Trump's supporters are the anti-vaxxers of politics
Donald Trump's supporters are a lot like anti-vaxxers. It doesn't matter how many rigorous, well-researched articles are published to refute their beliefs, how much they're endangering others by stubbornly believing nonsense, or how often you point out to them that the stuff they believe is bogus.
They just know that Trump is telling the truth, and that thousands of people whose job it is to research and disseminate the real truth are lying.
In the past, Trump's "honest and unfiltered messages" included the truth behind Obama's birth certificate. (He once said he'd sent investigators to Hawaii to get to the bottom of the birth certificate "controversy" and that they could not believe what they were finding. That was five years ago. Where are they? Maybe Trump needs to send in special forces to rescue them from the Maui Cheeseburger in Paradise.)
But this kind of stuff is gospel truth to Trump supporters, even though it doesn't make a whit of sense.
So the above tweet is keenly ironic to anyone who refuses to be taken in by Trump's trenchant arguments and scintillating intellect. Trump filters his message through his brain, which is like filtering pure spring water through a bovine's anus.
Which leads us to the latest salvo in the raging cultural war between Americans who use evidence and reason to discern the truth (elitists) and those who don't know what the truth is until Trump tweets it (real Americans).
Remember that big $110 billion deal Trump struck with Saudi Arabia because he's the bestest negotiator ever? Yeah, it was crap.
The Brookings Institution's Bruce Riedel has the gory details:
"Last month, President Trump visited Saudi Arabia and his administration announced that he had concluded a $110 billion arms deal with the kingdom. Only problem is that there is no deal. It’s fake news.
"I’ve spoken to contacts in the defense business and on the Hill, and all of them say the same thing: There is no $110 billion deal. Instead, there are a bunch of letters of interest or intent, but not contracts. Many are offers that the defense industry thinks the Saudis will be interested in someday. So far nothing has been notified to the Senate for review. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the arms sales wing of the Pentagon, calls them 'intended sales.' None of the deals identified so far are new, all began in the Obama administration."
There's more here.
Sheesh.
