President Donald Trump and key members of his cabinet must stop their prolific and pernicious lying or risk being unable to govern as a crisis develops over the administration’s ICE raids and mass deportations.
Trump has long and widely been outed as a profuse and provable liar, nearly building a brand from his endless and often ludicrous deceptions. Whether it’s pressing the “big lie” about his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential race, or his golf prowess, Trump’s deceits have long undermined his credibility on public statements on everything.
But the sheer absence of veracity of top White House appointees and advisors involved in Trump’s calamitous mass-deportation scheme is creating extreme danger for millions of Americans, and the nation itself.
Controversy over the recent shooting deaths of Americans in Minneapolis by federal immigration agents has resulted in clearly provable lies and distortions by officials like Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and even White House communications officials.
Noem’s recent lies go far beyond her recent description of Minneapolis protester Renee Good as a “domestic terrorist,” after the woman was shot in the face behind the wheel of her car by a federal agent.
It’s absolutely arguable that Good went far beyond peaceful protesting Jan. 7 when she intertwined herself with ICE agents in her car, but Noem’s false mischaracterization of Good, and the event, would undermine the credibility of a top White House official even if she didn’t have her reputation of being a prolific liar.
Last month during a congressional hearing, Noem, under oath, lied about whether her agency had deported military veterans or U.S. citizens. At the time Rep. Seth Moulten. D-Mass., provided a letter signed by Noem herself, confirming eight American veterans had been deported. Confirmed and repeated reports also undermined Noem’s lie that U.S. citizens had not been mistakenly snagged in ICE raids, when in fact more than 170 citizens had been arrested as of last year.
Noem came to the Trump administration secretary job with a long history of lies and deceptions as governor of South Dakota.
She was outed lying in her 2024 autobiography about a supposed meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. French officials outed her claim as prevarication.
She was caught lying about diverting $80,000 from a non-profit fund into her personal Delaware LLC, Ashwood Strategies,”in 2023, according to numerous media accounts of the scandal.
She was caught lying about improperly trying to pressure South Dakota state officials into giving her daughter a real estate license, another scandal widely reported in numerous media.
But her most recent prevarication has generated not just scandals, but real, deadly, danger for the nation.
First off, Noem claims that platoons of federal agents dropped into Minneapolis were acting under orders only of “targeted enforcement” in seeking out illegal immigrants. Reports across dozens of media, including far-right media, have made it clear ICE agents and others are demanding documentation of random and arbitrary people they encounter.
She immediately, after the ICE-agent shooting of protester Renee Good, said that the shooting was in self-defense, which at best remains unproven, and numerous credible analyses of the evidence and video recordings clearly counter that assumption.
She lied again Saturday in claiming that Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretti was shot dead by federal agents after brandishing a gun during a confrontation between ICE agents and protesters.
Even video released nearly minutes after the shooting clearly showed that Pretti was “brandishing” only a cell phone. Video analysis over the day revealed agents kicking and beating Pretti on the ground, and one agent removing a concealed 9 mm handgun from Pretti’s waistband seconds before another agent shot Pretti numerous times while he was face down.
Other White House officials continue to promote their lies, even after irrefutable evidence reveals their deceits.
In Davos, Switzerland, earlier this week, Trump, wreaking chaos with his obsession to take over Greenland, clearly on live and recorded broadcasts mistakenly referred to Greenland as Iceland, several times.
But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt lied on social media that Trump didn’t say what the entire planet clearly, and repeatedly heard him say.
Just this week, the White House broadcast and promoted a false, doctored video of the arrest of a civil rights attorney arrested during the disruption of a church service in Minnesota last week.
“On its official X page, the White House shared an image of Nekima Levy Armstrong that showed her in tears, with her arms behind her back, standing in front of someone wearing a badge around their neck,” the Associated Press reported. “The problem? Levy Armstrong wasn’t actually crying. The image was manipulated to make the moment more dramatic than it actually was.”
When confronted about the falsification, the White House dismissed the claims, and the post still exists.
Allegations that ICE, Border Security and other federal agents are marauding, incompetent and savagely violent thugs under the control of Noem raise are harrowing.
They must be credibly addressed, and either dispelled or rectified.
Noem’s devastated credibility makes it impossible for her to be accountable for changes or offer believable explanations.
At this point, the nation critically needs to know the facts about the ICE actions and citizen deaths, and it clearly can’t get that from Noem or her agency.
Noem should immediately resign, or Trump should immediately fire her.
The Trump administration can’t at this point present any credible defense of what they and their mock-military forces are doing across the United States.
Follow @EditorDavePerry on BlueSky, Threads, Mastodon, Twitter and Facebook or reach him at 303-750-7555 or dperry@SentinelColorado.com
Some of the criticisms made against the Trump administration may very well be valid, but they pale in comparison to the leaders of the Democrat party inciting the mob to insurrection against our government. Is this how you handle losing an election? And you accused Trump of being a threat to democracy. Apparently mob rule is ok and long as it is your mob.
You miss the truth here: the Trump administration is a “mob”, as in the organized crime sense.
Otherwise, it certainly is hard to see on what thin reed you base your argument. The attempted insurrection was committed by angry Trumpalos who didn’t like the 2020 election results. The people assaulting law enforcement were Trump supporters, not Democrats. And Trump watched it
all on TV.
The rioters who pled guilty were Trump’s thugs, not Democrats.
An insurrection is defined as a violent uprising against an authority or government. Walz and Frey have encouraged supporters to confront or interfere with Federal agents enforcing immigration laws passed by Democrats and Republicans in Congress by calling them Nazis and invaders. It is the job of metro police to control crowds physically interfering and attacking Federal officers. They have instructed their police to ignore these assaults and refuse to intervene. They are thereby encouraging, supporting and fomenting insurrection.
Trump and all of his Mini-Mes on his cabinet are identical! The MAGA nation is now identical. I see it here in the comments almost daily. Lying audaciously has become the Republican norm under the Trump banner. In fact, that’s all they do well! They certainly can’t govern. Leaders are supposed to set the tone. Responsible leaders try to set an honest tone, while at the same time seek out opinions that vary from their own, so they hear the facts, learn from opposing views, and can find the best solution. The Trump machine does none of that. It’s “seat of your pants” decisions based on pure bar stool politics. Once a decision is made, the lie machine goes into high gear with the president starting the falsehood, the cabinet nodding in unison, congressional lackies like Gym Jordan and Lindsay Graham pick it up, and then Fox Propaganda, Inc. spreads it to the Trump faithful. They spout it out in places like the Sentinel comments without regard for real information! It must be disheartening for real journalists to see this callous disregard for honesty and real facts. It is the responsibility of citizens to seek out articles from sources that are dedicated to reporting the facts and correcting mistakes in print. Fox admitted in the trial they lost and had to pay $700,000+, that they ARE NOT a news outlet, they are in fact an entertainment venue. That’s enough for me – I’m certainly not relying on Fox for anything, including local news – nothing! My hope is that somehow we find our way back to valuing honesty as our north star. That’s the way to make America Great Again!
So you support open borders, cartels, foreign criminals roaming around and thought Kamala Harris would be an effective president. Suddenly truth and leadership is important to you but wasn’t previously.
Mikey and his mayo allies finding out that “white privilege” isn’t actually a bullet-proof vest while belching out 2005-era copium.
Please provide your evidence that the Democratic Party incited anyone inciting a “mob” to “insurrection”?
That was the Trumpalos. Democrats weren’t the losers, if you check your history. Democrats didn’t storm the Capitol.
Trump’s mob did.
Hilarious that you have to put words in my mouth, Jeffy-poo. I never said that. But I realize you’re malding out because you think your white skin might not get you a free pass anymore.
And just as reminder, your side bombed the building. Twice. So you vermin have no fingers to wag there, either. But that’s okay, I realize you think those acts were actually good things in the service of your moronic political theology.
Is it really worse than the lies and hard left deceptions posted by the Sentinel? The hard part these days is finding the unbiased truth in posts. These networks lean left, these networks lean right, is this one AI? People aren’t stupid, we don’t need the opinion news outlets to tell us what to think, people can draw their own conclusions. I would ask you to report the news but that might require you to be investigative journalists instead of whatever it is you’ve become.