The Glitch in the Machine

What we saw in Donald Trump’s latest interview wasn’t just misinformation—it was detachment. And the most dangerous glitch may no longer be his alone.

There comes a time in the life of a nation when it must choose—between the comfort of myth and the discomfort of truth.

We are living in that time now.

You could see it in Donald Trump’s recent interview with ABC’s Terry Moran. A moment that should’ve been about clarity, leadership, or at the very least, accountability, instead became a window into something much darker. Not just evasion. Not just arrogance. But detachment. The kind of detachment that occurs when a man mistakes performance for policy, and propaganda for proof.

Asked about Kilmar Ábrego García—a Maryland father deported despite a federal judge ruling his removal unlawful—Trump didn’t blink. He claimed the man had MS-13 tattoos on his knuckles. “It’s right there in the photo,” he said.

Except it wasn’t.

There’s no verified evidence that Ábrego García was ever affiliated with MS-13. No confirmed tattoos. Experts say the photo Trump referenced may have been altered. Still, he pushed forward, as if the truth were a minor inconvenience rather than the foundation of justice.

This wasn’t just misinformation. It was a glitch. A rupture in the narrative. A man whose reality is so rigidly self-curated that when it collides with facts, it buckles.

And the glitch didn’t stop there.

Trump repeated the claim—one he’s made for years—that he presided over “the greatest economy in the history of the world.” That’s not exaggeration. That’s fiction.

Yes, the unemployment rate dipped to 3.5% in 2019. Yes, the stock market surged. But these were not feats born of singular brilliance—they were the result of a decade-long recovery that began under President Obama. GDP growth under Trump never exceeded 2.9%, the same high Obama reached in 2015. The trade deficit widened. And when the pandemic struck, nearly 22 million jobs vanished. By the end of his term, the economy had a net loss of nearly 3 million jobs.

Yet in Trump’s telling, those losses never happened. Just like those tattoos.

He claimed inflation was a Biden-era problem. But the truth is more complicated than that. Inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022—high, yes, but not the highest in American history. And certainly not caused by one man alone. The surge was the result of a pandemic-scarred supply chain, an overstimulated economy, and global shocks like the war in Ukraine.

And Trump’s fingerprints are on the foundations. His administration approved over $3 trillion in emergency relief—necessary, yes, but inflationary over time. His tariffs on Chinese imports acted as stealth taxes, quietly raising prices on goods from washing machines to construction materials. Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan added fuel to the fire. Both presidents spent. The pandemic broke the supply chain. The demand came roaring back. And working families bore the cost.

Still, Trump stood in front of the camera and pretended it had nothing to do with him.

When asked about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth—currently under investigation for using encrypted messaging apps to discuss classified military operations—Trump didn’t engage. He scoffed. “What a stupid question.” As if accountability were beneath him.

He then claimed Vladimir Putin “probably wants peace” in Ukraine—on the very same week Russia launched missiles at civilian cities.

If this were satire, we’d call it too on the nose.

But the most unsettling moment may not have come from Trump himself—but from what he allowed to happen in silence. When his current senior advisor Stephen Miller stood before the press and falsely declared that the Supreme Court ruled 9–0 in their favor in the Ábrego García case, Trump said nothing.

The truth? The Court ruled 9–0 against the administration.

That’s not a slip. That’s a strategy.

So we’re left to ask:

Is this the blind leading the blind?

The delusional leading the delusional?

Or the intentionally deceptive leading the intentionally deceived?

Because the glitch isn’t just in the man. It’s in the machine that sustains him.

It’s in the media outlets that carry his distortions unfiltered.

It’s in the political class that finds his lies useful.

It’s in the public fatigue that confuses repetition with truth.

And yes—it’s in us, if we’re not careful.

We are no longer debating policy. We are debating reality.

We are still giving airtime to a man who can’t—or won’t—differentiate between the story he tells and the country he’s breaking.

The danger is not simply that Trump believes his own myths.

It’s that millions do, too.

We must not let this moment pass without reflection.

Because if the glitch is no longer just his—

If it lives in our institutions, in our silence, in our willingness to pretend this is normal—

Then the machine isn’t just malfunctioning.

It’s rewriting the truth.

And what we do next will say everything about whether we still recognize it.