# Does Trump believe the things he says? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [December 21, 2025, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-trump-believe-the-things-he-says/1025926 "2025-12-21T21:08:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-trump-believe-the-things-he-says/1025926/41 "2025-12-22T19:47:38Z")
Their carears, such as they are, will be ruined. And they will never see a dime from their dear leader. Oh, I guess they could just spout more lies on FOX. They’re morons just like him. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-trump-believe-the-things-he-says/1025926/42 "2025-12-22T20:02:10Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Just a few of the many, many things he’s said lately that fall into the second category: > > - Snakes in Peru kill 28,000 people a year (there were 10 deaths **from snake bite** in a 15 year period). Yeah, but how many from being swallowed whole? Gotta be 420,000 at least. ETA: /s ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-trump-believe-the-things-he-says/1025926/43 "2025-12-22T20:03:44Z")
Well, you can feed Trump any bullshit you want. And he will believe you. Until someone else feeds him other bullshit and lies. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-trump-believe-the-things-he-says/1025926/44 "2025-12-22T20:10:41Z")
Yep. Like they used to say of Dan Quayle: a victim of his last conversation. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2025, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-trump-believe-the-things-he-says/1025926/45 "2025-12-22T20:47:06Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I was just thinking the same thing. Basically exactly how Tywin Lannister describes his son Tyrion in GOT (I don’t know if the term pre-dates his usage on the show). It’s _much_ older. I can’t find a cite as to how old, but I did find an example of it being used in _Tom Sawyer_, published in 1876. > Like many other simple-hearted souls, it was her pet vanity to believe she was endowed with a talent for dark and mysterious diplomacy, and she loved to contemplate her most transparent devices as marvels of low cunning. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-trump-believe-the-things-he-says/1025926/46 "2025-12-23T00:12:59Z")
I think you are conflating covering things up because the truth would be a problem with covering things up because he knows what he said earlier was a lie. ---
**Author:** ![illoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a3d4f5/32.png) [@illoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/illoe)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-trump-believe-the-things-he-says/1025926/47 "2025-12-23T00:24:14Z")
“Even a potato in a dark cellar has a certain low cunning” - Samuel Butler, maybe? early 1870s “[Trump] looks like a pile of burnt potatoes” -my grade-school daughter, late 2010s ---
**Author:** ![peedin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peedin/32/14095_2.png) [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-trump-believe-the-things-he-says/1025926/48 "2025-12-23T00:29:00Z")
My brother opened 4 credit cards in my mother’s name and charged $40k. He truly believed he was going to pay the charges (with my mother’s bank account). He truly believed he did nothing wrong. He was a sociopath. As is the FOTUS. FOTUS believes everything he says. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-trump-believe-the-things-he-says/1025926/49 "2025-12-23T01:35:59Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > I think you are conflating covering things up because the truth would be a problem with covering things up because he knows what he said earlier was a lie. I believe Trump is fully aware he’s lying. He isn’t a very good liar nor is he smart enough to keep all his lies straight. But to be fair, why would he need to keep his lies straight? America didn’t see fit to hold him accountable for any of them. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-trump-believe-the-things-he-says/1025926/50 "2025-12-23T16:20:05Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > > [@msmith537](#): > > > > Trump is a businessman > > And I’m the Wizard of Oz. > > Thanks for the laugh. He’s a man who works in the business world. It’s not exactly a high bar. My point is that there are a lot of people who work in the business world who don’t really care about “the truth”. Salespeople, marketers, advertisers, lawyers, recruiters, consultants, middle managers and executives. Most of these people aren’t scientists, engineers, or academics where there are real consequences for making stuff up. They are people trying to craft a convincing story to get a moron to buy their product or increase their budget. And everyone is content to go along with it so long as they get paid. Trump is an incurious 80 year old man who spent his entire life surrounded by wealth, running businesses that mostly promote the Trump brand. His idea of what is “truth” has probably always been whatever he thinks it is or wants it to be and anything contradictory to that is a threat. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-trump-believe-the-things-he-says/1025926/51 "2025-12-23T17:51:59Z")
So Al Capone was a business man too. Got it. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-trump-believe-the-things-he-says/1025926/52 "2025-12-23T18:02:01Z")
trump: you can go further with a kind word and a threat of invasion than you can with just a kind word. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-trump-believe-the-things-he-says/1025926/53 "2025-12-23T19:36:09Z")
Trump occasionally references Capone and could easily emulate him. Al was a syphilitic criminal who spent his last days at his estate in Florida. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-trump-believe-the-things-he-says/1025926/54 "2025-12-23T19:44:00Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Their carears, such as they are, will be ruined. And they will never see a dime from their dear leader. That’s what the grift is for. Homan was already making bank off of bribes before Trump was even in office for the second time. Make your bank now, then live off the proceeds once it all falls apart. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-trump-believe-the-things-he-says/1025926/55 "2025-12-23T20:47:32Z")
That’s my thinking too. He just says shit that people tell him or that sounds good to him. Combine that with having grown up in an enviroment where he was insulated from consequences, being singularly uninquisitive and surrounded by toadies and sycophants, and you have a recipe for someone who says outrageously nonsensical stuff, and nobody calls him on it. Nonsense like the Trump battleships he “announced” yesterday. There’s no naval rationale for a 40,000 ton ship in today’s navy and Congress is unlikely to actually fund such a boondoggle, but nobody’s willing to actually come out and say “You are SO full of shit.” publicly, so he gets away with it. Personally I’d love it if the news media would stop their relentless neutrality and do stuff like point out that there’s no need for a 40,000 ton ship, it’s unlikely that Congress could actually pull together to fund such nonsense, and that the President is spewing hot air. It’s like they’re so afraid of being accused of bias, that they take nonsense like this and treat it with a lot more respect than it deserves. The problem is that a big chunk of the country isn’t informed well enough to know that it’s nonsense, or that the President should know better. And it’s THEIR job to inform them. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-trump-believe-the-things-he-says/1025926/56 "2025-12-23T21:01:04Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > He does not know what truth is. Never had any idea his entire life. He is truely that broken. I suspect that it’s this. I think he really has no concept of objective truth, and thinks that whatever’s insisted upon loudly enough by someone who’s rich enough will somehow be the truth. And yes, this has actually usually worked for him throughout his life. > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > tend to disagree. Feral cunning, to me, implies a wild animal that needs to outsmart other animals in order to survive. As I wrote above, I don’t feel Trump has ever felt that kind of pressure. Possibly in his childhood, with the threat coming from inside his family. > [@Princhester](#): > > > [@Odesio](#): > > > > Trump wouldn’t go through so much effort to hide the truth if he didn’t know he was lying. > > Does he though really? Many of his lies are blatant and obvious. Yeah. He contradicts himself in the same speech. He denies having said things he’s clearly on record as saying. And he just expects to be believed. And often, for all practical purposes, it works. Just as if there were no such thing as truth. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-trump-believe-the-things-he-says/1025926/57 "2025-12-23T21:01:37Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Personally I’d love it if the news media would stop their relentless neutrality and do stuff like point out that there’s no need for a 40,000 ton ship, it’s unlikely that Congress could actually pull together to fund such nonsense, and that the President is spewing hot air. > > It’s like they’re so afraid of being accused of bias, that they take nonsense like this and treat it with a lot more respect than it deserves. The news media is overwhelmingly controlled by wealthy right wing people and organizations. So regardless of their personal feelings reporters won’t call Trump out on his nonsense because they are under orders not to. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-trump-believe-the-things-he-says/1025926/58 "2025-12-23T21:39:18Z")
These MAGAs don’t understand that facts are not subjective to how they feel. They are welcome to their own opinions, but not their own facts. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-trump-believe-the-things-he-says/1025926/59 "2025-12-23T22:06:00Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Nonsense like the Trump battleships he “announced” yesterday. There’s no naval rationale for a 40,000 ton ship in today’s navy True enough. I’m pretty sure that having his name attached to anything is just another form of the fake “FIFA peace medal”. He sees it as a validation of his human worth, along with all the gold doodads and his desperate and constant belittling of everyone who won’t acknowledge his greatness. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2025, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-trump-believe-the-things-he-says/1025926/60 "2025-12-23T22:31:15Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > He sees it as a validation of his human worth He doesn’t see himself as a human. I don’t really either to be honest with you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-trump-believe-the-things-he-says/1025926.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-trump-believe-the-things-he-says/1025926.md?page=4)