Why Trump Is the Most Honest Man in Politics
Because sometimes bullshit is more revealing than spin.
Let's start with something everyone knows: Donald Trump is full of shit. He lies as easily as you and I breathe. Whether it's crowd sizes, poll numbers, election results, his wealth, his accomplishments – we can be sure he's dealing in fiction rather than fact. The Washington Post famously tracked more than 30,000 false or misleading claims during his presidency.
And yet, I want to propose something that might seem preposterous on the surface: Trump might be the most honest politician in the America.
Bear with me. This isn't about defending Trump or pretending his lies don't matter. It's about recognising a paradox that gets to the heart of what's broken in our politics.
The paradox of transparent dishonesty
Trump's lies are brash, loud and obvious. When he claims his inauguration had the biggest crowd ever, or that he won states he lost by hundreds of thousands of votes, these aren't sophisticated deceptions. They're the outbursts of a man who needs to be the biggest and the best at all times. The lies are so blatant that they reveal more truth about Trump's character than a psychiatric report ever could.
This is the paradox. Trump's inability to lie well makes him incapable of the more dangerous deceptions that define modern politics. He can't pretend to care about things he doesn't. He can't feign principles he lacks. He can't hide his narcissism behind a veil of public service. Every ugly impulse, every petty grievance, every transactional calculation spills out in real time.
Compare this to the carefully orchestrated performances of Clinton, Blair, or Trudeau, who smile warmly while outsourcing morality to a comms team. These are the kinds of politicians who have mastered the art of saying nothing with an earnest face, of changing positions while claiming consistency, and of serving special interests while preaching democracy.
Trump has no such mastery. He lacks the vocabulary and fluency to play this game of verbal chess. Instead, he says whatever comes to him at that moment, often changing policy mid-sentence.
The philosophy of bullshit
Harry Frankfurt's distinction between lying and bullshitting helps explain what we're seeing. A liar respects the truth enough to deliberately contradict it. A bullshitter doesn't care about truth at all. He says whatever serves his immediate purpose.
Trump is probably the purest bullshitter in world history. When he claims to have the best words, the best brain, the best everything, he's not trying to deceive you in any meaningful sense. He's bullshitting in the way a child insists the dog ate the homework.
This matters because bullshit, paradoxically, can be more honest than lies. A calculated lie conceals the liar's true intentions. Bullshit, especially Trump's boastful variety, exposes them. We see exactly what Trump wants (praise, power, revenge) because he can't help telling us, over and over.
The theatre of political authenticity
Barack Obama represented the pinnacle of political performance art. His speeches were masterclasses in rhetorical precision. Every pause calculated for effect, every gesture refined to an art form. He flattered the intelligence of his audience, making them feel sophisticated and virtuous.
Obama sold hope and change while delivering corporate continuity. He held a Nobel Peace Prize alongside drone strikes, and delivered soaring speeches alongside Wall Street bailouts. He was brilliant at making people feel good about policies that should have made them furious: record deportations, expanded surveillance, prosecuted whistleblowers, and drone warfare – all applauded by progressives who once marched against Bush for the same sins.
Trump offers the opposite. Here's a man so incapable of sophistication that he reveals the ugly machinery of power simply by operating it. When he appoints donors to cabinet positions, he doesn't pretend they're the most qualified. When he uses the presidency to promote his properties, he doesn't hide behind shell companies. When he wants to overturn an election, he just calls state officials and tells them to find votes.
His politics are openly transactional. Support me and I'll support you. Cross me and I'll destroy you. No principles, no ideology. Just raw exchange.
Despite his wealth, Trump has never adopted elite cultural markers. He still eats McDonald's, watches cable news all day, and plasters everything in gold. His tastes weren't formed at Ivy League dinner parties or marinated in the euphemisms of the coastal elite.
This cultural authenticity resonates with voters tired of politicians who discovered artisanal cheese after Yale. Trump's vulgarity is genuine. In a political culture that rewards the opposite, this marks him as authentic. People know what they're getting, even when they can see the bullshit. Because it's honest bullshit.
The digital age confessional
Trump's Twitter feed (and now Truth Social) is history's most complete record of a leader's unfiltered ego. At 3 AM, rage-watching Fox News, he'll tweet his indignation in real time – without the filter or strategy that would rein in any other national leader.
Most politicians use social media for careful messaging, often outsourcing to communications specialists. Trump uses it like a therapist's couch, if the patient had no interest in getting better and the therapist was millions of strangers.
This has given us unprecedented insight into a president's mental state. The knowledge is often horrifying, but it’s real.
Most politicians hide their ego behind false humility. Trump's narcissism is so pure, so beyond his control, that it achieves its own honesty. When he claims to be a "very stable genius," we're not seeing calculated messaging. We're seeing a narcissistic personality unable to stop itself from self-aggrandisement even when it's self-defeating.
This matters because narcissism, unlike ideology, can't be faked. You can pretend to believe in conservative or liberal principles. You can't pretend to have Trump's specific brand of comical self-regard. It's too exhausting, too obviously genuine.
In the end, Trump may be the only politician who shows us exactly what he is – not because he wants to, but because he can’t help himself. That doesn’t make him a good man. But it might make him the most knowable man in politics. And in an age of carefully choreographed dishonesty, that’s a kind of honesty no focus group can replicate.
Brilliant. Most people I know have a simple emotional rejection of Trump, with no analysis or political nuance or appreciation. This just gets him. It will be nice if we in the West end up with a new breed of politician, with the guts to be honestly themselves as well as honest with us, as a result of his influence - mixed blessing though he may be.
Better the devil you know, than the devils you don't know.
Trump has some rather large and obvious flaws, but he also has a genuine vision for the country he leads. Given every politician who has ever breathed has also been flawed to probably greater degrees than we have been privy to, I'll take one with vision and the guts to see it through over a more calculated liar any day of the week.
Great writing, again.