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The Boston GlobeCommentary December 16, 2016 Fariborz S. Fatemi

Donald Trump minority (votes) President-elect should begiven the moniker “there he goes again.” He loves to make things up or telloutright lies or deal in conspiracy theories. (Witness his victory tour.) A fewexamples: He claims he won by a landslide. He didn’t. He claims the revelationsabout his Russian contacts and help during the campaign did not happen untilafter the election. They did, long before the voting. He does not believe theRussians favored him. They did. He claims he does not need intelligencebriefings. He does, more than anyone else. He said he knows more than thegenerals. Yet, he has surrounded himself with generals. He said he savedCarrier jobs in Indiana. He didn’t. At best, he and Pence paid a bribe to keepthe jobs that were not leaving and did nothing about jobs that were. When thehead of the labor union blew the whistle on him, he belittled the leadership.This should be a notice to all the rank and file who probably voted for him,that this is how he is going to help them. When you denude the manufacturingbase of the US all these decades, you get Donald Trump with a 35 per centtariff threat promise. When it comes time to walk the walk, he only does thetalk. Remember how he told his believers that if they vote for him, the vulturecaptains of industry who keep exporting manufacturing jobs will face harshconsequences. After the Carrier debacle, the vulture captains of industry mustbe reassured that Trump only talks the talk. It makes for good copy and theycan make money by being bribed with taxpayers’ dollars. Imagine if Trump,during this time, worked on getting back the 2-3 trillion dollars that hetalked about being parked offshore by the vulture captains of industry. Moneythat could be put to use rebuilding America’s infrastructure and therebycreating millions of jobs. Or, what if he were to announce that he is buildingon President Obama’s program that brought one trillion dollars of investmentsin manufacturing since 2012. Or to announce that he is working to fix the partsof the Affordable Care Act that need fixing rather than destroying, just toname a few constructive things. For those who thought he might revert to being“presidential” after the election, they must surely be disappointed. Sadly thenew normal for him and those around him is making things up, outright lies,promoting conspiracy theories and with their appointments, this is what chaoslooks like.