DONALD TRUMP

Huffington Post - President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural lunch will be missing three prominent faces, with former Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush all reportedly declining to attend. Obama received Trump’s invitation but has declined to attend. Clinton said he does not plan to attend and Bush’s office said it was not tracking an invitation for him to the event, according to sources speaking with NBC News. 

National Memo - As Donald Trump prepares to take the oath of office for a second time, he claims to have a “massive” mandate to enact his destructive agenda. But new polling shows that’s far from the truth.A NPR/PBS News/Marist College poll released Wednesday shows that just 44 percent of Americans view Trump favorably, while 49 percent view him unfavorably. That’s nearly identical to the 45 percent approval rating Trump has in Civiqs’ tracking poll.The fact that Trump is viewed unfavorably before he even takes office is a warning sign for his tenure. The start of a presidential term is usually when a president is at their high-water mark of approval.

Sam Smith – Donald Trump is not an eccentric character bursting into our environment. As a society, we have been slowly moving for decades toward a community that accepts many of his values. Back in the early 1950s, when I was in high school, one of my teachers was already telling us of the dangers of the hyperbolic values of advertising and public relations that were increasingly gaining strength and acceptance.

In part because the purveyors of these values were central to the success of media, there was little analysis or criticism from mainstream journalism. And because there was so little analysis or criticism, lies and exaggeration became an increasing part of culture, including politics. According to one analysis,  by the end of his first presidential term, Trump had accumulated 30,573 untruths or about 21 false claims a day.

And a public that has been accepting the falsehoods of advertising and public relations for decades easily accepted such manifestations coming from Trump.

The important thing is that as bad as Trump personally is, he rose thanks to our increasing acceptance of exaggeration from innumerable public figures and firms. And even getting rid of Trump, comforting as that would be, is only an early step in getting back to reality.