During a recent appearance on the right-wing media channel Real America’s Voice, Lara Trump — the daughter-in-law of ex-President Donald Trump — complained about fact-checkers getting “all over” certain statements from conservatives that are “factual oftentimes.” What about the times when conservatives aren’t factual within Lara’s estimation? Her idea that fact-checkers are some kind of left-wing conspirators sounds bizarrely paranoid and highlights the despondent anti-intellectualism of the GOP under Trump. So-called “facts,” they say, aren’t really facts at all — it’s a seemingly endless circle of reactionary nonsense in which everything, even basic reality, gets contested.
Lara was discussing apparent plans from her father-in-law to launch his own social media platform geared towards conservatives. One question that none of ex-President Trump’s allies seem to have answered yet is how this prospective platform is going to actually make money. Advertising seems like a likely option, of course — so will the ex-president be using his supporters as pawns in a money-making scheme (again)?
As Lara belligerently put it:
‘Obviously Twitter, Facebook, Instagram — there are a lot of social media outlets that have proven to suppress the voices of conservatives, and so I think that we have all felt like, gosh wouldn’t it be nice if there was a platform available that would allow us to say what we want — oh my gosh, the First Amendment, imagine that! Our freedom of speech not being stifled!’
Her claim that major social media outlets have been “proven” to be suppressing conservative viewpoints is false. Republicans not getting as many “likes” on their posts as they want doesn’t mean that there’s some kind of secret deep state conspiracy against them.
Lara added as follows:
‘And obviously you do have some great outlets like Parler out there and there are a few other ones. I won’t break any news here, but I know that it’s something that my father-in-law has been working on. He’s taking it really seriously, and he wants a space where everyone can feel welcome, where people don’t feel like the fact-checkers are going to be all over them even though these things are factual oftentimes that the fact-checkers get on. So I think it’ll be really exciting to see sort of this next phase for my father-in-law.’
Watch her comments below:
Lara Trump says that Trump is working on building a new social media platform where conservatives will be free to say whatever they want and won't "feel like the fact checkers are going to be all over them." pic.twitter.com/E4qorixxrD
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) March 23, 2021
This kind of desperate anti-intellectualism laid the groundwork, of course, for the delusional but rapidly spread idea that the 2020 presidential election was rigged for Joe Biden. Donald continues to insist, in defiance of basic documented reality, that he was the rightful winner of the 2020 election. He lives in a fantasyland.
