Donald Trump has a reputation, among a not-insignificant portion of the American electorate, as someone who “tells it like it is.” This is particularly ironic not just because evidence abounds that Trump is especially dishonest even for a politician, but because his most outrageous “straight talk”-type comments are in fact almost always accompanied by extensively self-contradictory, dissembling nonsense babble. The candidate’s interview Thursday with conservative radio host Laura Ingraham was a classic example of the genre.
The context here is that Wednesday Donald Trump went to Mexico City and had a conversation with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. After the meeting, Trump said that he and Peña Nieto did not discuss Trump’s famous claim that Mexico is going to finance the famous border wall that Trump is going to build when/if he is elected president:
Who pays for the wall? We didn’t discuss. We did discuss the wall. We didn’t discuss payment of the wall. That’ll be for a later date.
Pretty straightforward. They talked about the stupid wall, but not who would pay for it. Except here’s what Peña Nieto tweeted right after Trump left:
It means “At the beginning of the conversation with Donald Trump I made it clear that Mexico will not pay for the wall,” which is also pretty straightforward.
So Trump went on Laura Ingraham’s radio show. She asked him why he claimed that he and Peña Nieto didn’t discuss who would pay for the wall. Trump responded by totally clearing up the confusion with a straight-shooting, tell-it-like-it-is explanation. Just kidding! He said whatever this is:
No, no, I didn’t say—I didn’t say that. No, no, I just saw it on television. Actually, I said, no, we did discuss the wall. And I actually said that and, you know, I guess it was a question that was asked. I said—they said, did you discuss the wall. I said we did discuss the wall. So the wall was basically discussed.
Wow—I hope you have your ticket, because the Straight Talk Express is about to leave the station and Donald Trump is driving it! “Actually, I said, no, we did discuss the wall. And I actually said that and, you know, I guess it was a question that was asked.”
And this is someone who many people consider to be unusually honest and direct! Al Gore must be spinning in the grave he never actually claimed to have invented.
