Have you heard? ‘US egg prices dropped 30 percent in the past week’. At least that’s what Donald Trump tried to tell people last Wednesday. And even some dyed-in-the-wool MAGAns are raising their eyebrows at that ridiculous, baldfaced lie!
It’s his biggest, most ridiculous, lie yet. But US President Donald Trump went right ahead and uttered it anyway.
During question time at a news conference with visiting Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Micheal Martin last week, Trump suggested: “I don’t know if you saw. Little things such as the cost of eggs – little to you, but big to the people out there. Down almost 30 per cent, in the last, eh, few days…”
Wait… WHAT?
Fact checkers were all over him within minutes, for that hairy-eyed whopper:
X/Twitter account, FactPost wrote: “The cost of eggs is up 28 percent since Trump took office.”
“Trump’s claim about egg prices dropping 30 percent is nonsense,” one commenter rersponded. “They’ve actually risen 28 percent. […] Just another lie from a president out of touch with reality, pushing false narratives while ignoring the real economic pain.”
“Ah yes, eggs cheaper than ever — if you buy them in an alternate universe where facts don’t matter and reality’s on sale,” another sneered. “Meanwhile, in this dimension, people are paying rent or buy-ing breakfast—not both. Lies sunny side up.”
‘Day one’ priority?
Last August, well before last fall’s election, Trump promised to lower food prices on ‘day one’. It didn’t happen, of course. And resorting to his usual strategy, the President had since done his best to avoid questions about the situation.
Earlier last week, Trump had replied to another question about the egg situation, claiming it was all Joe Biden’s fault – for letting, “the price of eggs get out of control,” adding: “[W]e are working hard to get [them] back down.”
Hidden danger?
The real importance of this story emerges only after one starts reading between the lines. If anybody else had said what Trump did about egg prices dropping – and by such a staggering amount – the mainstream media would have been crying in despair, outrage and disbelief. The political opposition would be calling for immediate mental competency tests. Even his own people, I dare say – unable to support such a bald-faced lie and shrinking from embarrassment – would have been calling for Mr. Trump to step down immediately.
I’ve never seen or even heard of such a thing before. Never ever. Not even close!
The hidden danger here is that, everyone on both sides of congressional aisle are to so tired of and desensitized to Trump’s sociopathy that they just give him a pass, even on his most egregious, insane untruths. The story wasn’t even around for a full 24-hour news cycle.
And that’s a clear indication of several recent dark and dangerous developments in US politics and culture. First, folks across the US political spectrum are no longer stropping to think twice about the monumental untruths the President is indulging himself in. But outside the US, the rest of the world is either laughing nervously or shivering in fear.
The really BIG question, first thing when most us get up in the morning, should be… What is Trump going to do next?
My take
Trump is so wrapped up in his lying and self aggrandisation that he missed a rare opportunity to take a valid way out from under a controversy.
Everybody knows egg prices are way up in the US right now because of the avian flu crisis. But Trump reflexively lied under pressure about the situation.
The bottom line is… We can’t afford to do what most of us have already started to do. Which is to take Donald Trump ‘for granted’…
~ Maggie J.