Trump government uses lies detector to contain leaks

Among the civil servants, the order to use the polygraph was received with a mixture of concern and irony. Only in his first term, Trump resorted to lies and misleading data on 30,400 occasions. In four years, there were an average of 21 lies per day, in a survey conducted at the time by the Washington Post.

In January 2025, on the first day back to power, Trump used his inaugural speech to spread 20 more lies.

Columnist Adam Serwer of The Atlantic publication has developed the thesis that lies has yet another function for the Republican: it serves as a loyalty test, demanding that its supporters accept their dishonesty to prove their commitment to the leader not just a political party. But from a sect.

In the six months preceding the insurrection in the capitol in 2021, this thesis was tested. On social networks, Trump flooded public opinion with false reports on electoral fraud, about his competitors, attacked the legitimacy of state institutions and the professional press. It promoted hatred, sewn with a feeling of fear, defamation and misinformation.

The result was violence and even deaths. The rule of law and democracy in the country itself were on a thread. And to this day, an important segment of Republicans say they believe that the election won by Joe Biden was a theft.

Upon returning to power, four years later, Trump forgotten the invaders of the Capitol, established as an official truth the alleged fraud of the 2020 election and began the constant attack on the press that descends him daily.