Source: The Bulwark
by John Avlon
“One of the tired old truisms of post-Watergate Washington is ‘It’s not the crime, it’s the coverup.’ In fact, usually it’s both — but this coverup reflects the cult-like insistence on unreality as a sign of tribal loyalty that flows down from President Donald Trump. Tone always comes from the top. Lies are the instinctive official defense from this administration. As Andrew Egger noted this week, ‘It’s all there in the three rules Trump learned from his mentor, Roy Cohn: always attack, always deny everything, always declare victory.’ At this point, those tactics have just become ‘a habit of mind’ — they’re second nature for Team Trump. So, when caught red-handed sharing classified information on a public messaging app, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth did what Trump would have done: lie loudly. Hegseth was hardly alone.” (03/30/25)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/signalgate-and-the-trumpian-reflex-to-lie-trump-hegseth-gabbard