, it is a combination of posts by others that he has "retruthed" — by all appearances without the slightest bit of vetting — and his own "truths" which generally appear to reflect whatever happened to be on his mind at the time and rarely suggest that much thought has been devoted to them. The result is something that might be more at home in your crazy conspiracy-theorist uncle's email box than a president's social media feed. Trump's own posts are written in his unique style which involves "creative" use of capitalization, frequent spelling errors, and an almost complete abandonment of the rules of grammar. While his "truths" are almost immediately reposted to other social media networks, I have noticed that they rarely appear verbatim in the mainstream media. Even when they are referenced by mainstream publications, they are often done so in an anodyne manner that does not convey their true nature.

Looking at Trump's feed as I begin to write this post, I see that about an hour ago he "retruthed" several posts. The most recent is a video created by someone with the moniker "May15thProphecy" that claims that Trump came out on top of the government shutdown dispute due to posts he made on Truth Social. The second, by "Suzy_fromHR," contains a picture of school children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance with the poster saying that the pledge was often said each morning along with the Lord's Prayer. The third "retruth" currently at the top of Trump's feed comes from "Ratchetman" and is mostly an attack on Chris Wray's FBI along with the claim that the January 6 pipe bombs were an inside job. Another one, by "jimmyjumpshi," says that racism was almost over in America until Barack and Michelle Obama showed up and set America back 100 years.

At the moment, one must wade through 11 of these "retruths" before getting to one of Trump's actual posts. It is not clear what criteria, if any, Trump uses to select posts for "retruthing." As in the case of the post mentioned above that claims the pipe bombs were an inside job, Trump often retruths unfounded conspiracy theories. One of the craziest examples occurred yesterday when Trump retruthed a post saying that Obama has collected $40 million in royalties linked to Obamacare. Trump wrote "WOW!" above the post. Anyone with even two brain cells should immediately doubt that Obama would receive any royalties from Obamacare. After all, that was a name originally given to the Affordable Care Act by Republicans in an attempt to denigrate the program. Obama only embraced the name later. But, more damning for Trump was the source of the post, which Trump conveniently left out. The royalties claim originated with a website called the "Dunning-Kruger-Times" which, on its "About Us" page, says "Everything on this website is fiction" and "If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined." I'm sure we will all sleep better knowing that this guy's finger is on the nuclear trigger.

The retruths firmly give the impression that Trump is a demented individual lost in conspiracy theories who, as the website says, needs his head examined. More importantly, his own posts are nearly just as bad. The first of Trump's own "truths" currently in his feed is a complaint about vacancy rates in the Miracle Mile [sic] Shopping Center in Chicago. Trump argues that troops should be sent in as a result. The ironic thing about this post is that Trump himself owns a property not far from what is actually called the Magnificent Mile that is the longest-running downtown Chicago retail vacancy, remaining empty for 16 years. Troops won't fix that problem because nobody wants to move into a building with Trump's name on it.

Trump is increasingly using Truth Social as a means to communicate what he seems to believe, and many of his supporters seem to believe, are government policies and even law. For instance, two days ago, Trump truthed the following:

People that are against Tariffs are FOOLS! We are now the Richest, Most Respected Country In the World, With Almost No Inflation, and A Record Stock Market Price. 401k’s are Highest EVER. We are taking in Trillions of Dollars and will soon begin paying down our ENORMOUS DEBT, $37 Trillion. Record Investment in the USA, plants and factories going up all over the place. A dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone

Never mind that most of Trump's claims are false. The current inflation rate is higher than the Federal Reserve's targeted rate, and factories in the U.S. are actually closing rather than opening. But what caught people's attention was the last line about a $2,000 dividend being paid to everyone. DCUM's political discussion forum was immediately flooded by posters who couldn't wait to receive their checks (I deleted those threads). As I have written many times, Trump cannot make law through executive orders. He certainly cannot make laws through Truth Social posts. The same crowd that has constantly insisted that the U.S. Constitution is the greatest document ever written other than, perhaps, the Bible, has completely failed to remember that Congress appropriates money, not the President.

Moreover, Trump's suggestion is not fiscally possible. As NPR reports today, providing $2,000 payments to those making under $100,000 a year would cost way more than the amount of revenue that tariffs are bringing in. In fact, there is an $100 billion gap. But just think of the absurdity of Trump's suggestion, even if it were possible to implement without increasing the national debt. Tariffs are paid by Americans when goods are imported. If those goods are resold, the tariffs are passed on either in the form of increased prices or lower profits. Now, Trump proposes to take that money — paid by Americans — and give it to Americans. He could just eliminate the tariffs and dispense with the entire circular transaction. Trump's charade rests on two assumptions. One is that his supporters are stupid and will believe anything he says. The DCUM posts demonstrate that this is true. The second is that foreign countries pay the tariffs rather than Americans. This is a lie that Trump has repeatedly told but that his supporters — again demonstrating their lack of intelligence — believe. If MAGAs really believe that they are getting a $2,000 check, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell them (though, to be fair, Zohran Mamdani will probably tax the hell out of it).

Trump has been floating the idea of 50-year home mortgages. This is his idea for lowering housing prices. Two days ago, Trump truthed a graphic showing President Franklin D. Roosevelt under the heading "30-Year Mortgage" and his own picture under the heading "50-Year Mortgage". The graphic was captioned "Great American Presidents." While it is true that a 50-year mortgage would lower monthly payments, it would essentially double the interest. The result is a massive increase in the cost of owning a home. Most people would never live in their homes long enough to pay off such mortgages. This idea is so bad that even MAGAs rejected it. This is reflected in the comments on Trump's post. The top comment says, "50 years?! 30 years is bad enough! How about you make things more affordable? No one wants to give banks all that interest." The second says, "50 year mortgage is nuts, especially when you look at the additional interest one would have to pay." The third is "50 year mortgage is absurd" and the fourth is "There’s no way President Trump is for a 50 year mortgage. He probably wants to bring to the attention of the people just how bad even the 30 year mortgage is."

Also this week, Trump truthed his new health insurance proposal, which is as follows:

I am recommending to Senate Republicans that the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies in order to save the bad Healthcare provided by ObamaCare, BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE, and have money left over. In other words, take from the BIG, BAD Insurance Companies, give it to the people, and terminate, per Dollar spent, the worst Healthcare anywhere in the World, ObamaCare. Unrelated, we must still terminate the Filibuster!

This could only have been written by someone who personally has no experience with either health insurance or paying for healthcare. Based on what Trump has written, we will all get some amount of money deposited into an account. Then, when we go to the doctor, we will simply pay out of those funds. The problem here is obvious. One of the biggest cost savings that insurance companies provide is negotiated prices. Here is data from a recent annual checkup I underwent. The listed prices for the services the doctor provided were approximately $1,400. The insurance company paid the prices that it had negotiated, which came to approximately $700. I paid a copay of $40 (which I frankly don't think I should have had to pay, but I am too lazy to dispute). Under Trump's plan, I would either have to bargain with my doctor as if she were a merchant in a Middle Eastern souk or pay the $1,400. I love negotiating (I'm half Middle Eastern), but such negotiations are not always practical, especially, for instance, when you are unconscious in an ambulance.

Trump revisited this idea with another truth, saying:

NO MORE MONEY, HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, TO THE DEMOCRAT SUPPORTED INSURANCE COMPANIES FOR REALLY BAD OBAMACARE. THE MONEY MUST NOW GO DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE, TAKING THE “FAT CAT” INSURANCE COMPANIES OUT OF THE CORRUPT SYSTEM OF HEALTHCARE. THE PEOPLE CAN BUY THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER POLICY, FOR MUCH LESS MONEY, SAVING, FOR THEMSELVES, AN ABSOLUTE FORTUNE!!! PRESIDENT DJT

This was written entirely in all caps, which, I assume, means that it is especially important. Trump demands that money go directly to the people, taking insurance companies out of the loop, and then is used to buy other policies, presumably from insurance companies. I am not sure how that takes the insurance companies out of the loop. In fact, this suggests that Trump has no idea how the Obamacare exchanges work. Right now, insurance companies will sell policies directly to consumers. They are worse policies at worse prices than those available on the exchanges, so I am not sure Trump's idea is an improvement. I have my own criticisms of the exchanges and, especially, of insurance companies. But Trump's ideas are non-starters. They simply don't make sense. These are the ideas of someone who has never given the topic a minute of serious thought. Yet, prominent U.S. Senators have embraced these posts as the basis of their own healthcare proposals.

I am not really even touching on more than the surface of the insanities that exist in Trump's Truth Social feed. It is embarrassing that the feed represents the official communications of the highest-ranking governmental figure in the country. If nothing else, even a brief perusal of Trump's Truth Social posts will convince you that the movie "Idiocracy" was a documentary, and one that did not go far enough. Trump routinely retruths neo-Nazis, QAnon conspiracists, and other assorted nutjobs. He posts an amazing amount of AI-generated slop. If you found a parent or a child posting in such a manner, you would take away their computer or phone. Yet, in this case, millions of people take the ravings of a lunatic seriously.