When The Emperor Is Angered

The imperium formerly known as the United States of America does not take kindly to contradiction. Its emperor, Don Trump, displays this facet of authoritarian rule in the following interview, in which a dauntless ABC interviewer, Terry Moran, refuses to accept his mandated 'reality'.

The 40-minute interview in the Oval Office veered off course when Moran pressed Trump on the case of Kilmar Ábrego García, a Salvadorian man living in Maryland who was deported despite a protective court order. 

The exchange deteriorated further when Trump insisted García had MS-13 tattoos on his knuckles, while Moran – after several times gently disagreeing and trying to move to a new topic – eventually pointed out that the image Trump was referring to had obviously been digitally altered.

“Why don’t you just say, ‘Yes, he does’ [have a gang tattoo] and, you know, go on to something else,” Trump said.

The US president added: “You do such a disservice … This is why people no longer believe the news, because it’s fake news.”

 

Given the vengeful nature of the imperium, Terry Moran's future is likely in jeopardy, especially during a time when many media outlets are bending their knee to the emperor.  It began with Trump calling ABC one of the worst of the media outlets, and was followed up by an immediate right-wing backlash:

Many on social media criticized Moran for not being respectful enough to Trump.

"The interview in the Oval Office with President Trump by Terry Moran is a disgrace to our country and to our President. ABC and Moran should be ashamed! They want nothing but to argue with the President. He's not conducting an interview, he's trying to embarrass the President," said one critic.

"Watching Trump torch ABC News on their own turf is like watching a lion maul a pack of sick hyenas," replied advocate Jane Adams. "These people humiliated the country for years propping up a dementia patient, and now they’re being publicly gutted by a president who actually knows what he's doing."

"ABC once again proves that it is nothing more than a Marxist propaganda outlet controlled by the Democrats," said a Second Amendment rights account.

"His bias was blatant, disrespectful and rude," read another message.

At least one viewer accused ABC of using trick photo angles to make Moran appear taller than Trump.

None of this is the least surprising for a nation in moral, ideological and political freefall. We can only recognize and state it when we see it, and, as Canadians, take their devolution as a sobering object lesson on all the things to guard against in our own country. 

UPDATE Snopes has a lengthy discussion of this photo-shopped picture of Garcia's tattoo:

Trump's picture had been edited to add the text "MS-13" above the tattoos, but there was no actual evidence demonstrating a link between the tattoos and the El Salvadoran gang.