Investigations into the fake profile of recently-elected congressman for New York George Santos are being reported worldwide. Articles have appeared already in major journals in Spain, France, Finland, Brazil, Uruguay, China, Japan, Italy, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, Australia, India, Germany, Greece, Britain, the Netherlands and Somalia.
Yes, Somalia. Somalians are appalled. So are the Vietnamese. Vietnam’s Baonguoiviet news outlet reports that Republicans have shown no sign of forcing Santos to resign so far – despite his public confessions to “a host of lies” – loạt thứ chuyện.
This is another highly public test for Republicans, whose global reputation has been trashed by the sorry record of incompetence, corruption and monumental deceit of Donald Trump through his disastrous tenure of death and destruction as US president.
Santos is following faithfully the Trump playbook. Lie and cheat about everything, whether you need to or not. The bigger the lies the better. Play everyone for suckers, including party colleagues. Treat the whole world – voters, family, business associates, party officials, lawmakers, public servants – as gullible shmucks who deserve only your contempt and derision.
Concoct a false profile of non-existent past successes and accomplishments. Give yourself bogus awards for outstanding service. When forced to correct a fake résumé, replace it with another fake one which you insist is accurate. Keep doing this indefinitely.
Lie about your education. Create a record of academic brilliance at the best universities. You could even build your own fake university.
Conceal everything about your finances and brag you are mega rich. Concoct a vast property portfolio and claim to be a developer, even if actual projects have all failed. Assert failure to pay taxes is a virtue.
Claim to be a great philanthropist. Set up a website for a fake charity.
Claim money you borrowed was actually earned by dazzling business deals. Ensure cash fundraised for political campaigning can legally be diverted into your personal account via fine print footnotes.
When unresolved legal or commercial matters in other countries are revealed, deny, deny, deny.
When found out, play the victim. First, refute that you did it. Just say your blatant lies were “a poor choice of words”. When that is disproven, say it wasn't wrong. When that is disproven, say it wasn't all that serious, that critics are “nitpicking”. When that fails, say "Look over there! the Bidens!"
Then claim you are being persecuted by political opponents. Choose a form of words which supporters can pretend was an apology even though you are not sorry one little bit.
Take the Oath of Office, even if you have absolutely no intention whatsoever of keeping it. Grasp as much money from the public purse as you can while you can. Milk expenses by whatever means available. Golf at your own golf courses can generate $300,000 per game.
Will Republicans fail this test also? According to Russian newspaper Коммерсанте, they seem in no hurry – Те пока не торопятся.
The world is watching.
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