One of Donald Trump’s first targets was truth itself. Attacks on the press, on science, and on easily observable reality have become daily occurrences as his administration’s efforts to erode the idea of a shared set of facts and to undercut the value and meaning of truth. As part of weaponizing doubt, the administration uses tactics of distraction and false parity to promote extreme ideas and stoke polarization. From the streets of Charlottesville to arena rallies across the country, there seems to be a base of Trump supporters openly equating their president with white nationalist, xenophobic and anti-immigrant values.
GroundTruth alumna Tracy Jarrett and senior podcast producer Mitch Hanley reported from a Trump rally in Dallas, and GroundTruth Executive Editor Kevin Grant returned to Charlottesville two years after the Unite the Right rally awakened much of the country to a resurgent white nationalist movement that has aligned itself with Trump’s populist nationalism.
Listen: The full interview with Steve Levitsky, co-author of How Democracies Die
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- Overview
- Episode 1: Weaponize Fear – Brazil
- Dispatch: Meet the intellectual founder of Brazil’s far right
- Episode 2: Target Outsiders – Italy
- Dispatch: Europe’s ‘identitarians’ insist they aren’t part of the far right
- Episode 3: Undermine Institutions – Colombia
- Dispatch: The Slow Death of Colombia’s Peace Movement
- Episode 4: Rewrite History – Hungary
- Dispatch: Europe’s failure to protect liberty in Viktor Orbán’s Hungary
- Episode 5: Exploit Religion – India
- Dispatch: Not everyone has a vote in the world’s largest democracy
- Episode 6: Divide and Conquer – Poland
- Dispatch: Poland’s Law and Justice Party mixes victimhood and strength in its messaging
- Episode 7: Erode Truth – United States
- Dispatch: How Trump sells his war on truth
