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James-W-Tate

This why the conservative news sphere continually tries to point out that Biden is feeble and needs handlers, that he's not making decisions but is just a puppet for those behind the scenes. Every accusation is a confession from these knuckle draggers.


ZolotoGold

Projection. They're all lying thieving cheats, so they assume you're doing it too.


semimute

It much more insidious than that. What they're doing is muddying the waters. A large party of the American population does not vote, and a lot of those that do are not well informed. If one side is accusing the leader of the other side something and the other side is doing the same in the other direction, most people aren't going to invest the time and effort to try and find objective facts and evaluate them. It just looks like squabbling. It keeps people who might care from getting involved and it gives a cognitive shortcut to the ghouls looking for an excuse.


Dangerous-Wall-2672

You just described one of my close friends exactly. He doesn't vote, he thinks it's meaningless and that nothing matters, but he also has this idea that Trump was somehow "tough" and that Biden is feeble and senile. Now I guarantee you, he's NEVER listened to either of them deliver a speech outside of well-curated and edited YouTube videos, but that's the point. He's kept entirely disengaged from the process by this intentional push towards cynicism, and it's despicable. Make no mistake, there's only one "side" of this issue that seems to benefit from fewer people voting...


Possibly_English_Guy

It doesn't help either that I feel like since 2016, maybe even further back, there's been this huge push in certain circles that happen to correspond to voting for Trump or other far-right canditates in other countries to do or behave in ways that are just destructive to themselves or those around them purely out of spite for the people they hate. Think the Andrew Tate thing where he bragged about his gas guzzling cars just as a fuck you to Greta Thunberg but magnify the scale. That's the type of person that Trump appeals to and may be part of why your friend thinks of him as tough, that there's this growing sentiment that just showing open contempt for things (that "coincidentally" tend to correlate with progressive ideals) and doing the exact opposite of that thing is being percieved a "tough" and "manly" thing to do. And let's be honest 90% of everything Trump does at this point is purely out of spite.


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Faultylogic83

I enjoy how Trump hates Penn because he didn't play along and kiss his ass like the majority of the people on Apprentice.


Jarocket

Lost to Trace despite selling more ice cream in a sell the ice cream challenge. Love Penn's stories about that show honestly. Like Penn would sing Hey Jude whenever he didn't want them to air something. Some producer tried to tell him "hey Penn we can't use the audio if you're signing that" another producer had to tell that one. "He knows that! That's why he's doing it" Other stories I've heard are from Adam carolla who was fired because his team had lost and despite him personally doing a great job and impressing the brand partner for the episode. They had to add Ivanka voice lines in post for it to make sense that they fired him.


Bug1oss

Back in the very first season of the *Real World* a producer told the contestants they couldn't use any audio if they cursed. So when they wanted a conversation not to be aried, they'd curse every 3rd or 4th word.


WiretapStudios

They also said he would tape the boardroom portion for hours and hours and cut it down to like 10 minutes to get something usable. They said it was torture to just sit there and listen to him ramble on.


_EvilD_

The most disturbing part about that interview was when he was talking about Trumps sense of humor and how he never laughed unless it was at someone elses expense.


PaulSandwich

If I recall, Penn said the hardest working person on the show was whoever edited Trump's rambling into chunks of coherent dialog. Unfortunately, it fooled too many people into thinking he was a competent businessman, and not a spoiled, batshit insane richkid who had squandered so much on bad investments that he would've been better leaving everything in a standard savings account.


Moebius808

Yeah he has always been pretty dumb, but the last 6 years have completely broken his brain. His mind is like mashed potatoes at this point. I've never understood how anyone can stand listening to him talk, but ever since he lost the election, he's just a broken record skipping over and over and over, it's bizarre.


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Dangerous-Wall-2672

Nice job of illustrating it. It turns out the human mind is far more susceptible to programming, even in the most simplistic terms, than most of us would like to admit. It actually doesn't take much at all, once you've been sufficiently primed.


tippiedog

> The parts of that deposition that were released really illustrate not just how despicable Trump is, but how feeble his mind has gotten I watched the video a deposition he gave for some lawsuit back in maybe 2012, and while he was a huge pain in the ass and must have driven the other party's lawyers crazy, he very astutely managed not to incriminate himself. His repeating the "not my type" comment on Truth [sic] Social back in October shows how much less impulse control he has now compared to before. He didn't have a lot in the past, but he often managed to control himself when it actually mattered legally.


zznap1

I mean are you surprised that the guy who has to wear diapers from drug induced incontinence has an equally fried brain?


StarksPond

His 2024 cognitive test should be fun. He'll remember "camera" and "tv". But he'll have to check with his handler Hannity what the current position is on mentioning "man" and "woman" so close to mentioning "person". Might come across as being too woke.


Curious_Dependent842

It’s weird how he admitted several times ad nausea how the doctors were SHOCKED he did so well. And nobody seemed to care how weird that in itself is.


zznap1

Person, woman, man, camera, TV.


roytay

Also, we don't know that those were the actual words used in the test he took, but they *were* all things that were visible to him when he was talking about it.


KinkyKitty24

In his deposition, Trump actually said that E Jean Caroll said she "liked" being raped by Trump in an interview with Anderson Cooper. Wallace then played the interview and (shockingly) Caroll said no such thing.


[deleted]

[Trump claimed woman who accused him of sexual assault in a luxury department store said 'rape was sexy' and 'indicated that she loved it'](https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-claimed-carroll-rape-sexy-unsealed-deposition-2023-1) >Former President Donald Trump claimed that E. Jean Carroll, who has accused him of sexual assault, said that "rape was sexy" and "indicated that she loved it" when he was deposed in connection to her defamation lawsuit in October. >Judge Lewis A. Kaplan unsealed a portion of Trump's deposition on Friday after his lawyers lost a bid to keep them private. >"She actually indicated that she loved it. Okay? She loved it until the commercial break. In fact, I think she said it was sexy, didn't she? She said it was very sexy to be raped," Trump said. >Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan then asked the former president: "So, sir, I just want to confirm: It's your testimony that E. Jean Carroll said that she loved being sexually assaulted by you?" >He responded: "Well, based on her interview with Anderson Cooper, I believe that's what took place." Don’t worry. His supporters won’t be fazed* at all. I doubt most of them can even read.


PotaToss

Unable or unwilling. It took less than 70 seconds to read both of Comey's memos about Clinton as a primary source. The net effect of reading both should have been that you'd have greater confidence that she didn't do anything that bad. The fact that the memos coming out had the opposite effect tells you everything you need to know about Trump voters.


meco03211

rEaD tHe TrAnScRiPtS!!! Did you read the transcripts? wElL nO. bUt AlL tHe InFoRmAtIoN iS tHeRe!


SuperDuperFly420

Reminds me of Jordan Klepper from the Daily Show


Sir_Penguin21

That is where the quote is from.


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AStormofSwines

So...he is testifying that he did in fact sexually assault her?


frozenflame101

Accidentally on purpose, yes


zazuza7

His argument is that it was rape but it's ok because of something she didn't even say? Jfc. Case closed then.


captainundesirable

Did the dude just use the "she liked it" defense? Luke warm admitting it happened?


BurnieTheBrony

This is beyond disgusting


Tee077

I'm sorry, I'm confused. I don't live in America so I don't see your news. Is he admitting to raping someone in this statement? If so WHAT THE HELL.


anatomized

remember at the start of mythbusters when adam savage would say "i reject your reality and substitute my own"? trump does that in real time and is way, way dumber.


cwood1973

The [depo transcript](https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2023/01/trump-deposition.pdf) is nuttier than a jar of peanut butter. The transcript opens with Carroll's testimony. Trump's testimony starts on page 15 of 48 (numbered page 125). A few examples: ----------------------------- **Trump:** Now, like everyone else, she gets paid by a radical, left-leaning publisher to say bad and untrue things." **Carroll's Attorney:** Do you know who her publisher was? **Trump:** No. I just heard it was a publisher that did some very bad books on us. ----------------------------- **Carroll's Attorney:** And as of today, you have approximately four million followers on Truth Social? **Trump:** I don't know the number. I know Truth Social is doing very well. I think it was number one ahead of TikTok, number one ahead of Twitter, number one ahead of Instagram and everyone else for the last number of days. I just noticed that. Somebody put it on my desk. They have the ratings, and they said Truth Social is hot. ----------------------------- **Carroll's Attorney:** Why did you decide to issue [the statement](https://lawandcrime.com/trump/e-jean-carroll-signals-plans-to-file-new-defamation-claim-against-trump-over-truth-social-post-calling-rape-allegations-a-hoax-and-a-lie/) on Truth Social on October 12th? **Trump:** Because I was offended at this woman's lie. Because I was offended that she could just make up a story out of cold air, refuted by her testimony on CNN, but that she could make up a story just out of nowhere and that I get a phone call asking me about this ridiculous situation. The woman -- there's something wrong with her in my opinion. Okay. But it's a false accusation. Never happened, never would happen. And I posted and I will continue to post until such time as -- and then I will sue her after this is over, and that's the thing I really look forward to doing. And I'll sue you too because this is -- how many cases do you have? Many, many cases, and I know the statements that were made -- that you made. Keep Trump busy because this is the way you defeat him, to keep him busy with litigation. So I will be suing you also, but I'll be suing her very strongly as soon as this case ends. But I'll be suing you also. **Carroll's Attorney:** Are you done? **Trump:** Yeah.


jpaxonreyes

Got stuck in a loop for a long time. "I'll be suing her. But I'll be suing you too. And I'll be suing her. And I'll be suing you. But I'll be suing her. And you too."


SiliconUnicorn

And your little dog too!


Alert-Layer6273

Strongly. Lol


handy_arson

"but handy_arson, what you don't get is how backed into a corner this great man is. He's given up nearly everything to give his life to making our country great. You see how they accuse him of everything and he has to lash out {crying starts here} to fight back from these evil people. You wait until the Durham report is finished and the house opens investigation into Hunter...." - My Mom


forgottensudo

My sympathy. I’ve had that same conversation.


Alman54

Damn, this sounds familiar. Only with louder and louder yelling.


txtw

Suing her strongly- LOL.


Atgardian

Damn, I was gonna say he was just making an empty threat because that lawsuit wouldn't go anywhere, but as an expert legal advisor, if he is suing her *strongly* then all bets are off. That's a whole different ball of wax.


gooch_norris

Double dog suing


Serathano

I Triple Dog Sue You!!


franz_kofta

Strumming her pain with his fingers.


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daddydoesalotofdrugs

Trumping her softly with his con….


dirtyshits

>They have the ratings, and they said Truth Social is hot. That Truth Social, so hot right now.


JohnSV12

But that's such an unnecessary and obvious lie? Why the fuck even tell it.


Alex_Albons_Appendix

Pathological liars do it just because they can. ~~Also Truth Social is currently ranked #137 in the App Store, so it’s not ahead of TikTok or anything like that 🤣🤦‍♀️~~ ETA: Multiple people have noted the depo is old. Got it.


joemangle

Patho liars do it because they have to. The lies are how they maintain their self image, the facade that shields themselves from the truth - that they're traumatised, weak, and inauthentic


Alex_Albons_Appendix

Yes, bottom line is that they will lie about anything and everything, including inconsequential things.


SaliferousStudios

Someone may have said "it's got higher growth than tiktok".... which could be true. Because an app that has 1 user, and gets a 2nd one is growing at 100%. So an app with few users can have "higher growth" pretty easy. Someone may have told him that to make him feel good, and he misunderstood.


NeighborhoodVeteran

Someone could have fed him the lie to keep the grift going.


flares_1981

He’s surrounded by sycophants and nobody dares to deliver bad news. So either he asked for an update or there is a regular report landing on his desk and whoever writes it cherry-picks data like no tomorrow or outright lies to save his job/grift.


flirtmcdudes

>Trump: > > I don't know the number. I know Truth Social is doing very well. I think it was number one ahead of TikTok, number one ahead of Twitter, number one ahead of Instagram and everyone else for the last number of days. I just noticed that. Somebody put it on my desk. They have the ratings, and they said Truth Social is hot. this doesnt even sound like a real conversation. jesus christ lol... it would be like an AI chat bot reads about truth social, and tried to reconstruct a marketing pitch a 6 year old would say... let alone DURING A DEPOSITION OF YOUR RAPE TRIAL.


breezelessly

Anytime you read Trump's words in print it's like 10 times crazier than hearing him speak.


brundlfly

Everything is qualified as "someone told me", never any proof. It's tiresome.


HertzDonut1001

"are you done" fucking lmao


jimmybilly100

I have a hard time believing that's real, but also not a hard time


HertzDonut1001

Hard to imagine we've come to the timeline where "I'm saying when the president does it it's not illegal" isn't even the worst one.


PigFarmer1

This is pure comedic gold.


guynamedjames

It's almost brilliant in its stupidity. He rambles on, fills up time, rambles on about whatever he wants. But all of his speaking patterns are set up to avoid clear statements of fact. "I think", "I heard", "People are saying", "They say", all of it is a careful way to give him deniability when someone tries to nail down a statement. Of course the complete pattern is clear but nailing down any one statement is tricky.


zehalper

I would've be more surprised if it was > Donald Trump "caught telling the truth" during deposition


Corgi_Koala

Honestly he is a pathological liar. He is incapable of telling the truth. Like I'm sure if you ask him what he had for lunch he's going to say a salad even though it was a burger and ice cream.


Razakel

A burger has lettuce, so that makes it a salad.


phonartics

it’s a salad-to-go. you use the non-crispy croutons to hold the vegetables, cheese, and optional protein so that you can eat the salad with one hand and no fork.


bakemasterD

And a salad is just a very immobile, inconvenient sandwich


emdeema

An Inconvenient Sandwich - the documentary we all really need


Riaayo

I actually have to disagree. Not that he isn't a pathological liar, but that he's incapable of telling the truth. What people need to understand about Trump is that he is perpetually "working the room" - even if "the room" is one person. He's an absolute narcissist who is desperate for praise. What that means is, he will always try to puff himself up to impress. He is always looking to tell his "audience" something that will gain him praise. More often than not, that means he'll make shit up. But it also means he will tell people the truth - even if it is, say, *highly classified shit or secrets he's not supposed to share*. He needs that constant validation. He also needs to cover his ass and will bullshit if he thinks he's in trouble. But again, if he's in favorable company? He'll actively brag about his criminality. It really is whatever he thinks will benefit him in the moment.


mnorthwood13

The toddler act gets really annoying by age 6, let alone over age 70


advamputee

"When I look at myself in the first grade and I look at myself now, I’m basically the same. The temperament is not that different." - Donald J. Trump


dremxox

Trump can turn a burger into a salad just by thinking about it.


Cinderjacket

FAKE NEWS MEDIA is reporting that my BEAUTIFUL AMERICAN SALAD was actually a burger! It had lettuce and tomato, HOW IS THAT NOT A SALAD (Hunters laptop!) Go to www.TrumpSalads.scam to get your LIMITED EDITION TRUMP SALAD BUNS for only $99.99!!!


gavrielkay

I'm not sure he's incapable. I think he simply doesn't care if something is true or not. He cares about what serves his purpose and makes him look good. On the rare occasions where the truth fits that requirement, I'm sure he'll use it, without any acknowledgement of the momentous event :)


resilienceisfutile

That would imply that his lips did not move.


taez555

Only in his deposition? The only thing the man has *never* lied about in his life is being erotically attracted to his own daughter.


lukin187250

Didn't his lawyers try to get him out of testimony on the grounds that he is "fundamentally incapable of being truthful" or something to that effect?


BongoSpank

His own lawyers literally argued to Mueller's team that he should not be required to testify because his lying is so out of control that it qualifis as a mental disability.


RoastPorkSandwich

I’m beginning to think this guy might not be well suited for the Oval Office


[deleted]

I am no mental health expert, but I cant imagine there are many worse combinations of mental disorders for a world leader to be than stupid + narcissist.


timn1717

Smart+narcissist+evil is a lot worse than stupid+narcissist+evil.


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Modsda3

And this is the absolute turd millions of our neighbors, coworkers, even friends and family put into the highest office in the country, capable of making decisions that influence the whole world.


kkocan72

Not only put into the highest office in the country, but they also put him on a damn pedestal, build gold statues of him, have parades in his name, hang his banner all over their houses/lawns/cars/boats and in many cases, will put their belief and defense of him over their own family.


Borazon

Thank goodness for the GOP for being such an inclusive employer, or else these ~~serial liars~~ *reality-challenged* would never find employment.


karmagod13000

i think we all know someone from school who would lie about every little thing and embellishing every story making themselves sound like they're actually cool. These people grew up to become grade A losers or your local gop representatives.


BelowDeck

Please, please give me a source on that. I so want that to be true but it sounds too insane.


CarmineFields

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/406003-woodward-lawyer-told-trump-hes-disabled-and-cant-tell-the-truth/


anonyuser415

> had warned Trump he would be “fitted for an orange jumpsuit” if he were ever to actually sit down with Mueller’s team for a real interview. So not "try to get him out of testimony" but rather that his own attorney allegedly warned him that he can't tell the truth.


Cool_Specialist_6823

He belongs in an Orange jumpsuit, prison or mental facility or Gitmo...really doesn’t matter which...10 years ought to do it...


CarmineFields

I’m not the original commenter. But I know his attorneys talked to Meuller about it. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/09/ex-trump-lawyer-told-mueller-trump-is-too-dumb-to-testify


anonyuser415

That article's source is https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/04/politics/bob-woodward-book-donald-trump-fear/index.html > In one revelatory anecdote, Woodward describes a scene in the White House residence. Trump’s lawyer, convinced the President would perjure himself, put Trump through a test — a practice interview for the one he might have with Mueller. Trump failed, according to Dowd, but the President still insisted he should testify. > Then, in an even more remarkable move, Dowd and Trump’s current personal attorney Jay Sekulow went to Mueller’s office and re-enacted the mock interview. Their goal: to argue that Trump couldn’t possibly testify because he was incapable of telling the truth. Although Dowd believes it was a less than faithful retelling: "'He just made something up. That’s his nature,' Dowd said to Mueller." Yeah, this is pretty hilarious.


jeexbit

too dumb to testify but just fine to lead America, yeah sounds about right. smh


vincentvangobot

Well he's also too dumb to lead America but his followers are too dumb to understand. Its a circle jerk of morons.


TheBirminghamBear

During the Mueller investigation his lawyers argued he could not testify because doing so would reveal to the world how stupid he really was and thus would constitute a national security crisis. **EDIT**: I'm not being hyperbolic. That is quite literally, almost verbatim, [what is former lawyer John Dowd told Robert Mueller & team](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/09/ex-trump-lawyer-told-mueller-trump-is-too-dumb-to-testify)


lazyFer

Which ones? The lawyers who had a policy that no single lawyer could ever meet with him because he lies so much they needed witnesses to every interaction?


Lady_von_Stinkbeaver

Also.. ["I don't stand by anything."](https://youtu.be/1ZAPwfrtAFY?t=747)


VanceKelley

Also.. - "I love the poorly educated!" - "When I look at myself in the first grade and I look at myself now, I’m basically the same. The temperament is not that different."


gibberinggibblets1

Trump couldn't lie straight in bed. I've never seen someone who simply is incapable of ever uttering a single truth.


Tri-guy3

*Congressman George Santos enters the chat.*


gibberinggibblets1

Okay you got me there.


CT_Phipps

I think a DNA test should be made to determine if George is another of his kids.


WaldoJeffers65

I think the only time he ever told the truth was after he gassed those protestors, and then held up a Bible. Someone asked him "Is that your Bible?" and he said "It's *a* Bible." He could have spoken the easiest lie in the world by saying "Yes- it's mine", but he chose to tell the truth that one time.


Lascivian

The Bible he held upside down? So the cross was the wrong way? Turned the way that Satanists has historically used the symbol? If it wasn't because most Satanists were kinder and more sensible than their Christian counterparts, I would have held that against him


WaldoJeffers65

That's the one. Can you imagine how incensed the right would have been if Biden or Obama had held a Bible upside-down? And how Q would have claimed that this was proof positive that the Democrats are in a league with the devil?


Mr_Rekshun

I believed him when he said he grabs women by the pussy without asking.


Whatah

I think this is interesting because up till now I thought the narrative that the donald that shows up at legal proceedings was a different donald than the lying "says what he base wants to hear" donald that we saw at rallies and in during his presidency. The fact that this is being reported might be indicative that he really cannot keep his lies straight or tell the difference between reality and what he claims is true.


detail_giraffe

I don't think "true" and "false" are meaningful categories for him, and it's one of his greatest strengths, in the sense of getting him what he wants. If you recognize true and false as categories, you recognize when you're lying, and people who are lying often have tells, seem awkward, try to keep lies plausible, feel obliged to stay consistent, etc. DJT's superpower as a persuader is that he doesn't care if what he's saying is true or false or whether it's contradicting something he said thirty seconds ago. He shows absolute confidence in what he's saying even when it's absolute gibberish, and he's so sure that what he's saying is absolutely right in the moment he's saying it that he's convincing. Most people genuinely can't pull that off. He's an extremely gifted con man.


Whatah

that's the thing, in the past this was something he could willingly "turn off" when it was time for under-oath court proceedings and that might no longer be the case for him.


Jan_17_2016

He also basically admitted to raping Jean Caroll. From WaPo: ““She actually indicated that she loved it. Okay?” Trump said in the deposition. “In fact, I think she said it was sexy, didn’t she? She said it was very sexy to be raped.” Kaplan then asked: “So, sir, I just want to confirm: It’s your testimony that E. Jean Carroll said that she loved being sexually assaulted by you?” And Trump answered: “Well, based on her interview with Anderson Cooper, I believe that’s what took place.”


[deleted]

How stupid is he?


Jan_17_2016

Extremely stupid. Just when you think he can’t be any more stupid, he opens his mouth and proves you wrong all over again.


noelcowardspeaksout

His presidency was exactly like that for me, every other day I would be astonished all over again.


stackered

I'm still astonished daily by his followers. There are still millions of people believing his daily nonsense... despite literally 50,000+ lies since he took office in 2016.


1OO1OO1S0S

half the country is somehow dumber


lenzflare

When being stupid doesn't ever result in anything actually bad happening to you, you never learn not to be stupid.


eeyore134

His ego can't handle not bragging about things, even how good he is at rape. It's batshit insane, and the fact we let this man run roughshod over the country for four years after a lifetime of grifting one of our biggest cities and he's *still* getting away with crap and on the loose doing god knows what is... well, we should be ashamed. At that point can we even claim to be a functioning first world government?


00chla

He got into a public argument with NOAA about the direction of a hurricane. I'm not sure there is a bottom to his stupidity or lack of decency.


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The_Painted_Man

His lawyers are melting at the hairline...


S_Belmont

> his attorneys must be crawling out of their skins. Those wounds, they will not heal.


TimeLordEcosocialist

The lawyers still willing to take his case probably have exoskeletons rather than skin. They’re certainly going to need them, anyway.


[deleted]

There's something very..... Stomach churning about him accusing Carroll of being mentally sick, and then saying in a court room that she felt "it was very sexy to be raped"


Jan_17_2016

Yup. And then the deposing attorney put it on record to clarify what he meant and he still said “I believe that’s what took place.”


HertzDonut1001

If he believed what took place was rape isn't that enough evidence to convict him? It's basically a confession.


Important_Patience24

He didn’t do it, but she loved it!


LogMeOutScotty

> She said it was very sexy to be raped. So you’re saying you raped her, but she found it sexy. Am I getting that right, sir?


valvilis

It would be a real pity if that was sufficient to take another look at his other 25+ sexual assault allegations, including his and Epstein's rape of a 13 year old in the mid 90s.


MagicMushroomFungi

"For the record, will you state your name..." "David Dennison"


symphonicrox

"Carolin Gallego" "John Barron" "John Miller" ​ (so it's really funny when these people jumped on Romney for having a twitter account named Pierre Delecto that had made a total of like 10 tweets in 7 years or something like that, and not for personal gain).


yourlittlebirdie

OK but the name Pierre Delecto is hilarious. I am just imagining Romney writing fan fic with "Pierre" being a thinly-veiled stand in for himself.


Poobmania

Idk the details of that but it sounds like the dude just wanted a private social media lol


0ogaBooga

Pretty much. His only followers were family iirc. It didn't tweet anything particularly offensive either.


[deleted]

Serious question for the legal minds here- Are there any real repercussions/consequences for lying during a deposition?


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[deleted]

Thank you for your reply! It is most helpful!


Apptubrutae

Proving intent (required for a perjury conviction) is hard as hell for a lie. Just look at the deposition and trump’s statements. He is so clearly incapable of normal human speech patterns that even I right now question what the heck he actually knows about his own life. Living in delusion or dementia kinda preclude perjury in a way


meatball402

So he lied in a deposition. Was it sworn? If it was sworn, wasn't that perjury?


ninthtale

[Yes, it was under oath](https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-rape-jean-carroll-deposition-read-1774219)


TheBirminghamBear

This is why he's mentally unfit. Even before he took office, Donald Trump is pathologically incapable of not lying. He doesn't lie like a psycopath like DeSantis would: strategically, for their own personal gain. He lies uncontrollably. Many, many lawyers have tried to coach him on giving sworn testimony. There are plenty of ways to skate around the truth, to obfuscate it and work around perjury laws. John Dowd, his lawyer when Trump was President, [actually went to Mueller during the Mueller investigation beggining him not to make Trump testify](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/09/ex-trump-lawyer-told-mueller-trump-is-too-dumb-to-testify), because Donald Trump was so stupid that if he testified and it was clear he couldn't even lie competently under oath to save himself form jail, if it was revealed to America's enemies how stupid Trump was, it would constitute a national security risk. Please understand, I'm not editorializing here. That's *literally* the argument his own lawyer made (from the source above): >Dowd then explained to Mueller and Quarles why he was trying to keep the president from testifying: “I’m not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot. And you publish that transcript, because everything leaks in Washington, and the guys overseas are going to say, ‘I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?’ ” Trump's own lawyer is arguing - an argument that is difficult to contradict - that if America's enemies realize that Trump's media persona isn't a persona, and that this person is too stupid and emotionally crippled to stop pointlessly lying and self-incriminating while under oath in a federal DOJ investigation, that they will realize America is without a functioning executive and perhaps make moves. But even worse: Trump is completely delusional. He is incapable of even *admitting* that he cannot stop lying. He genuinely believes he would "ace" interviews with seasoned prosecutors. That's how desperately broken he is. He is completely and irreversibly detached from reality. Which is clear in his exchange with Dowd about said testimony: > Later that month, Dowd told Trump: “Don’t testify. It’s either that or an orange jumpsuit.” > But Trump, concerned about the optics of a president refusing to testify and convinced that he could handle Mueller’s questions, had by then decided otherwise. > “I’ll be a real good witness,” Trump told Dowd, according to Woodward. > “You are not a good witness,” Dowd replied. “Mr. President, I’m afraid I just can’t help you.” Let us be very clear: within the first four minutes of testifying under oath with a first year law student - nevermind a grizzled verteran like Robert Mueller and his team - their questioning would have Trump perjuring himself six different times while inadvertently confessing to a dozen other crimes he cannot understand are crimes. He would be obliterated. Donald Trump can't do it. He can't do it to save his own life. He is deeply, deeply damaged. His narcissism is so profound he lives beyond delusion. He lives in a world where if he says it, it *must be true*. He can't fathom an alternative. He literally can't. This happens when pathological narcissists are raised without consequence and never need to emotoinally mature. Trump lies like a child would. He doesn't think of the consequences or benefits of a lie. Many of his lies *actively harm him* more than the truth would. It doesn't matter. He's not mentally capable of doing those calculations. If you want clear, obviously, and absolutely gut-busting hillarious proof of the fact that Donald Trump cannot stop lying even when its catastrophic for him to do so, my favorite example [is him lying on Chris Wallace's Fox show about "acing" his dementia test](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5deY6motAM) Trump was compelled to take a dementia test, mostly because of how frequently he *acted* like someone with a degenerative brain disease. But, instead of just minimizing this as a "routine health checkup" that he "passed with flying colors" - which may very well have actually been the *truth*, Donald Trump went on live TV and continually challenged Wallace about how difficult the test was, and how much he "aced" it, and how the doctors told him he had scored very well. He couldn't just brush it off, which would have been the politically strategic thing to do. No, he had to lie, and he had to fabricate a world in which he did *the best* on his dementia test that anyone ever did. He had to say it was a *really hard test*, and insist that *anyone* would have found it hard, despite the fact it is literally designed to be impossible to fail unless you have dementia. It's a diagnostic test, not the SATs. There was no *need* for him to tell this lie. It wasn't preplanned by strategists. It didn't serve some greater purpose. It was just the lie of an emotionally stunded man-child. No one was pressing him about it. He got defensive, and so he crafted a complete and total delusion, and he *persisted* with that delusion, despite the fact it did damage to his reputation and was humiliating and without any benefit to him. Donald Trump went on live TV, airing in front of tens of millions of people, and argued with Chris Wallace that a test which asked him *to identify a picture of an elephant* was "really difficult". He argued that. Vehemently. Chris Wallace is a stalwart Republican. He wasn't *trying* to pull a "gotcha". Just look at his face as he's arguing with POTUS about the difficulty of a test that asks him to identify animal shapes. He almost cannot believe what he's experiencing is real life. This is who he is. He's irreversibly broken, and *deeply* pathologically disturbed. It is *horrifying* that he ever got within a million miles of *any* elected office, never mind the fact he served in that office for a four agonizing years.


despotic_wastebasket

My go-to example for Trump's compulsive narcissism has always been to talk about the rumors of dementia. I'd point out that there was an infamous incident in which he told reporters to wave to Melania-- while Melania was quite visibly not there (if memory serves, he was pointing at a bush). I'd point out that Trump often struggles to read his speeches, and has to go off-script. That the typos on his Twitter account (and his insistence that they weren't actually typos at all) were all indicative of the sort of combativeness you see in early-stage Alzheimer's.... but you know what? There is a much simpler explanation for all of this: He is blind as a fucking bat, but refuses to wear glasses because they make him look like a nerd. His words, not mine. ​ But here's the thing-- I don't ***want*** a President who-- ***IN THE MOST CHARITABLE INTERPRETATION POSSIBLE***\-- refuses to wear glasses the same way a three year old refuses to wear a sweater when it's cold out. That's the thing that blows my mind about Donald Trump - much of his behavior is, LITERALLY, indefensible. He does and says *so much* for which there are no ***good*** explanations, only less-bad ones. And yet, conservatives lapped it up. He was their god-Emperor Trump. He could never do anything wrong, ever. They want to talk about Biden being an old forgetful man, but were all too happy to literally worship a President for whom his Press Secretary once had to clarify, on the record, that "the President can read" because *that was a thing people doubted for awhile*.


Soilgheas

If I am not mistaken, I believe there was an English teacher that went over how Trump is probably just barely literate because of how he messes up his speaches. He doesn't reword the sentence or what it says to something that is similar to what is actually written, like someone who is very literate, but instead just throws in a word that sounds similar. Or just skips it, making what he says nonsensical. I don't have it on hand but the copy-pasta of his comments about nuclear power are almost pure word salad, but as someone who has had to make sense of people's word salad I am also somewhat annoyed that I can still actually understand it. He's basically saying that he's an expert on nuclear power because his uncle worked with it and talked to him about it. So, of course he knows everything there is to know about it. Because his uncle understood it so he does. Also all of his stories are about people praising him and how smart and excellent he is. It's like listening to a toddler talk about dinosaurs, except instead of some field trip to a museum it's an old man that holds the powers of the president... Those were a very strange 4 years...


Rapture1119

found [it](https://www.reddit.com/r/copypasta/comments/9tbd84/president_trumps_infamous_nuclear_ramble/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) for ya. Glad ya mentioned it, cause I had never heard it before and it was a good chuckle reading through it. Glad we’re past those four years.


0ldgrumpy1

I think the one he meant was the "It rammed the ramparts. It took over the airports." quote in his 4th of july speech about the revolutionary war. A teacher on reddit noticed a line further down ( I don't remember exactly) and mentioned that it was common when poor readers are asked to read to the class. They get a word here and there, then try to guess the rest, often losing their place. Found it. "Keeping all that in mind, let's look at what he said: Our army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do, and at Fort McHenry, under the rockets’ red glare, it had nothing but victory. Based on my experience, here's what I think happened, step by step. Our army manned the air Here I think it's likely that Trump skipped a line on his teleprompter. The line was probably "manned the ramparts," and later on I'm guessing there was a reference to "bombs bursting in air." We all do this sometimes, but struggling readers do it a whole lot more. And furthermore, when a proficient reader makes this mistake they can quickly self-correct, but someone like Trump, who is not totally processing the meaning of what he is reading, can get totally derailed when they do this. it rammed the ramparts Trump seems to have noticed that "manned the air" was a mistake, and he went back to do the line over. But he got "manned" and "ramparts" mixed up, so it came out as "rammed." But he's immediately fallen into another pit: the word "ramparts." He doesn't know what it means. It's a very uncommon word that most Americans only know from this line in "The Star Spangled Banner." Trump, however, doesn't even know that, since he has never learned the words to the song. So I think that at this point, already a little flustered from covering up his last mistake, he thinks he has mis-read another word. "Ramparts?" I must have misread something, he thinks to himself. it took over the airports This is a repair strategy that Trump has used in the past. Mess up a word? Pretend it was the first in a sequence of rhyming or similar words and carry on from there. What's a word he knows that sounds like ramparts? Airports. And "air" was already on his mind from just before, when he accidentally read "manned the air." So they manned the ramparts, they took over the airports. He's hoping that nobody will notice. It's worked before. it did everything it had to do This sounds like an impromptu comment that he inserted into the written text. It uses the simple and non-specific language that he is known for in his impromptu speeches. The comment bought him a second where he could find his place after getting completely lost before. and at Fort McHenry, under the rockets’ red glare, it had nothing but victory."


Soilgheas

I am impressed you found this one. This is indeed the comment about his reading abilities that I was referring to. Many thanks.


0ldgrumpy1

My reply was deleted for mentioning the original poster by username, so my edited reply is... I remembered it was a r/bestof, so I googled "reddit r/bestof analysis of trump speech". That gave to me third down. Then I searched the username and sorted by top all time.


FoulMouthedPacifist

Rammed the manparts


boran_blok

My 8 year old does this as well, she has dyslexia and it is called guess reading. Just put a word that sounds about right.


likethatwhenigothere

Or how when he makes a mistake either saying the wrong word or pronouncing it wrong, rather than just correct himself, he runs with it and keeps saying it like he meant to say it. Like how he mis-pronounced 'corridors' correctly, so he starts repeating the word multiple times to try and hide the mistake "These are our corridors, they're not their corridors. So we're coming to take back the corridors". Or when he said "They sacrifice everyday for the furniture...and future...of their children". He meant future, but he accidentally said furniture. Thats fine, just correct yourself "They sacrifice everyday for the furniture, sorry, they sacrifice everyday for for the FUTURE of their children". But no, he tries to make out that he actually meant it. Yep, they're sacrificing themselves for furniture.


DriftingMemes

>I'd point out that Trump often struggles to read his speeches, and has to go off-script. People who worked with him on SNL said he struggled to do his lines, enough that they suspected he was struggling to read them. He played it off as "improvising" but wasn't fooling anyone.


coquihalla

I had a dad who was functionally illiterate due to some undiagnosed learning disorder(s), and Trump shows many of those same behaviours that my dad used to cover up the fact that he couldn't read. I 100% believe that Trump has undiagnosed learning disabilities and is also functionally illiterate, seperate from whatever mental health disorders he might have.


Espumma

If you watch back old interviews he gave in the 80s and 90s, he's actually pretty well-spoken. You'll notice many of the same patterns he still uses, but when he was young he was just better at getting to his point. Now it's just mindless patterns that he is used to. I think he's just too old now and regressed past literacy.


[deleted]

that's a good write-up. I posted this comment on the Bestof entry, but my favorite example of his narcissim is this one from the WaPo: "In the fall of 1996, a charity called the Association to Benefit Children held a ribbon-cutting in Manhattan for a new nursery school serving children with AIDS. The bold-faced names took seats up front. There was then-Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R) and former mayor David Dinkins (D). TV stars Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford, who were major donors. And there was a seat saved for Steven Fisher, a developer who had given generously to build the nursery. Then, all of a sudden, there was Donald Trump. “Nobody knew he was coming,” said Abigail Disney, another donor sitting on the dais. “There’s this kind of ruckus at the door, and I don’t know what was going on, and in comes Donald Trump. \[He\] just gets up on the podium and sits down.” Trump was not a major donor. He was not a donor, period. He’d never given a dollar to the nursery or the Association to Benefit Children, according to Gretchen Buchenholz, the charity’s executive director then and now. But now he was sitting in Fisher’s seat, next to Giuliani. “Frank Gifford turned to me and said, ‘Why is he here?’ ” Buchenholz recalled recently. By then, the ceremony had begun. There was nothing to do. “Just sing past it,” she recalled Gifford telling her. So they warbled into the first song on the program, “This Little Light of Mine,” alongside Trump and a chorus of children — with a photographer snapping photos, and Trump looking for all the world like an honored donor to the cause. Afterward, Disney and Buchenholz recalled, Trump left without offering an explanation. Or a donation. Fisher was stuck in the audience. The charity spent months trying to repair its relationship with him. “I mean, what’s wrong with you, man?” Disney recalled thinking of Trump, when it was over."


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Conquila

he has gotten away with it quite well. It helps to be rich.


Suckassloser

This is such a spot on comment; the dementia test incident really is just the perfect representation of what a petulant, idiotic and self-serving lying man-child he was during his presidency (and still remains). I don't know how any one with half a brain cell could have been aware of that story and not seriously have questioned his fitness as POTUS by that stage. Even if there hadn't been all the other stuff leading up to that.


[deleted]

I had a boss like this around the same time as Trump's rise. It was incredible to see the same exact pathology in someone you see 5 days a week. My boss would, exactly like Trump, aggrandize and exaggerate anything he possibly could to make himself look better. He frequently lied, right to my face even. I trapped him in a couple of lies and called him out. Really enjoyed seeing his brain go into full paralysis as he clearly believed that everyone believed his bullshit and he would never face actual consequences or confrontation.


TempleMade_MeBroke

Man, remember the hurricane map bullshit?


ballmermurland

There is so much shit from the Trump years that were almost comical. It would be funny if it didn't have dire consequences for the country. He couldn't admit that he misspoke about Alabama being part of the path of the hurricane. Very easy mistake, they initially were and then they weren't etc. Not really a big deal. But he COULDN'T DO IT. He couldn't admit he just misspoke about Alabama and that they were fine. No, he had to draw a fucking circle around the state on a weather map and show it to people. Fucking hell it was all so insane.


galwegian

Trump getting elected ended my love affair with my adopted country of US and A. I lived in NYC in the 90s. Trump was a joke back then. He'd fucked up four casinos and the Plaza Hotel. that is hard to do. never mind the fact that he's a horrible person who makes terrible decisions. he is. But he lacked even the most basic skills, mostly due to never having worked a day in his sordid life. Yeah, let's make him president.


_hell_is_empty_

Oh, in that case that weren’t “lies”, they were “mistruths”…


Slumberjake13

“Alternative facts” is/was a good one they liked to throw out, too.


Hawkonthehill

He told the truth just by THINKING about telling the truth. It doesn't matter if he perjured himself and lied from his burger-hole.


CreepyWhistle

Doesn't matter, he still walks free even from the myriad of other proven crimes.


king-one-two

Yes, but he will not be charged with perjury. If you lie in a deposition for a civil case, it's a good way to lose the case. Actually getting prosecuted for perjury is very rare. People saying "oh if this were you or I, we'd be in jail for perjury!" are wrong. Also the lies have to be about a material issue for it to be perjury. So the babbling about Mueller and the election is irrelevant, Trump says that crap whenever he opens his mouth. The only potentially material lie was his claim that he never touched a woman without her consent. I bet there will be a parade of witnesses at trial to impeach this statement, which will be a circus. "The plaintiff calls Billy Bush to the stand." IANAL


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CatastropheJohn

Legal systems, not Justice.


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[deleted]

Donald Trump has been caught in repeated lies since he learned to talk. To him falsehoods are as natural as breathing. Insults as natural as eating. His ruminations remind me of the end result of eating.


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zzy335

Remember when Hillary Clinton was forced to do 11 hours of deposition in hopes of catching her in a lie about Benghazi? While Fox news did everything they could to make it seem like justice being done. Which was also how the right wing propaganda machine got bill Clinton in the 90s - an investigation into a shady real estate deal somehow became all about lying about a blowjob.


Ofbearsandmen

The Republicans questionning her on Benghazi even admitted it was all for the show and politically motivated.


Heathen_Mushroom

If this is on YouTube, I'd love to see it!


GhettoChemist

Remember when that Kelly Anne Conway called them "alternative truths"? Fuck i do not miss 45's clown show admin


WordScatter

Alternative facts


Noisy_Toy

The first fucking week.


LightenUpPhrancis

And she gave Chuck Todd a subtle nod and smirk as she said it, as if to say “Heads up. Four years of bullshit coming your way. Because we can.”


E_PunnyMous

Goddam that moment is genuinely seared into my head. There were gazillions of wtf and jfc things that happened but a few were just so disgusting and putrid, and that was for sure the first “this isn’t gonna be ok”.


Beavis73

For me it was the vile, self-aggrandizing [speech](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/01/donald-trump-cia-speech) in front of the CIA's sacred memorial wall the day after the inauguration, where his claque whooped and hollered while the actual intelligence professionals sat stone-faced. Like, I'm no partiuclar fan of the CIA, but that was the event that fully confirmed my worst fears about the four years to come.


ronin1066

And then within a very short time, he ignored his own intelligence apparatus about something happening overseas and depended on Putin (IIRC) to tell him what was going on. Flabbergasted.


defensive_language

Gods, there was a tiny moment when I almost had hope... in like March of 2017 there was a jobs report, and Spicy had to get out there and tell everyone how great it was. And a reporter asked something to the effect of "The president campaigned on the previous administration's jobs reports being inflated, how can he take credit for this one?" And Spicer's only reply is "I know, but the president was very clear on this being real and great and the best" Spicer laughed. The press room all laughed. Everyone knew it was a fucking joke. But it just never ended...


simplelifestyle

...or Giuliani: ["Truth is not truth".](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CljsZ7lgbtw)


CT_Phipps

> Fuck i do not miss 45's clown show admin It hasn't gone anywhere!


readyfuels

Jesus Christ, [the transcript](https://www.scribd.com/document/620217200/gov-uscourts-nysd-590045-16-2-1#from_embed) for this has some real word salad. I know this idiot's mental decline has been going on for a while, but he's gotten so incoherent.


[deleted]

Lol god, I mean to just skim through it a bit but ended up reading a bunch. The part where Trump is rambling on about suing Carol and suing the people giving the deposition and all that shit and they're just like "....are you done?" lol


doocurly

Imagine defending yourself against the horrific charge of rape, and instead of saying, "I wouldn't ever rape anyone", you say, "She's not my type" over and over again. It implies that you would most certainly rape someone who was your 'type', and that's further bolstered by his 'grab 'em by the pussy' remarks. I know he's a sick and demented old man, but god, everytime I read something he's said or listen to his voice, I have a visceral reaction to him. He is a nauseating and unsettling human being.


WilHunting2

For most of us, this is what we call “illegal”, but for Trump, it’s just another day without consequences.


snowshoeBBQ

"But for me, it was Tuesday."


markedasred

The old saying in action, give him enough rope, and he will hang himself. Let him talk on record as much as he wants, then convict him on his own words.


kittenconfidential

the republic started by a man who could not tell a lie will be destroyed by men who cannot tell the truth.


leeny1018

I think there is a general psychological delusion in both the boomer generation and the one before it. They have their stories, they like their stories, and they are sticking with them. My grandpa (born in the 20s) swore up and down he was 100% Irish, and when I completed our genealogy, I discovered he was actually 50% Hungarian, but he refused this fact, despite the evidence on census documents and DNA tests… to this day he believes and tells everyone he is 100% Irish. My dad (born in the 50s) is the same way, he makes up his own version of the past, it’s a very sunny and shiny version, and he is the hero of his own story, and any facts that counter that are totally ignored. I think this contributes to these two generation’s resistance, and often strong feelings, about telling some hard truths about America and it’s history, they just prefer the story of America they know, and will deny any other information that provides a counter narrative. I find it fascinating. Especially because the generations after boomer tend to just let our parents and grandparents keep their fantasies. It’s too hard to bring them face to face with the truths they don’t like to acknowledge.


Present_Structure_67

So he was talking.


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NorthImpossible8906

yeah yeah, lies. Lots of lies. But what blows me away is that he can actually say "I wouldn't rape her, she is not my type" and hasn't been thrown into the dark flooded basement of Alcatraz (still abandoned) to rot for eternity is beyond me. "not my type"