SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
An excerpt from George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984. (Photo: Jason Ilagan/Flickr/cc)
Trump Resorts to 'Pure 1984 Totalitarian Gaslighting,' Telling Supporters to Ignore News Coverage of His Policies
"What you see is true, it is happening, and it is getting worse every day."
Jul 25, 2018
Hours before President Donald Trump's former lawyer released an audio recording of Trump discussing a hush-money payment to a former Playboy model, the president uttered a phrase that critics said seemed ripped from the pages of George Orwell's classic dystopian novel 1984.
"It's all working out," Trump told a gathering of Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) in Kansas City, Missouri. "Just remember: What you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening."
Journalists and observers immediately drew comparisons to a line from Orwell's book, which reads, "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."
The remark was made as the president promoted his plan to hit China with new tariffs in an address that took on the form of a campaign speech. Trump's escalating trade war has resulted in rising costs for some products that farmers rely on, as China has responded to Trump's first round of tariffs introduced earlier this month.
"Don't believe the crap you hear from these people--the fake news," he said of reports of the negative impact of his trade policy.
It was just Trump's latest attack on the news media, which he has denounced as "really bad people" and "dishonest" and whose licenses he threatened to revoke last year, complaining of the news media's negative coverage of his presidency, including Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into his 2016 campaign's contacts with Russia.
In addition to negative coverage of his tariff proposals, whose impact he attempted to offset on Tuesday with $12 billion in emergency relief for farmers--a move that was dismissed by trade groups as "a short-term attempt at masking the long-term damage caused by tariffs"--Trump is facing new questions over the tape his former attorney, Michael Cohen, released on Wednesday.
The president is heard apparently asking Cohen how much money is available to transfer to Karen McDougal, a former model who claims to have had an affair with Trump, in exchange for her story.
The tape was recorded during the 2016 campaign, offering new evidence that the president may have violated campaign finance laws.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Hours before President Donald Trump's former lawyer released an audio recording of Trump discussing a hush-money payment to a former Playboy model, the president uttered a phrase that critics said seemed ripped from the pages of George Orwell's classic dystopian novel 1984.
"It's all working out," Trump told a gathering of Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) in Kansas City, Missouri. "Just remember: What you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening."
Journalists and observers immediately drew comparisons to a line from Orwell's book, which reads, "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."
The remark was made as the president promoted his plan to hit China with new tariffs in an address that took on the form of a campaign speech. Trump's escalating trade war has resulted in rising costs for some products that farmers rely on, as China has responded to Trump's first round of tariffs introduced earlier this month.
"Don't believe the crap you hear from these people--the fake news," he said of reports of the negative impact of his trade policy.
It was just Trump's latest attack on the news media, which he has denounced as "really bad people" and "dishonest" and whose licenses he threatened to revoke last year, complaining of the news media's negative coverage of his presidency, including Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into his 2016 campaign's contacts with Russia.
In addition to negative coverage of his tariff proposals, whose impact he attempted to offset on Tuesday with $12 billion in emergency relief for farmers--a move that was dismissed by trade groups as "a short-term attempt at masking the long-term damage caused by tariffs"--Trump is facing new questions over the tape his former attorney, Michael Cohen, released on Wednesday.
The president is heard apparently asking Cohen how much money is available to transfer to Karen McDougal, a former model who claims to have had an affair with Trump, in exchange for her story.
The tape was recorded during the 2016 campaign, offering new evidence that the president may have violated campaign finance laws.
Hours before President Donald Trump's former lawyer released an audio recording of Trump discussing a hush-money payment to a former Playboy model, the president uttered a phrase that critics said seemed ripped from the pages of George Orwell's classic dystopian novel 1984.
"It's all working out," Trump told a gathering of Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) in Kansas City, Missouri. "Just remember: What you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening."
Journalists and observers immediately drew comparisons to a line from Orwell's book, which reads, "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."
The remark was made as the president promoted his plan to hit China with new tariffs in an address that took on the form of a campaign speech. Trump's escalating trade war has resulted in rising costs for some products that farmers rely on, as China has responded to Trump's first round of tariffs introduced earlier this month.
"Don't believe the crap you hear from these people--the fake news," he said of reports of the negative impact of his trade policy.
It was just Trump's latest attack on the news media, which he has denounced as "really bad people" and "dishonest" and whose licenses he threatened to revoke last year, complaining of the news media's negative coverage of his presidency, including Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into his 2016 campaign's contacts with Russia.
In addition to negative coverage of his tariff proposals, whose impact he attempted to offset on Tuesday with $12 billion in emergency relief for farmers--a move that was dismissed by trade groups as "a short-term attempt at masking the long-term damage caused by tariffs"--Trump is facing new questions over the tape his former attorney, Michael Cohen, released on Wednesday.
The president is heard apparently asking Cohen how much money is available to transfer to Karen McDougal, a former model who claims to have had an affair with Trump, in exchange for her story.
The tape was recorded during the 2016 campaign, offering new evidence that the president may have violated campaign finance laws.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.