From Fake News to True Values

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

Last week, two events transpired that proved that much of what we have been fed by the media is not only wrong, but a lie.

Donald Trump coined the term “fake news” during his first presidential campaign in 2016. Most people laughed when they initially heard him refer to the media in this way, while others considered him arrogant and insolent for doing so. But if you followed the most recent election campaign, you know how accurate he was back then—and how, if anything, the situation has worsened.

When the Covid pandemic ended, it became clear that they had lied about almost everything related to the disease, from its origin to how to control and treat it. The government and Democrat politicians imposed fictitious measures on the public, claiming that they were dictated by science as prescribed by their expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci. These measures were fabricated by the conceited doctor and forced upon the people. The media was right there, riding shotgun, selling the lies, and castigating and canceling anyone who refused to comply.

Stories alleging that President Trump was “in cahoots with the Russians” began during his first presidential campaign and persist even today. This was a charge that Democrats and the media drove home incessantly along with similar charges that he solicited foreign interference in the presidential election. A much-hyped investigation found no proof that he involved Russia. In fact, the story was a fictitious tale concocted by his campaign opponent Hillary Clinton and her team. Following one-sided congressional investigations, he was impeached twice—both times based on lies propagated by Democrats and the fake news media.

Joe Biden claimed that he was compelled to come out of retirement and run for president after hearing then-President Trump praise Nazis and white supremacists who were marching in Charlottesville, Virginia. This claim, still repeated by him, other Democrats, and the media, has been proven false. Trump never said anything like that.

And so it has been for Trump ever since he announced his presidential run eight years ago.

He is not the first person to seek the presidency, nor is he the first Republican to seek and hold that office. So why the hatred? Why the venom? Why do the left and the media despise him so much? Why do mainstream Republicans dislike him? And how did he manage to reshape the Republican Party and score a sweeping victory last week?

It’s all intertwined.

Donald Trump was the first outsider to enter a presidential primary contest and go head-to-head with party luminaries, scions of party leaders, men of pedigree and political accomplishment. He didn’t just present his ideas in contrast to theirs. He also mocked them and revealed them to be arrogant, empty suits—unintelligent, lacking common sense, and disconnected from the people.

Until he came along, the Bushes were treated as royalty, as were the Cheneys. Figures like Mitt Romney were treated with reverence, even though he had lost his presidential race and had been exposed as a weak candidate who caved, folded, and failed to connect with the American people. In the past, people such as he and Jeb Bush were viewed as part of the Republican dynasty, but Trump changed all that. People who did not have strong Ameri-First views, who were not especially intelligent or quick-witted, and who were hypocrites, were mercilessly exposed.

It was no longer enough to be a pompous, long-serving politician who had achieved high positions due to family name, financial means, or backroom deals. The elite leadership class was under scrutiny and would have to prove its worth to survive. Trump represented the biggest threat that they had ever encountered, and they were ill-equipped to handle—or defeat—him.

Avatars of elitism felt secure in their carefully constructed cocoons of political correctness and doublespeak. Trump was the first capable candidate to puncture that cocoon, letting the people know that it was acceptable to vote against politicians who were condescending to them and viewed them as garbage. He related to everyday people, and they related to him. He presented himself as a leader who understood their thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

He showed them that they did not have to feel trapped by the same stale, ineffective leadership every election season and during the years in between. He voiced their thoughts, articulated their fears and frustrations better than they could, and promised to bring common-sense solutions and enact them into law.

Throughout the campaign, his political enemies—Democrats, Republicans, and the media—portrayed him as an unbalanced maniac who couldn’t be trusted to accomplish anything positive. The Democrats labeled him a wannabe dictator, a fascist, Mussolini, and then Hitler. They called his supporters racists and Nazis. The media repeated these allegations so frequently that low-information people began believing them.

You would discuss Trump with people, and they would say he was crazy. “How can you vote for a meshugeneh?” they would ask. Then they would add that he was an anti-Semite, even though he was the best friend Israel ever had. His daughter had converted to Judaism and married a Jew, with his blessings. You knew that these people were influenced by the media, by fake news. You knew that they were misled by quotes that were either fabricated or taken out of context. You knew that such a person had never actually heard Trump speak on the issues.

Other candidates draw crowds to their events by highlighting the planned attendance and performances of celebrities. At Trump rallies, Trump was the star. People came to see and hear him. He attracted legions of people to his rallies because he was a man of the people—charming, entertaining, and able to pull the thoughts straight from their hearts and the words from their mouths.

He understood their problems and offered common-sense solutions. He didn’t talk down to them and showed his respect by picking regular, nondescript people out of the crowd and bringing them onto the stage. He put on a McDonald’s apron and handed out fries, wore a reflective vest, and rode in a garbage truck. Nobody else would have thought of such stunts, and nobody but Trump could have pulled them off without looking foolish.

They lied about President Biden. Though it was plainly evident that Biden was not fit, the media praised him and dealt with him as he was fully functioning and in charge of the country. Then the elites, including the party bosses, Hollywood stars and billionaire donors decided Biden had to go. After they succeeded in pushing him out, they praised him for his selfless sacrifice on behalf of the American people and sold the lie that he left on his own volition. Biden’s unpopular, incompetent Vice President was selected to run in his place and was sold to the American people as a thoughtful and accomplished leader. More lies.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris epitomize the ineptitude of politicians who are inauthentic, programmed, out of touch with the citizenry, and purveyors of lies and bad policy. They ran stealth campaigns, repeating canned lines and delivering stilted speeches. While the media and other politicians played along with them, fearing to expose them for what they are, Trump had no problem saying out loud what any thinking person thought but was afraid to express.

An objective observer of the campaign could see that Trump was connecting, that people were flocking to him, and that his positions enjoyed widespread support. But the media continued to disparage him, insisting that he couldn’t win. They claimed that he was too crazy, too racist and too misogynistic. There was no way a majority of the country would vote for him. And the polls supported this narrative. Every day, a new poll was cited by media outlets and people who should have known better, all “proving” that Trump was losing ground and couldn’t win.

As Election Day approached, the polls showed the candidates narrowing, and every day the fake news spun the lie that the election was going to be extremely close. They said that it was neck-and-neck and used every cliché they could think of to convince unsuspecting voters that Trump’s message was not resonating, that people weren’t buying it, and that Kamala Harris would ultimately win.

It was all a lie.

You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to see that the polls were manipulated to suppress the Trump vote and enable the Harris campaign to continue raising record amounts of money. The spin doctors, consultants, and fundraisers needed to maintain that it was a margin-of-error race. Otherwise, donations would have dried up, and it would have been a washout for Harris. It was anyway.

While a few honest pollsters reported the truth and Trump campaign insiders claimed their internal polls showed continued gains, Harris’s team and their allies dismissed these claims, saying that they would make up the difference with their ground game and door-knocking efforts.

The fake news is truly fake. The facts they sell are fake and the numbers they present are fake. It’s all fake.

Intelligent people like us must stop falling for these lies and shaping our communal lives based on them. We must recognize our strength and acknowledge that the majority in this country voted for the side of morality, for the side that fights for decency and justice. It’s time we stopped bowing down to hypocritical liberal politicians, stopped expecting them to help us, and stopped making a big deal about the media. Few people still pay attention to the mainstream and corporate media. Trump proved that, and we should proceed accordingly.

The other lie exposed last week is one we are familiar with and must remain aware of. History is repeating itself.

Jews are being chased in the streets of New York and across Europe, including Antwerp, Berlin, France and London, to name a few, just as they were in the Europe of the 1930s, and there is barely a whimper of protest. There are now millions of jihadists spread across Europe. They hate Jews, but they also hate Christians and others. The countries of Europe are led by weak leaders and struggling governments, grappling with internal and financial challenges.

We were told that the world had changed, that with the founding of Israel, anti-Semitism would dissipate.

We were told and regularly reminded by Zionist leaders and adherents that the Holocaust occurred because Jews lacked a state to defend them, but now that we have a state and an army what happened then can never happen again.

But it did.

Just now, Jews in Amsterdam were chased, run over, stabbed, and beaten, and no one came to their aid, not the Amsterdam police nor the Jewish state, which could do little more than issue protest statements and send rescue planes. A premeditated, organized group comprised primarily of people who were born to Moroccans who were welcomed into the country but never successfully assimilated carried out an act that harkened back to the old days of Europe.

A few obligatory statements were issued, but there was no loud condemnation from governmental leaders or prominent figures in Europe, the United States, or elsewhere.

Eighty-six years after Kristallnacht and one year after Jewish people were hunted and slaughtered in Israel, Jews are once again being chased through the streets, in Amsterdam, in Sweden, and who knows where else. A Jew was shot while walking in a frum neighborhood in Chicago, two Jews were beaten at DePaul University in Chicago, and a Jewish child was nearly kidnapped in Crown Heights. Hamas supporters continue to march in this country, protesting against Jews and Israel. Dozens of rockets continue to fly into Israel daily, despite the existence of a proud state and a vaunted army.

The axis of evil—Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea—is growing stronger as the bulwark of freedom is led by appeasers.

We are reminded daily that after all these years, we have not yet merited to be delivered from the exile of golus to freedom in Eretz Yisroel.

We do not despair, though. Instead, we proclaim each morning during Shacharis, “Eileh vorechev v’eileh basusim va’anachnu besheim Hashem Elokeinu nazkir.” We place our faith in Hashem, not in military might. Those who depend on armies and political leaders to defend them will crumble and fall. “Heimah koru venofolu va’anachnu kamnu vanisodad.” We will rise and ultimately prevail.

In this week’s parsha of Vayeira, we read of the chesed and kindness of our forefather Avrohom. We learn how he interrupted his conversation with Hashem to tend to three dirty, dusty travelers, and how he begged Hashem not to destroy the people of Sedom. We also encounter the parsha of the Akeidah.

Hashem foretold to Avrohom that his children would be exiled but promised that He would redeem them. The zechus of Avrohom’s chesed and the Akeidah still sustain us all these years later. What keeps us going is our zechus avos, combined with the zechuyos of our Torah and mitzvos, along with our emunah and bitachon.

This week, we commemorate the yahrtzeit of Rochel Imeinu, who famously rose from her kever to intercede on behalf of her defeated grandchildren as they descended into golus. She still cries for us and begs Hashem to let us go free. Let us dedicate ourselves to be worthy of her tefillos and the tefillos of Jews throughout the ages, so that we may be freed from the alma d’shikra - the world of lies - and soon merit the alma d’keshot - the world of ultimate truth, which will be revealed with the coming of Moshiach and the geulah sheleimah when Rochel’s children will all return home l’gevulom.