Donald Trump can’t even visit a burned-down business without lying about it. When the owner of Rode’s Camera Shop refused to be part of Trump’s tour of Kenosha, Wisconsin, Trump didn’t take the business off the tour. He just went ahead with an alternative “owner.”
Tom Gram bought Rode’s Camera Shop from the Rode family eight years ago after working there for decades. The business burned during unrest following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, and Trump wanted to use it to promote his militarized response to protest. But Gram didn’t want to appear with Trump because “I think everything he does turns into a circus and I just didn’t want to be involved in it.” Imagine his surprise when Trump showed up with John Rode III, the former owner of the camera shop and the owner of the property on which it stood, acting like he was in fact the owner of the business.
Trump introduced Rode as the owner of the shop, and Rode didn’t correct him.
“I just appreciate President Trump coming today, everybody here does,” Rode said while posing as the owner of a business while the actual owner wasn’t so appreciative of Trump’s presence.
“I think [Trump] needs to bring this country together rather than divide it,” Gram told local news channel TMJ4.
“I think there’s a lot of good people in this community and to say that only law enforcement is correct is not the message we need to hear right now,” he said.
Trump has lied about bigger things, of course. But this wasn't just Trump. His staff set up a lie as the public face of his using the presidency to campaign for reelection. It’s like a twisted Potemkin village, and, taken alongside the many larger lies coming from him and his administration every day, it highlights that we can trust him with nothing, however big or small.
