Now that Donald Trump has formally announced he's in for 2024, let's weigh the truth or otherwise of his words based on independent evidence.  This is essential to consider his fitness for becoming president again, as he was relentlessly accused of being a serial liar.

The media

Trump called the media the enemy of the people.  Empirically, trust in the media is at an all-time low as the majority thinks reporters "purposely try to mislead people."

The burial of the Hunter Biden laptop story that broke before the election is the only case required to determine the nature of our media.  Ask: What efforts did the media make when the story broke in the N.Y. Post to assess its factual basis?

What was the result of such inquiries?

If it was "Russian disinformation," what evidence led to such a conclusion?

How do they explain the long gap from their initial decision not to report it to the time when the N.Y. Times admitted that it was "authentic"?

Have they tried, through their "sources," to find out the identity of the "big guy"?

According to the American Press Institute, journalism's "essence is a discipline of verification," as the journalistic "method is objective, not the journalist."  The mainstream press has failed this test.  Worse, the N.Y. Times failed by its own standards.  It did not tell its readers "the complete, unvarnished truth."  It flouted its own standard of transparency: "Don't allow your audience to be deceived by acts of omission."  This was not journalism "without fear or favor," but journalism "with hatred to cause harm."  Bullied, Bari Weiss quit the Times.

Americans voted without crucial information about the fitness of a senile old man for the country's highest office.  The media succeeded and changed the course of American history.  No greater journalist crime has been committed in our nation.  Hold fast to the truth that Trump told: in its present state, the media are the enemy of the people.

The permanent federal bureaucracy

Trump said he wanted to drain the swamp.  First, a Trafalgar Group poll showed that 58.5 percent of voters believe that federal bureaucracies in Washington, D.C. have grown too large and serve only their own political interests.

Second, political donations by federal employees — incontestable indicators of their political leanings — show that they overwhelmingly favor Democrats.  In the 2016 presidential campaign, 95 percent of their donations went to Hillary Clinton.

Third, swamp creatures often owned up to their obstructive role.  Erica Newland, who had worked in the Office of the Legal Counsel until 2018, said, "I believed that I could better serve our country by pushing back from within."    

Fourth, the decisive proof that both Democrats and RINOs consider the swamp indispensable is the uproar over Trump's plans for his second term.  He wanted to create a new class of federal employees, making those positions eligible for quick hiring and firing.  Expectedly, the swamp reacted, as Biden quickly signed an executive order rescinding the edict as one of his first acts as president.  

Regretfully, the swamp remains brimful, but Trump told the truth.  Unless we drain and dry it, we are lost.

The Borders and the Wall

Trump said you can't have a country without a border.  The reaction of our Democrat elite to the arrival of 50 Venezuelan migrants in Martha's Vineyard and the speed with which they were hoovered away — in under 36 hours — shows that liberals just love borders in their personal lives.  Why not, then, for the country?

Glance across the pond at yet another wave of French horror following the murder of a 12-year-old girl by illegal migrants, or try to understand why Italy and Sweden elected new migrant-skeptic governments.  Lose your borders; lose your country.  Trump told the truth.

The Military-Industrial Complex

Trump referred to the link between the Pentagon military leaders' desire to fight wars and the profits of arms companies.

According to Forbes, "President Trump caused a stir among defense intellectuals by acknowledging an unspoken truth about U.S. foreign policy — that military decisions are often influenced by capital" and confessed he was "right about the military-industrial complex."

In his 1961 farewell address, President Dwight D. Eisenhower "famously warned the public of the nation's increasingly powerful military-industrial complex and the threat it posed to American democracy."

Trump courageously spoke the truth that remained unexpressed for almost sixty years.

China's trade practices

The proceedings of the 2004 U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission are revealing to assess Trump's excoriating words aimed at China trade policies.

Participants from several industries, such as automobiles, spare parts, steel, glassware, and ceramics, complained of huge job losses because of Chinese trade practices, copying and stealing proprietary information, undervalued currency, and counterfeits.  To many witnesses, the unkindest cut was this:   

The US government has failed to aggressively enforce US trade laws intended to mitigate the damage caused by China's trade practices. US policies in these areas are in need of urgent attention and correction.

Trump's record of truth-telling, and action on China remains unmatched.

NATO defense spending

Trump bluntly demanded that NATO countries pay two percent of GDP to defense spending.  Trump told the truth, as most fell short of the agreed upon target.  His tough approach paid off, and the NATO secretary-general credited him for increased NATO contributions.

Conditions in Haiti and Africa

Trump was roundly criticized for his alleged crude remarks on Haiti and Africa.  However, current conditions there include the following:

Haiti is suffering from famine-like conditions, with rampant gang violence and protests hampering food and water deliveries. 

Jihadists have killed hundreds in Mali, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In South Sudan, the U.N. has condemned a "horrific surge of violence."

In Nigeria, there were "demonstrations of monumental proportion" and deadly clashes as protesters shut down Africa's largest city.

The remarks attributed to Trump were crude, but did he tell the truth?  You be the judge.

Islam's attitude toward the West

When candidate Trump said, "Many Muslims hate the West," there were cries of "Islamophobia."  As not even three months have passed since a jihadist stabbed Salman Rushdie, which caused him to lose one eye and one hand, surely, Muslims' stated views toward the West need consideration.

In 2016, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change cited an ISIS article entitled "Why We Hate You & Why We Fight You" that stated, "Our primary reason for hating you will not cease to exist until you embrace Islam."

In 2011, a Pew Research poll found that the median percentages in the Muslim countries surveyed who said people in Western countries such as the U.S. and Europe are "selfish, violent, greedy, immoral, arrogant and fanatical exceed 50%."

In 1990, Bernard Lewis, in his article "The Roots of Muslim Rage," assessed that to Muslims, "[w]hat is truly evil and unacceptable is the domination of infidels over true believers."

In 1786, after the Barbary (Muslim) pirates had seized 115 American sailors and demanded a tribute of $1 million, the Confederation government sent Thomas Jefferson and John Adams to negotiate to prevent future hostilities.  In Tripoli, they asked ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman the reasoning for the pirates' hostile action.  Abdrahaman replied,

It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave.

Overall, Trump shone in demonstrating a reality-based orientation on issues of the highest national and international relevance.  No American considering him for 2024 can objectively ignore his extraordinary record of truth-telling in a dangerous world awash with lies.

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