\n<\/p>\n
What happens when a presidential administration with no fidelity to facts or the truth prepares for a possible entry into another Middle East war?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Americans may be about to find out, with reality-game-show-host-turned-president Donald Trump claiming he wants a \u201cdeal\u201d with Iran to end its nuclear weapons programme while simultaneously helping Israel mount a major attack on the country and accepting Israel\u2019s claim that Iran was aggressively pursuing a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t care what she said,\u201d Trump told reporters on his flight back to Washington on Tuesday, when asked why his own top intelligence official, Tulsi Gabbard, had recently told Congress the exact opposite. \u201cI think they were very close to having one.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Whether Director of National Intelligence Gabbard\u2019s testimony<\/a> in March was accurate is also unclear.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gabbard last month fired<\/a> two intelligence officials after the leak of a report finding that the Venezuelan government was not directing the actions of the criminal gang Tren de Aragua in the United States, contrary to assertions made by Trump\u2019s White House.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n On Tuesday, Gabbard, who built her career in Democratic politics on her opposition to the Iraq War prior to her pro-Trump conversion, told reporters that she and Trump are actually in full agreement. \u201cPresident Trump was saying the same thing that I said in my annual threat assessment back in March. Unfortunately too many people in the media don\u2019t care to actually read what I said,\u201d she told<\/a> CNN during a visit to the Capitol.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n An ODNI official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Gabbard continues to work with Trump. \u201cThe DNI has been working closely with President Trump, [Vice President JD] Vance, Secretary [of state Marco] Rubio and the entire national security team actively providing intelligence updates,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Other Trump political appointees, both public-facing and in managerial roles, got their jobs because they were willing to spread or at least go along with Trump\u2019s most consequential lie to date: that the 2020 presidential election was \u201crigged\u201d against him and \u201cstolen\u201d by Democrats.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n So as US military personnel face the possibility of being placed in harm\u2019s way, how can their families and Americans generally have confidence that they are getting accurate information?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think they can,\u201d said Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University and a longtime critic of Trump\u2019s casual dishonesty and the unwillingness of many journalists to confront it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Trump himself is a prodigious and near-daily liar, on topics as important as the integrity of the 2020 election to as trivial as the size of his rally crowds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And his demand that everyone who works for him in top administration jobs spread his falsehoods, and especially his 2020 election lie, has left him with staff with little or no credibility.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Communications director Steven Cheung, for example, is best known for childish, pro-wrestling style insults of journalists<\/a>. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt cheerfully repeats Trump\u2019s easily disproven falsehoods \u2014 that tariffs are paid by foreign countries; that the US under predecessor Joe Biden had been sending $50 million in condoms to Gaza \u2014 from the briefing room lectern.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And deputy communications director Alex Pfeiffer was a producer for then-Fox News host and conspiracy theorist Tucker Carlson, including for the period that generated a three-part documentary claiming that the FBI had incited the January 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol. \u201cPatriot Purge\u201d was so outlandish that Fox would not run it on the cable network and instead consigned it to its streaming service.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Cheung, Leavitt and Pfeiffer did not respond to HuffPost queries for this story.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Their boss, meanwhile, continued posting statements about Iran that contradict previous statements from just days earlier.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe remain committed to a Diplomatic Resolution to the Iran Nuclear Issue! My entire Administration has been directed to negotiate with Iran,\u201d he wrote<\/a> in a social media post on Thursday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal. I told them, in the strongest of words, to \u2018just do it,\u2019 but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn\u2019t get it done,\u201d he wrote<\/a> on Friday, after Israel had started its attack.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n On Sunday, after another round of Israeli air strikes, he wrote: \u201cThe US had nothing to do with the attack on Iran, tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n