"TRUTH OPTIONAL, GASLIGHTING MANDATORY"

With the confidence of someone who knows they will never be fact-checked and questioned by cable news media, Rep. Malliotakis regurgitated the GOP's greatest hits of blatant falsehoods.

It is just the beginning of the week and we start with another televised regurgitation of Republican misinformation and disinformation. This time, the honor belongs to Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), who graced CNN’s airwaves this morning with a MAGA performance so detached from reality, one had to wonder whether she was auditioning for a role in the sequel to LIAR, LIAR or simply reading from the RNC’s latest talking points pamphlet. With the confidence of someone who knows they will never be fact-checked and questioned by cable news media, Malliotakis regurgitated Trump’s greatest hits of blatant falsehoods, knowing full well they are lies; but, as we’ve seen time and again, truth in the MAGA era is an inconvenient speed bump on the road to authoritarianism.

Let’s break down this morning’s circus act, shall we? First, the congresswoman declared, without a shred of irony, that fentanyl was pouring into the United States from Canada; killing hundreds of thousands of Americans. Yes, Canada. That frozen, poutine-loving, maple syrup-producing socialist dystopia where crime rates are lower than in any major U.S. city and where Justin Trudeau is far too busy dodging right-wing conspiracy theories to be masterminding an international fentanyl ring. The reality? In the last year, approximately 40 pounds of fentanyl have been seized at the northern border. To put that into perspective, that’s less than what could fit into a suitcase. Meanwhile, over 14,000 pounds were seized at the southern border. But why let facts get in the way when the GOP needs a scapegoat, and the media is more than happy to let them run wild with the narrative?

Then came the real gut-buster: Malliotakis, with a straight face, claimed that Trump’s imposition—or mere threat—of tariffs caused the ouster of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Now, let’s be clear. Trudeau has had his share of political woes for years now; but none of them involve being unceremoniously booted out by the sheer force of Trump’s incoherent trade policy. But Malliotakis knows that Trump’s base is allergic to Google searches, so why not toss out a complete fabrication and see if it sticks?

But wait, there’s more. Next up was the whopper about gas and food prices already going down thanks to Trump’s economic wizardry. This would be impressive if not for one tiny detail; it’s just not true! And yet, according to Malliotakis, his mere presence in the Oval Office has already turned the economy around. Tell that to the checkout person at the grocery when paying.

But the pièce de résistance was Malliotakis’s boldest lie yet; that Trump has brought trillions of dollars into the United States to revitalize manufacturing. Now, if we lived in a world where facts mattered, this claim would have been met with laughter and an immediate commercial break. Remember during his first administration similar clais were made? Remember the Carrier plant in Indiana? The one he swore he saved? It shut down. Remember the massive tax cuts for corporations? They didn’t reinvest in American workers; no, they bought back their own stock and made billions doing so. But hell, “trillions” sounds good, so why not throw it out there?

Then came perhaps the most deranged assertion of them all. Malliotakis, in full MAGA-induced delirium, claimed that Trump has already accomplished all of these miraculous feats in his one month in office. Yes, you read that right. According to this sitting member of Congress, Donald J. Trump has been back in the White House for one month and has already lowered gas prices, stabilized food costs, forced out a foreign leader, and revitalized the economy. Now, either Malliotakis has discovered a time portal where we skipped over the last several weeks of complete and utter GOP incompetence and chaos, or she’s just assuming that her audience is dumb enough to swallow whatever nonsense she spews.

But, here’s the real problem. Republicans, like Malliotakis, don’t believe their own lies. They know full well that fentanyl isn’t pouring in from Canada, that inflation is dictated by market forces, and that Trump has done absolutely nothing except play golf and bask in the glow of his media attention. They don’t care about truth; they care about the message. The message that Trump is a strongman, that the economy bends to his will and that the laws of time and space themselves contort to serve him.

This is the new Republican Party: a fact-optional, propaganda-driven cult that has abandoned any pretense of governance in favor of servitude to its Supreme Leader, President Trump. And it’s not just Malliotakis. No. She’s merely one in a long line of GOP sycophants who have made it their mission to gaslight America into believing that Trump is a messianic savior. Reality is what Trump says it is and it is there obligation to feed the masses with this grand illusion.

The problem is, illusions don’t pay for groceries or your medication. Lies don’t lower rent. Propaganda won’t keep fentanyl off the streets. And while Malliotakis and her colleagues prattle on about a fantasy world where Trump is accomplishing everything in record breaking time, Americans are left to deal with reality; the one where jobs are being stripped from government workers, gasoline and grocery prices have not gone down, our geopolitical allies are confused and angry with us and where the actual crises of the day require competent leadership, not fever dreams.

But that’s the thing about cults. They don’t deal in competence. They deal in belief. And Malliotakis, like the rest of her party, has made it clear: she’d rather sell snake oil than admit the truth. The question is, will Americans keep buying it?

(Kindly consider supporting this platform and all independent journalists here on Substack. Plus, the first 240 Founding Members to this platform receive a rare, signed, numbered edition of my NYT Bestseller “Revenge, How Donald Trump weaponized The US Department Of Justice Against His Critics.” Join now!)