Being a showman, Trump has many signature old man dance moves, playing air accordion when explaining something and strange facial expressions. The most nauseating is his self-satisfied gloat, which, being Trump, he deploys many times. But, no, this piece is not about him being smug. It’s about him being a GLOAT. Sports fans would immediately recognise what a GOAT is – Greatest Of All Time which is something Trump would sell his soul to be and mostly does. Being Trump we have to add in a ‘L’ for the ell of it to describe his defining character flaw, namely lying, which includes exaggeration. Hence he is a GLOAT – The Greatest Liar Of All Time.
On the campaign trail he trundled out more lies than the Big Macs he scoffed. Overnight fact checking became a growth industry until many gave up, overwhelmed by the avalanche of porkies. The classic was the emotive, “They (the illegal immigrants) are eating the cats.” Then there was the price of eggs. Yes, there was a general uptick in inflation but the much larger increase in egg prices was not due to Biden’s economic policies but was because of culling due to bird flu. He also stated that he would be bringing the egg prices down by 98% on day one. Really! That would put the price of a single egg at around 2¢. This was not the only day one boast. There were many others including stopping the Ukraine war.
On assuming office, he went feral and declared economic war on the world, even his allies. His primary attack was by means of tariffs. This, he said, would be paid by the exporting country. Either he is economically stupid or he was lying – take your pick. He then exaggerated the trade deficits of some countries by a factor of up to two to justify his actions and then changed the number in different interviews. In fact, he was just pulling numbers out of his thin hair to amplify his talking point. In maths all numbers actually have real and imaginary components with the latter denoted by ‘i’, eg 3 +i4. In Trump’s imaginary world, all his numbers, and everything else have to do with ’I’ and are real.
Trump lies about everything, including trivial things and even when he doesn’t have to. Perhaps this was hardwired in him at birth or perhaps he is delusional or perhaps, because he always wants to be the centre of attention, he will make stuff up if not. Perhaps he suffers from his brand of Trump Derangement Syndrome, namely ADD – (other people’s) Attention Deficit Disorder.
His father got a tame doctor to diagnose Trump’s bone spurs to avoid the draft. Fast forward about 50 years: To much derision during his first presidency, he got a doctor to report that he was an incredible physical specimen which the doctor later recanted. To avoid similar derision in his second term he got a military doctor to report in detail on a wide range of tests to prove that he was healthy except for one small nagging detail. The doctor noted that he was 6’ 3” tall. He might have been that when young but all recent photos show him to be just over 6’ which would be a standard consequence of aging. He just couldn’t resist the lie could he.
Finally, according to Trump, he always wins at his golf tournaments. This will either make him the biggest cheat or the greatest liar since Pinocchio. He’s the Liar King and deserves to be called Donocchio, the GLOAT.