My Net feeds this morning are full of memes and comments about President Trump’s weigh-in for his legal troubles. There is a lot of discussion about the, ahem, accuracy of the information. If you haven’t seen, Trump’s official booking information is 6’3’’, 215 lbs, with strawberry blond hair. Not bad for a near-octogenarian.
I think we can put aside the ridiculous of the claim. Far be it from me to mock a person for heftiness; I haven’t seen 215 since before digital scales. But I think we can all agree that it’s pretty obviously untrue. (The over-under for BetOnline was 278, with commentators saying “there’s no way he’s under 3 bills. This is the easiest bet ever.”) This isn’t a case of shaving off 10-20 pounds for vanity’s sake; this is like dropping a third of your body weight.
But here’s the bigger problem: we know he’s lying. It’s clear. Which lives us with three options:
- Trump doesn’t know he’s lying and actually thinks he’s in the same shape as a college QB
- He knows he’s lying, but he’s doing it to mock what he considers a sham indictment
- He knows he’s lying, but doesn’t care or thinks others will believe him
So, #2 first. I get that people WANT to believe this is what’s going on. It makes Trump look like a subversive rebel, standing up to a powerful system. Bring on the 4-D chess motif. But this doesn’t stand up, because he didn’t just lie to Georgia law enforcement. To my understanding, the “215” comes from his driver’s license, which means it didn’t just start this week. I suppose it’s possible to argue that when he got his license he WAS 215, but I think we can all agree regardless of when the license was issued, he was not 215 then either, unless it was 1982. This is an ongoing lie, not a secret political message.
For #1, this is fairly concerning. To be that removed from reality would be a largish red flag, I would think. I mean, we all sometimes think we’re in better shape than we are, or we think “I’ll get back to that weight someday.” But we don’t honestly think we actually ARE in that kind of shape right now. If Trump does, I think we should be looking at commitment to a facility, not a campaign tour.
#3 is what I think is going on. So the question is, WHY would Trump lie about it? And I think the answer is pretty clear; his public perception is the main focus of his life. What people “think” is more important than what is. Trump has confirmed this himself, claiming that his wealth is tied to the public perception of his name, and can vary widely (like, by billion of dollars) depending on the day and how he “feels.” (I have no idea how that affects it, but I’ll take his word for it.)
And this is the big issue for me – this is a pretty blatant lie. It’s not like anyone who takes 2 seconds to look at what an actual 6’3’’ 215 pound man looks like could possibly be fooled. It’s not even close. So why lie about it? Why not lie and go with 275 or 250? I mean, we might question it, but it’s at least plausible. So why go all in on a clear falsehood?
Story time:
When I was a teacher, we had a middle school student who was known for being less than honest. One day, they made an accusation against a teacher, saying that the teacher “pushed me down the stairs.” While I’ll admit I may have entertained such thoughts about certain students on occasion, this other teacher was more betterer than me. I wasn’t on the discipline end of school administration, but I happened to be around for the office meeting, for reasons that will become obvious.
Student: Mr. Teach pushed me down the stairs
Office: Pushed you down? So you fell down?
S: Yeah, like the flight of stairs in the back hall.
O: So like 15 steps? Are you hurt?
S: No, I’m really athletic so I caught myself. So I don’t have any bruises or anything.
O: I see. Did anyone else see?
S: No, Just us.
O: You know, some other students were out in the hall at the time, and none of them saw or heard anything
S: They’re probably lying because the teacher threatened to fail them.
O: Ok. I think we should call you parents in on this. (typical office pressure so a student reconsiders)
S: Yep. Call them. That’s what happened.
O: Do you know we have video cameras covering every hall and stairway in school? (again, chance to back down)
S: Not this one. It’s the back one. There’s no camera. It’s just my word against theirs.
O: Actually there is a camera, because we just had more installed. (this is actually why I was around, as a tech person and they wanted to confirm it was working). Should we look at the video?
S: Yep. (no hesitation now that physical proof is available)
O: You want to go into the office, bring up the recording to the right time, and we’ll all sit and watch it together, with your parents?
S: Yep, that’s what happened.
[After watching video. With of course nothing on it. ]
S: what I meant is that what it felt like when they gave me a bad grade. Like I was falling down stairs.
End Story
Do you see the issue here? It’s not just the lying, which I can understand. Lying to get out of trouble, lying maybe to get back at someone, lying to make yourself look good. I don’t condone it of course, but I understand.
But to keep pushing the lie, when you know there’s evidence that you’re lying, and to maintain it even after you have been shown to be lying, is an issue I don’t really understand. Why not just say “yes, I lied about that, I’m sorry.” (and yes, I’ve been in this situation.) Then you deal with the consequences, and move on. This is my concern with Trump. He lies, knows he is lying, and even when caught, either starts talking about something else or just maintains that the lie is really true.
WHO CARES IF HE LIES ABOUT HIS WEIGHT?
As Christians, we believe in the idea that “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” If Trump is so dishonest with such an obvious little thing (and I would argue, many many little things), can we trust him for big things? More to the point, should Christians be supporting a person like that to be a national leader? (and yes, I know people will say that all politicians are dishonest, but I think there’s a qualitative difference here, and even if not, that doesn’t equal the support I see for Trump).
I’m not arguing that we should expect perfection from our politicians, and I’m not even arguing that the weight issue is THAT big of a deal. What I’m saying is that it’s such an obvious lie, and he maintains it so completely and continuously, I think we should all see that as a dangerous indication of his relationship to truth and integrity.
If we as Christians are going to maintain that Truth matters, that Jesus is the epitome of reality (the Logos, if you will), and that lies have a different father, what sort of leader should we support? Shouldn’t we demand that they at least have some semblance of honesty? That they not lie in things big and small, consistently? That they either a) admit reality, or b) treat the rest of us with the respect of the truth?
Shouldn’t we expect more from our leaders than we expect from a middle schooler?