One of the big advantages Trump has is that he’s happy to spout lies and half-truths, secure in the knowledge that he won’t be called on it. In tonight’s town hall on MSNBC, he was asked about a comment he had made to The New York Times about raising the tariffs on China to 45 percent. He flatly denied he said that, even though an audio recording exists.
Commenting on drug prices, Trump blithely said, “If we negotiated the price of drugs, Joe, we’d save $300 billion a year.” But the United States only spends about $297 billion on drugs per year in total. And asked how he would deal with the Israel-Palestine issue, he blathered on about how tough it would be to resolve, but he’d do his best as a great negotiator. Pressed for specifics, he said he’ll keep his plan a surprise because it’s good to keep things under wraps.
Given the kid’s glove treatment he’s getting from Joe Scarborough, Trump’s strategy of simply spouting off generalities, banalities, and falsehoods is a good one. No one is going to challenge him on it.