"Diplomacy by Delusion. Disaster by Design"

We’re Watching a President Mistake Dictating for Diplomacy, Gaslighting for Governance, and Lies for Leadership. Welcome to America, 2025.

Let me tell you something I know from personal experience: lies don’t just distort reality; they become it. When a man lies as instinctively as he breathes, facts cease to matter. Truth becomes irrelevant. What’s left is confusion, chaos, and control.

That’s where we are now; almost one hundred days into Donald Trump’s second term as president of the United States. And once again, America is being governed by delusion.

Every day is another performance. Another sales pitch. Another manipulation. But this time, the stakes are higher. This time, there’s no learning curve, no hand-holding, no adults in the room. It’s just Trump and his enablers; governing not through policy, but through projection.

Take Iran. Trump has dispatched his team to meet with Iranian officials this Saturday, declaring that he’ll secure a new nuclear deal; one that gets Iran to abandon its program entirely. Just like that. No international coalition. No verification mechanisms. No accountability. Just the same empty bravado he used when he told the world North Korea would denuclearize, and then failed to even enforce inspections after the photo op.

A deal; any deal without transparency, monitoring, and enforceability is not diplomacy. It’s theater. It’s the illusion of action without substance. It’s a distraction, designed not to prevent nuclear escalation, but to generate headlines. And in that vacuum of accountability, we’re supposed to trust that Iran will comply, even after a history of violations? It’s absurd. But more dangerously, it’s naive. Naivety masquerading as strength.

And then there’s the so-called peace process between Russia and Ukraine. Trump claims he’s “making progress”; but with whom? He’s in backchannel talks with Russia while Ukraine isn’t even at the table. That’s not diplomacy; that’s submission. The terms being floated amount to a full-scale betrayal of American values: recognizing Crimea’s illegal annexation, handing over control of Ukrainian mineral rights, and undercutting every ally we have in Eastern Europe. All of it done without consent, without clarity, and without credibility.

Ask Trump how much aid we’ve given Ukraine, and he’ll tell you over $350 billion; a number that exists nowhere but in his imagination. It’s not just a misstatement. It’s a fabrication. One meant to justify slashing support, cutting off allies, and feeding a narrative that America is being exploited. In truth, the biggest exploitation happening is of the American people; sold a fiction, repackaged as fiscal responsibility.

And that’s the pattern. We’re watching it unfold in real-time.

Massive cuts to veterans’ care. Education budgets slashed. Healthcare access narrowed. All under the banner of rooting out “fraud, waste, and abuse.” But where’s the audit? Where’s the evidence? There is none. Just vague allegations wrapped in budgetary cruelty; because lies are cheaper than leadership.

Even on the most basic kitchen-table issues, the dishonesty is relentless. Gas prices, grocery bills, the cost of eggs; Trump paints a picture that has no basis in reality. Just last week, The New York Times published a fact check by Daniel Dale, meticulously dismantling his false claims. But that’s the game: flood the zone with lies until the truth can’t be heard.

This isn’t about politics anymore. It’s about the slow, methodical erosion of fact-based governance. About what happens when the most powerful office in the world becomes a platform for unreality; where words mean nothing, deals are illusions, and enemies become partners if they stroke the ego.

America deserves leaders who tell the truth, even when it’s hard. Especially when it’s hard. Because truth doesn’t just inform; it anchors us. It’s what keeps us tethered to our values, our alliances, and our democracy itself.

Without it, we drift. We get lost. And in that vacuum, anything; and anyone, can fill the void.

Trump may believe that saying something makes it real. But the rest of us? We still have to live with the consequences. We still have to pick up the pieces. And we still have a choice.

We either confront the lies; or become governed by them.

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