By Kenneth Tiven
The world is getting a first-hand look at how US President Donald Trump’s long history with deception has transformed lying into both an offensive and defensive weapon. Governments have always lied to their citizens—sometimes under the guise of national security, sometimes to hide uncomfortable truths. The rise of smartphones and the internet has reduced the effectiveness of secrecy, but has not diminished the political utility of deception. In 2025, it has become a governing principle.
Political chaff—named after the military tactic of releasing clouds of metallic strips to confuse enemy radar—operates on the same premise. In politics, chaff takes the form of diversion: alternative narratives, aggressive dismissals, irrelevant attacks, and manufactured outrage intended to bury the substantive question that triggered it. And no one uses chaff more prolifically than Trump.
Through long, unfiltered social-media diatribes and combative exchanges with reporters, especially aboard Air Force One, Trump deploys chaff instinctively. When journalist Catherine Lucey recently asked whether there was anything “incriminating” in the Epstein files, the president cut her off with a jab—“Quiet. Quiet, piggy.”—a moment both crude and revealing. Belligerence, not facts, remains his preferred tool.
What distinguishes this term from his first is the ecosystem surrounding him: appointees and advisors who view defiance as virtue and loyalty as purity. With their backing, political chaff has become omnipresent—a smoke screen for every misstep, scandal, or national crisis.
Consider the unannounced demolition of the White House East Wing the day after seven million Americans joined No Kings Day marches protesting his policies. Trump claimed the construction—a massive new ballroom—was privately funded and therefore beyond regulation. This follows a pattern: in 2019, he demanded a $45 million federal military parade that failed spectacularly, then dismissed its embarrassment as merely “resting his eyes”.
Disinformation has been woven into Trump’s identity since his days as a real-estate showman—faked building heights, inflated square footage, thousands of lawsuits, and the racist “birther” conspiracy about President Barack Obama. He fooled enough voters once, then again after losing in 2020, proof that many Americans remain willing to accept myth over reality.
So, it is no surprise that he has now targeted a genuine American hero. Former Navy pilot Mark Kelly—who flew 37 combat missions in Vietnam, later commanded the final Space Shuttle Endeavour mission, and guided his wife Gabby Giffords through recovery after a near-fatal assassination attempt—appeared in a short video explaining service members’ constitutional obligation to disobey illegal orders. Trump responded by suggesting Kelly should be hanged for sedition.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth chimed in with talk of court-martial, a remarkable claim from a man whose career barely fills a resume. In contrast, Kelly’s credentials speak for themselves. Trump’s reaction speaks to something else entirely.
All of this noise conveniently obscures two major crises: the trove of Epstein e-mails already released and the political defection of Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose once-unshakable loyalty evaporated overnight. She clearly sees a post-Trump MAGA future and wants credit for leaving the sinking ship early.
And as if the storms weren’t already gathering, we have learned that Trump’s much-touted “peace deal” in Ukraine is in fact a surrender drafted in Moscow—an incoherent document amateur US envoys accepted despite Russia’s failure to win the war it started. That the Kremlin could dictate terms reflects Vladimir Putin’s long mastery of manipulating narcissists, and Trump’s willingness to play the role.
Kelly put it plainly: “It is no small thing for the President of the United States to call for your execution… As someone whose family has faced political violence before, I know you have to take words like this seriously. There’s no telling what kind of storm we’re heading into.” In 2025, the chaff is constant, the storms darker, and the consequences far greater. And the American people are left to navigate through the debris.
—The writer has worked in senior positions at The Washington Post, NBC, ABC and CNN and also consults for several Indian channels
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