The infallible president

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” — George Orwell, 1984

Have you ever made a mistake? (I have made many.)

Have you said something publicly that was wrong? (I sure did.)

Did you have to admit that you were wrong? (I did.)

Each of must have this painful experience in our lives. But once you realize that you can be wrong and still have self-respect, you can learn and move forward. It’s healthy. And when you get to be the advanced age that I am, that ability to keep learning turns out to be the only thing that still makes life interesting.

How not be wrong

Do you remember this?

Donald Trump made the inaccurate statement that Hurricane Dorian threatened Alabama, at odds with the predictions of the National Weather Service. Then he obviously doctored the graphic with a sharpie. And then he refused to admit he had been wrong in the first place.

Now it’s happened again. This is a President Trump holding up a photo of the knuckles of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported to a prison in El Salvador despite a court order specifying that El Salvador was the one place he could not be sent to. He posted this on X.

Here’s the knuckle photo close up.

To anyone with a modicum of judgment, it’s absolutely clear that the characters “MS13” are not part of the tattoo. You can argue about whether the symbols are code for “MS13,” but everything from the font to the color to the placement of the characters should tell you that the letters were added to the photo later. (If you’re still not sure, examine these recent photos taken in El Salvador that show the knuckles but not the letters “MS13” .)

The most likely explanation is that somebody gave Trump a photo with the characters added to clarify the hypothesis about what the symbols stand for. But in an interview with Terry Moran of ABC News, he attempted to defend his belief that the letters were actually on Garcia’s knuckles. Here’s a bit of the transcript from that interview (I edited out some conversational pauses, but this is exactly what Trump and Moran said):

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: [Moran] said he’d — wasn’t a member of a gang. And then they looked, and — On his knuckles — he had MS-13 —

TERRY MORAN: Alright. There’s a dispute over that —

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, wait a minute. Wait a minute. He had MS-13 — on his knuckles tattooed.

TERRY MORAN: It didn’t say — oh, he had some tattoos that are interpreted that way. But let’s move on

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Wait a minute. Hey, Terry. Terry. Terry.

TERRY MORAN: He — he did not have the letter —

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Don’t do that — M-S-1-3 — It says M-S-one-three.

TERRY MORAN: I — that was Photoshop. So let me just–

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: That was Photoshop? Terry, you can’t do that — he had —- he– hey, they’re givin’ you the big break of a lifetime. You know, you’re doin’ the interview. I picked you because — frankly I never heard of you, but that’s okay —

TERRY MORAN: This — I knew this would come —

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: But I picked you — Terry — but you’re not being very nice. He had MS-13 tattooed —

TERRY MORAN: Alright. Alright. We’ll agree to disagree. I want to move on — to something else.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Terry. Do you want me to show the picture?

TERRY MORAN: I saw the picture. We’ll — we’ll — we’ll agree to disagree —

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Oh, and you think it was Photoshop. Well —

TERRY MORAN: Here we go. Here we go.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: — don’t Photoshop it. Go look —

TERRY MORAN: Alright.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: — at his hand. He had MS-13 —

TERRY MORAN: Fair enough, he did have tattoos that can be interpreted that way. I’m not an expert on them.

I want to turn to Ukraine, sir —

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: No, no. Terry —

TERRY MORAN: I– I want to get to Ukraine–

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Terry, no, no. No, no. He had MS as clear as you can be. Not “interpreted.” This is why people — no longer believe — the news, because it’s fake news —

TERRY MORAN: When he was photographed in El Salvador, they aren’t there. But let’s just go on —

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: He is —

TERRY MORAN: They aren’t there when he’s in El Salvador.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: –there — oh, oh, they weren’t there —

TERRY MORAN: Take a look at the photograph —

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: But they’re there now, right?

TERRY MORAN: No. What —

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: But they’re there now?

TERRY MORAN: They’re in your picture.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Terry.

TERRY MORAN: Ukraine, sir.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: He’s got MS-13 on his knuckles. . . . Why don’t you just say, “Yes, he does,” and, you know, go on to something else —

It’s SharpieGate all over again. Having made an obvious error that’s clear on its face to absolutely anyone with the slightest discernment, Trump refuses to admit his error and insists that everyone around him must agree before he can move on to another topic.

There is so much wrong here

In fact, whether Garcia is a gang member is not what the judge who insisted he must come back is ruling on; the judge’s ruling just says that according to the Fifth Amendment, like anyone else, citizen or not, he deserves due process to contest the accusations against him.

But I’m not here to write about that.

I’m just wondering about the mental state of someone who never, under any circumstances, admits a mistake. As is clear federal actions ranging from on-again-off-again tariffs to revoking the visas of foreign students, this administration often makes choices that need to be reversed.

But it never admits a mistake. And Trump himself never admits a mistake.

No wonder he said he should be the next pope. He’s clearly infallible.

If you know someone who thinks they are infallible, do not count on them to make important decisions, because they have proven they are not capable of learning from their mistakes.

This applies to people you are developing a romantic relationship with.

It applies to people you work with.

And it applies to people who you’ve put in power to govern the country.