By Gary Bennett
If there is one word that defines the Trump presidency, it would have to be ‘hoax.’ I’m not talking about his presidency itself. That has been all too real. I’m talking about all the wild, outlandish tricks and pranks that have been perpetrated on this poor man in just four short years.
The president, for his part, has not missed a chance to call our attention to a veritable smorgasbord of hoaxes that have befallen him. He has used this humble word to describe everything from the deadly dual poxes of climate change and coronavirus to Russian election meddling and Bountygate. Even when the damaging words come right from the president’s own mouth – Ukrainian phone call, disparaging war heroes, and grabbing female body parts – he has called on this once-obscure word to assure Americans that all is well except when his enemies are putting words in his mouth and disrespecting America.
But, why the word ‘hoax’? The president could have used longer or less dated words like conspiracy, scheme, ruse, or collusion (okay, that one’s been taken.) I believe Mr. Trump keeps returning to the word because it is simple, understandable, and even a little bit old-fashioned. Hoax is a derivation of the Latin word ‘hocus’ as in the fun phrase ‘hocus pocus’. Hocus refers to a conjurer or juggler. Hocus pocus refers to deceiving with a fabrication, lie, or misdirection. A close word cousin to hoax is ‘hokey’, which means lame, strange or odd. Knowing this, is it any wonder Mr. Trump is drawn to this word, subconsciously or otherwise?
Of course, none of the hoaxes I mentioned previously sound like much fun, and indeed they haven’t been; not to the intended target, POTUS himself, and certainly not to the American people who’ve had to incessantly ponder who would do such things to the leader of the free world, or more perplexingly, who has the time to think up these elaborate ruses.
It wasn’t always this way. Hoaxes used to conjure up feelings of fun and frivolity. Remember the classic one where college engineering students disassemble the dean’s car and reassemble it on top of the administration building? Or, how about the truly great Orson Welles War of the Worlds broadcast in the 1930s? After the hysteria died down, folks hailed this hoax as a masterpiece. Bigfoot? Crop circles? Jackalope? Loch Ness Monster? Paul is dead? All of these thoughtful hoaxes took time, planning, patience, and a certain genius to fool the media, crowds, and even the military. But when everything turned out to be harmless and entertaining, it was a thing of beauty. Coronavirus and Russian election meddling? Not so much.
But just like crying wolf, crying hoax can be too much of a good thing. According to Twitter and Factbase, Mr. Trump has publicly used the word over 600 times during his three and a half years as president. There is nothing else even remotely close. Not ‘policy’, ‘serve’, ‘protect’, or even ‘American people’. It’s almost a verbal tic at this point, predictably coming out of his mouth at the first sign of trouble.
But political scientists will invariably tell you that repetition of this word serves to portray Mr. Trump as a victim and an everyman victim at that. This has become a very effective part of his brand – an ‘us versus them’ mentality. It allows him to avoid explaining complicated issues by simply dismissing them out of hand, which is something Mr. Trump must do since he is demonstrably incapable of defending any challenge in a thoughtful and analytical way. The goal, of course, is to make himself the only credible authority, and it works like a charm with a sizable segment of America. For the rest of us, we’re left with that niggling, bothersome thought in the corner of our minds that perhaps there are no facts and nothing can be trusted. The president knows this all too well, and to the detriment of everything else, uses it to his advantage as no one before. After all, if nothing can be trusted, nothing can be changed. And if nothing can be changed, how can you change the president?
Always the butt of the joke, Mr. Trump nevertheless plies his hand at hoaxes, too. Unfortunately for him, but perhaps good for the country, he is not very good at it. In fact, he has a perfect losing record when it comes to hoaxes. Remember the oldies but goodies that Mr. Obama was born in Kenya and that Ted Cruz’s father assisted with the JFK assassination? To his credit, he keeps trying. Mail-in voting fraud, Harris’s ineligibility to run because of her Asian Indian roots, and wacky QAnon conspiracies are still on the front burner and simmering away.