It’s a new experience for me, and for you, as a 21s century American. We are now blessed (or cursed) with a president who is NEVER wrong, and apparently hasn’t been wrong once in his 79 years on earth! It’s an extraordinary record for someone who has been a frequent defendant in court rooms, a wheeler-dealer in back rooms, and a near-constant presence in our living rooms and electronics for more than a decade.
He and his followers often wear baseball caps declaring “Trump Was Right About Everything.” His infallibility in office began on just his second day as president, Jan, 22, 2017. He bragged that crowds for his inauguration were the largest in history, much larger than for President Barack Obama. When photos and transit system receipts proved differently, presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway floated the idea that the administration was providing “alternative facts,” but the concept crashed like a lead balloon as people heard Newspeak propaganda from Orwell’s “1984.” But the Never-Wrong Trump Administration didn’t let inconvenient facts get in the way and immediately began its never-ending, all-out war on the news media as “liars.”
Being a member of Trump’s “right about everything” crowd means signing off on some jaw-dropping whoppers. Just as the COVID virus hit the U.S. in full force in February 2020, he confidently predicted that it would soon magically “disappear,” but over 1,200,000 U.S. deaths followed, the most of any country in the world. In September 2024, he claimed immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating their neighbors’ pets. Just this August, he bragged that prescription drug prices would be slashed by “1,500%” (a 100% cut makes a product free, more than that means people would be paid to get free prescriptions).
Whew! Those are just a few instances of the nonsense stream-of-consciousness he spouts nearly every day, with fact-checkers listing well over 30,000 proven lies. The belief in Trump as infallible either derives from, or supports, a cardinal rule of political warfare taught to him by his nefarious mentor, Roy Cohn. Cohn advised the disgraced Joe McCarthy throughout the vile, early-1950s period of finding communists under every rock and in every government department, firing or blacklisting people without due process. According to multiple biographers, Cohn advised Trump, “Never apologize or admit wrongdoing, ever.” If you ever hear Trump say “I’m sorry” or “I made a mistake,” you should probably sink to your knees and thank your God for a miracle. It hasn’t happened once in his very public 79 years, and I’m not holding my breath till it does.
His approach has very concrete, personal consequences. Kilmar Garcia was arrested by ICE in March 2025, but a Trump Department of Justice lawyer admitted in court that it was a mistake caused by “administrative error.” But the “never admit wrongdoing” policy kicked in quickly. The DOJ lawyer was immediately fired and Garcia was proudly sent, along with others, to the brutal jail in El Salvador which served as a backdrop for Kristi Noem’s presumptive Christmas card photo, in which she poses in front of barbed wire and shirtless, tattooed men with shaved heads crowded into a cage like cattle. Although eventually released after five months by a judge’s order, he remains in ICE limbo as they threaten to pursue charges against him solely to prove they are incapable of mistakes.
It’s disturbing that the “never wrong” worship of Trump places him near the same level, for Christians, as the only infallible person, Jesus Christ. As such, his words or actions can’t be questioned and are essentially accepted as divine, with critics branded as traitors or heretics worthy of swift, brutal retribution.
The view that a leader is God-like and infallible is also a defining characteristic of a cult, according to many studies and authors. I’ve only recently, and reluctantly, accepted this analysis, and it certainly does not apply to every Trump supporter. We’ve seen smaller cults result in mass suicides for hundreds (Jim Jones), directed killings of perceived enemies (Manson), and suicidal, armed standoffs with authorities (the Branch Davidians in Waco).
But history also shows important similarities in Trump’s manipulations to those of the cult of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis: they demonized minorities; attacked the press, universities, and political opponents; and used secret police and military troops to get people accustomed to authoritarian rule. We need to learn about and teach this type of history so we don’t fall prey to George Santayana’s 1905 warning: “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
Allen Woods is a freelance writer, author of the Revolutionary-era historical fiction novel “The Sword and Scabbard,” and Greenfield resident. His column appears regularly on a Saturday. Comments are welcome here or at awoods2846@gmail.com.