Trump lying about terrorism in New Orleans is no surprise. We've seen it before. | Opinion
It was a gruesome and ghastly act perpetrated to terrorize Americans gathered in a festive mood to enjoy together the city around them. Then, federal prosecutors say, a 42-year-old man, driven by a twisted and aberrant notion of religion, climbed behind the wheel of a rented pickup and plowed through a crowd of people.
That describes what happened in the early morning hours of the first day of 2025 when 14 people were killed and dozens more injured in a terrorist act in the French Quarter of New Orleans on Wednesday, investigators said.
It also described a sickeningly similar act in New York on Halloween in 2017, nine months into Donald Trump's first term as president. A killer, also acting in the name of the Islamic State terrorism, killed eight and wounded more on a bike path in Lower Manhattan.
Trump, an opportunist with no allegiance to truth, used that 2017 attack on his watch to launch baseless attacks on his political opponents, to cast them as weak on immigration, to leverage terrorism for political gain.
He did the same thing this week, even after it was firmly established that the suspect killed during the New Orleans attack, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, was an American citizen born and raised in Texas who served for more than a decade in the U.S. Army.
The very first day of 2025 shows us what we're giving up – again – in the presidency, where serious, somber and sober stewardship is on the way out, being replaced – again – by a feckless fealty to false rhetoric in a constant appeal for division.
Trump's return to the White House will bring more of his chaos
Compare President Joe Biden's reaction to Wednesday's attack with Trump's disinformation and distortion.
Biden waited for detailed briefings to know what he could share about the act of terrorism. Trump, as president-elect until Jan. 20, also receives intelligence briefings.
He chose to use his social media platform, the incredibly inaccurately named Truth Social, on Wednesday morning to blame "criminals" entering the country illegally for the day's mayhem. He threw in some blame for Democrats and the "Fake News Media."
One big problem there – Trump appeared to be running with an unconfirmed, and we now know inaccurate, Fox News report Wednesday morningsuggesting that the rented pickup truck used had entered the country from Mexico two days before the attack.
Trump connected dots to draw a picture he wanted while either not having or not caring about accurate information.
Fox News did the right thing, walking back that claim and clarifying in follow-up reports Wednesday, including one that seemed to be speaking directly to Trump about how he had falsely framed his claim.
But Trump would never acknowledge a mistake that plays to his base, that stokes fear while ignoring facts. So he just kept posting on Thursday about immigration, painting America as a nation in declinewith his threadbare only-I-can-fix-it nonsense.
Trump has a history of lying about domestic terrorism
Remember that 2017 attack in New York? Sayfullo Saipov, an immigrant from Uzbekistan, was in this country with a legal visa when he murdered those people. He's now serving a life sentence at a federal prison in Colorado.
Trump seems to have forgotten about Saipov. While campaigning again for president in 2023 and 2024, Trump repeatedly claimed that there were no acts of terrorism during his first term.
Trump made that claim on the campaign trail in New Hampshire in October 2023, which fact-checkers for CNN easily refuted, citing recognized acts of terrorism during his term.
Trump could care less about facts. He made the same claim twice while campaigning in Iowa last January, including during a Fox News town hall (where he faced no fact-checkers).
Do you remember the bitter joke that often circulated during Trump's first term, born of his own 2016 campaign vow to be "so presidential" and disciplined that Americans would be bored in the campaign?
This was never going to happen. Trump doesn't have it within him to be the archetype of a statesman, a steady steward of American democracy and values. He couldn't muster that if he tried. And he has never shown any interest in trying.
Get ready for four more years of nothing being Trump's fault
So, four more years of fact-free, self-absorbed, bitterly divisive fearmongering. We've been here before. We drove ourselves back there again.
Nothing terrible that happens on Trump's watch – and terrible things happen on every president's watch – will ever be his fault. He will publicly whinge about them if he sees an opportunity to blame his foes. But then he'll just flat out act as if they never happened if they reflect poorly on his approach to the presidency.
There's a market for this. That's why Trump does it. There's a portion of this country that desperately wants to believe America is in its dying days and that the former and future president is the only person capable of resuscitation.
But every president wins by building a coalition. Many people gave Trump another try, even if they didn't embrace the teeth gnashing and apprehension at the heart of his "Make America Great Again" movement.
Trump is their president, too. And they have four years to think about that choice.
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