The Trump administration says that Huawei is a threat to US national security. Maybe it is. But how would we know that? Statements from the Trump administration are sort of like performance art, or rap music where words are chosen because they sound good. There is no longer any correspondence with reality.

1. Trump promised to release his taxes before the 2016 election. That was a lie.

2. When asked why he didn’t release his taxes before the 2016 election, Trump said that it was because they were under audit. That was a lie; audits don’t prevent releases of tax forms.

3. When his taxes were subpoenaed, Trump said he could refuse to turn them over because presidents are above the law. That was a lie, they are not above the law.

4. When Trump’s press secretary was asked why Trump doesn’t release his taxes before the 2020 election, she said that it was because they were under audit. According to Rudi Giuliani that was also a lie; they are not under audit:

“All these tax returns have been by and large — maybe not the last one — but all of them have been audited, all of them have either been passed on or settled,” Giuliani told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News.

“There should be some finality in tax returns,” Giuliani added. “We get audited, we make a deal, we pay the government, you don’t come after me forever for that.”

Just days earlier, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany insisted that ongoing audits were the reason Trump was not releasing any of his tax returns.

It’s like digging through layers of history at ancient Troy, just one set of ruins on top of another. Lies all the way down.

All politicians lie to some extent. But usually it is reluctantly, only when absolutely necessary to achieve some objective. Eisenhower had his aides lie about Gary Powers, as in the 1950s it was considered unthinkable that a President would be caught red-handed lying to the American public. They at least tried to appear truthful. Trump doesn’t even care.

Trump also demands that his aides lie on his behalf. If they refuse, he fires them. If they tell the truth to law enforcement, he calls them rats. If they lie to cover up Trump’s crimes then he commutes their sentence—something even Nixon was afraid to do, fearing impeachment.

We know that the US was led into the Spanish American War, the Vietnam War and the Iraq War on the back of government lies. And those were all administrations that were far more trustworthy than Trump (although not very trustworthy in an absolute sense.)

If Trump is re-elected, all constraints will come off his behavior. The lies will get steadily bolder, more damaging to US national interest. I’m not able to predict where this will all go, but the long history of this sort of government in other countries is not a happy tale.

Will we witness another Gulf of Tonkin incident, but this time with a country much bigger than Vietnam? If we do, I for one won’t believe a thing I hear from the US government (or the Chinese government.)

In a world on nonstop lies, pacifism becomes the safest ideology.

PS. Today is a big win for Trump, a big loss for Trumpism. Sessions lost. He was by far the most Trumpian US senator back in 2016. A true believer, not a fake like Lindsey Graham. The fact that Alabama voters decisively rejected him shows that they care nothing for Trump’s ideas, only loyalty to “The Donald”. Trumpism will not survive Trump.