What does President Trump really believe in?
Does he want to run in the third term or is that a joke? Does he intend to grab control of Gaza and expel millions of Palestinians, or is it just a proposal? Is Black History Month a waste of time and money, or is it worth a gorgeous celebration at the White House?
Anyone looking for definitive answers has a hard time finding them.
Since taking office, after returning to his position, Trump has occasionally used the dizzying rhetorical tactics of slowly changing positions and changing his message to a muddy, contradictory position on the same day. The contradiction presented the American people with a duel story at every turn, allowing people to choose and choose what they want to believe in the president's intentions.
Trump has long traded distortions and lies, including his first term. However, as he implemented a much more aggressive agenda at home and abroad, his contradictions became more brave and more prominent.
“He says so much, you can't really pin him,” said Julian E. Zelizer, Princeton history professor and editor of an essay book on Trump's first term. “The point is not to have a contradiction. The point is to cover it.”
“The reality of the modern world of information is that you can choose and choose what you want to believe,” Zelizer added. “He knows that instinctively.”
Within hours of taking office, Trump attacked the rioters on January 6th and assaulted Capitol police officers.
In his first few weeks he lightened diversity, equity and inclusion policies as “harmful” and denounced diversity efforts at the Federal Aviation Administration for a fatal plane crash fall on the Potomac River. However, he backtracked hours after the crash on January 29th.
“We want the most capable people,” he said. “We don't care what kind of race they are.”
Trump has entitled federal programs aimed at combating American inequality, and his Department of Defense has announced that the military will no longer “use official resources” to mark Black History Month.
Trump then marked the opportunity at a formal ceremony at the White House.
His declaration of foreign policy is equally perplexed.
Last month, Trump changed his proposal several times over the course of two weeks after the surprising announcement that the US would seize the Gaza Strip, permanently replacing the Palestinian population and rebuild the seaside enclave as the “Middle Eastern Riviera.”
Earlier this week, in a speech to Congress, he chose to invite Greenland to be owned by the US. “We strongly support your right to determine your own future. If you choose, we will welcome you into the United States,” he said.
After a while, he suggested that it might not be a choice at all.
“In any case, we're trying to get it,” he said.
Regarding the issue of Ukraine, Trump has appeared in a social media post called Voldimir Zelensky, the country's president, “an election-free dictator.” Then, when he pushed whether he actually believed it, Trump said: I can't believe I said that. ”
White House officials argue that Trump demonstrates his tough negotiator skills in adapting his message to the fluidity of a serious situation, particularly on foreign policy issues. An aide, speaking on the terms of anonymity, said Trump's ambiguity about the situation in the Middle East and Ukraine brought both regions closer to peace.
A White House spokesperson said Trump's poll showed his message resonates with issues that matter to Americans.
White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt said Americans “aware of the beauty of the contract.”
Throughout his career as a businessman and politician, Trump became known for making deals to complete the contradictions. Tony Schwartz, ghostwriter of Trump's book The Art of the Deal, says the president has one goal.
“His purpose is by no means accurate,” Schwartz wrote in his opinion essay, “it's control,” Trump's first term.
Trump boasts about his twisty speaking style, calling it “weave” and often keeps silent about things with winks and nods, such as whether he should be given a constitutionally banned third term.
But experts say dissonance can be dangerous.
“Damages consistency, a sense of shared reality, undermines the foundations of democracy,” said Jason Stanley, Yale professor who wrote a book on propaganda and erasing history. “Without a shared sense of reality, we cannot make decisions together. So the only decision maker will be the Chief's destroyer.”
Stanley said Trump's contradictions were summed up in simple truth.
“If you're always inconsistent with yourself,” he said, “You're always lying.”
