One consequence of yesterday’s summary judgment against Trump for misrepresenting the value of his assets hasn’t been given enough attention: A court has now officially ruled that Trump is a LIAR. And the court did so through summary judgment, meaning that the evidence of fraud was so clear, obvious, and overwhelming that the court concluded that Trump had no possible defense.
In the order, the judge rejected Trump’s deposition testimony in which the former president said that the financial statements were not fraudulent because they contained disclaimers. Trump said the statements contained a “worthless clause” in them warning lenders and others that they shouldn’t be relied on.
Tuesday, the judge said that “the defendants’ reliance on these ‘worthless’ disclaimers is worthless.”
A NYT front page story this morning highlighted some of the psychological implications of the ruling:
Ruling Against Trump Cuts to the Heart of His Identity
By effectively branding him a cheat, the decision in the civil proceeding by Justice Arthur F. Engoron undermined Mr. Trump’s relentlessly promoted narrative of himself as a master of the business world, the persona that he used to enmesh himself in the fabric of popular culture and that eventually gave him the stature and resources to reach the White House.
The Times story points out that Trump typically uses lies to get out of the troubles he made for himself, but that doesn’t work in court:
In all of Mr. Trump’s recent legal travails, his typical tactics for self-preservation have largely failed him. When cornered, Mr. Trump has traditionally sought to bluster his way out of trouble, falling back on exaggerations or outright lies to escape.
These methods have served him well in the business and political arenas, where there is often little price to pay for bending the truth and where voters tend not to distinguish between gradations of prevarications. Those methods, though, have been much less effective so far in the courts, which operate according to strict standards of veracity and staid and sober rules.
It’s long been known that Trump lies like other people breathe: Trump Lied More Than 30,000 Times During His Presidency. No Wonder We’re Exhausted. (Jan 24, 2021) And it’s long been known (and puzzled over) that his followers refuse to accept that.
A neuroscientist explains why MAGA supporters refuse to accept Trump's 91 felony charges
What does all this have to do with Trump supporters? Well, it’s far less cognitively demanding for them to believe anything their leader tells them. Any challenge to what Trump tells them is true takes mental work. This means there is a psychological incentive for Trump loyalists to maintain their loyalty.
True Trumpers will never accept the court finding that Trump is a liar. But this is an election that will be fought on the margins. We need to use this ruling — along with lots of other evidence — to remind the margins over and over and over that TRUMP IS A LIAR, has always been and will always be, and they cannot trust anything he says on the campaign trail.