KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT, famously coined the term “alternative facts” to describe what turned out to be falsehoods uttered by Press Secretary Sean Spicer about the crowd count at Trump’s first inauguration. Alas, today we are witnessing the creation of other “alternative facts” much more serious than the inconsequential matter of counting heads. Here are tidbits about other attempts to remake historical facts.
The 2020 Presidential Election. Fact: Biden won. Alternative fact: Even as recently as September 10, 2024, Trump refused to acknowledge that he lost the 2020 election.
Fact: Trump lost in 2020. Image from statista.com.
A sad, but related point: It has become an “alternative fact” to his followers—and even to others—that our election process is an ineffective one. (Though, curiously, no one questioned the 2024 results.)
The U.S. Capitol Storming on January 6, 2021. Fact: Through the medium of television, we all saw the mayhem of Trump supporters as they attacked police, smashed windows and doors, and set U.S. officials, Republicans and Democrats alike, into hiding.
Yet, “alternative facts” have emerged a’plenty: The rioters weren’t Trump supporters, they were left-wing antifa or even FBI operatives. Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and others were merely tourists.
Fact: Rioters Stormed the U.S. Capitol. Image from NPR.
Geez, “tourists.” Gimme a break.
The Rioters, Alternative-Fact Patriots. Fact: Subsequent legal action found some 1200 people charged with their role in the attack. Yet on January 20, 2025, on the first day of his second term, Trump pardoned them all.
Alternative fact: Trump has called them “hostages” and “patriots.” He has termed January 6, 2021, “a beautiful day,” “a day of love.”
Talk about doublethink and “A Quartet of Alternative-Facts Books.”
The Pentagon’s Media Space. Fact: As reported on February 1, 2025, Reuters reports, “U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, in an unprecedented move, announced late on Friday it would remove four media organizations including The New York Times from their dedicated office spaces in the Pentagon, citing a desire to make room for others.”
Reuters continues, “The memo on a ‘New Annual Media Rotation Program’ said it would also remove National Public Radio, Comcast Corp-owned NBC News and Politico, which must vacate their spaces by Feb. 14. In their place, it would give dedicated office space to the New York Post, One America News Network, Breitbart News Network and HuffPost News.”
Alternative fact: The administration’s motive is “to allow a new outlet from the same medium [print, online, television, and radio] that has not had the unique opportunity to report as a resident member of the Pentagon Press Corps.”
Oh, I see. It’s merely coincidence that the authoritative New York Times gets swapped for the Trump-trumpeting New York Post. Similarly, NBC News is replaced by One America, a far-right station so small it “eschews the Nielsen ratings measurement service” and is facing “multiple lawsuits stemming from the outlet’s lies about the 2020 election,” as reported by CNN Business.
What’s more, the NPR swap for Breitbart, a web site for pro-Trump coverage and commentary, is particularly ludicrous: CNN Business reports that Breitbart “barely has a radio operation of its own. The word ‘radio’ doesn’t appear on its home page at all.”
Given the size of the Pentagon, you’d think that enlarging its “Correspondents’ Corridor” would be within reason.
California’s Water. Alternative fact: Trump blamed the state’s firefighting efforts were hampered by California’s declaring the smelt an endangered species. He retaliated by ordering the Army Corps of Engineers to release billions of gallons of water from two reservoirs in California’s Central Valley.
Fact: According to CBS News, February 3, 2025, “Now, the water released from dams at Lake Kaweah and Lake Success is rushing into a dry lakebed in the Central Valley, where experts say it can’t flow to Southern California and will likely go to waste.”
Trump’s order of water released is counter to expert opinion. Image from cbsnews.com.
Peter Gleick, a climate and hydrology expert, is quoted as saying, “There’s no physical connection. There’s no way to move the water from where it is to the Los Angeles basin.”
What’s more, Central Valley farmers don’t need the water at this time of year. Flooding is more of a concern.
Gee, another example of Trump’s v.s.g. (very stable genius). It surely helps him and his followers that alternative facts are so easy to come by. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2025