Trump lies that people in Memphis are cheering the National Guard on the streets, when they haven't been deployed yet

[muriel_volestrangler]

Trump said this over the weekend. Anyone from Memphis see any troops on the streets on Sunday or any crowds of people cheering them?

— Jay Kuo (@nycjayjay.bsky.social) 2025-09-22T17:45:11.820Z

"Trump said this over the weekend. Anyone from Memphis see any troops on the streets on Sunday or any crowds of people cheering them?"

Link to tweet

"Trump: We are getting calls over the internet, we are getting statements: Sir, thank you so much. I live in Memphis, it is so beautiful. So many people outside. Everybody is cheering the soldiers."

"Cheering what soldiers? As a Tennessee journalist who has been monitoring these developments, I can tell you the Guard has not yet been deployed!"

Via Wonkette

[dalton99a]

1. The cult believes that shit

[tanyev]

2. Sir, you are a delusional moron.

[Escurumbele]

11. He is delusional but mostly a huge liar, and he knows he is lying, he just can't help himself, its an addiction.

[PatSeg]

19. As soon as he uses the word "sir"

we know that it is pure bullshit.

[tonekat]

25. Yep, that's his "Tell"

Only in his sick mind do people do that.

[PatSeg]

29. Yes, he has a very vivid imagination

In his fantasy world he is an all powerful king and everyone loves and respects him, except for the evil-doers who shall all be vanquished.

Another obvious tell is when he says things like, "I know it and you do too". Of course, if he's conscious and speaking, that also is a tell!

You couldn't make up a bizarre character like this guy and even if you could, no one would find him believable.

[lame54]

30. They definitely wouldn't find his...

Success believable

[PatSeg]

31. I know

I still can't believe any of this is real. I really thought I knew and understood people, but the older I get, the more I realize I don't know much at all. That is part of what leaves me so disoriented and ungrounded. It feels like living in some alternate universe.

[riversedge]

3. This is a Trump "Sir" story.......as someone else pointed out-when Trump tells a story

with a Sir in it--it is probably something he made up.


.........."Trump: We are getting calls over the internet, we are getting statements: Sir, thank you so much. I live in Memphis, it is so beautiful. So many people outside. Everybody is cheering the soldiers."

[yardwork]

4. As a narcissist, Trump believes it because he has to believe it.

The alternative is that people are calling him names - which they are - and he isn't capable of absorbing that truth. So the alternative MUST be true. "His people" are praising him with tears in their eyes and shouts of joy.

And if you say it isn't true he'll put you in jail. He'll send you to El Salvador. He'll destroy you because his fear and rage are that deep.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Except that in this case, he could have gone with the truth that the deployment hadn't yet started

It's not just a choice of "people are praising him" or "people are ripping him".

[yardwork]

6. It is in the mind of a narcissist.

It's one extreme or the other.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. I still think he knows he's lying. (nt)

[yardwork]

12. Of course he does.

He knows he's lying but he can't admit it. His ego can't handle the truth.

People with heathy egos can survive criticism. We might not like it, we might not agree with it, but our brains generally handle it and move on. Maybe we learn and change. Maybe we decide the criticism was wrong, but we shrug it off.

Narcissists can't do that. I've had the misfortune to have several close to me. It's crazy making and infuriating. Apparently they have psychic pain but I admit I have little to no empathy for them. That's why I'm not a mental health professional. I judge people!

[GiqueCee]

9. YUP!

"Sir" and "Tears in their eyes" are his biggest tells, saying, "Brace yourselves! Here comes another whopper!"

[niyad]

10. "getting calls over the internet"???

[yardwork]

13. It's a big series of tubes with a loudspeaker at one end.

Only the president gets calls over the internet. It's a big speaker on his desk next to the Red Phone and Diet Pepsi button.

[niyad]

14. Ah yes, had forgotten the tubes. Diet coke, by the way.

[KS Toronado]

15. We have the only President in the world who nobody calls "Mr President"

only sir. Maybe that's short for Sorry Illiterate Repug.

[GiqueCee]

8. The Orange Anus...

... is so far gone that he can't even keep his lies straight.

[Figarosmom]

16. Three possible reasons he says these things.

He just lies to lie.

Someone tells him this is what's happening.


He dreams of himself as the hero and is so delusional he actually believes his tripe.

[Ol Janx Spirit]

23. There is a fourth, more disturbing, reason that he says these things which may be the most likely...

...because lying is a core tool of propaganda.

These lies are not being told out of some childlike state of being, but very purposefully and to great effect. We discount this at our own peril. This particular lie, for example, allows both the illusion that a particular action is having a great effect, and the opportunity to cast doubt on any media outlet or person claiming otherwise. The ability to fact-check has no effect on the lie or the liar.

TACO's favorite propaganda tools are the illusory truth effect and the "big lie."
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psych-unseen/202001/illusory-truth-lies-and-political-propaganda

The way to combat this moment we find ourselves in is to learn these techniques and how to counter them. This is much harder in a world with social media and willing news outlets, but it is paramount to our suvival.

[twodogsbarking]

17. The cheering stopped when they found out "he isn't dead yet".

[generalbetrayus]

18. "Trump lies" equals Trump opens his mouth and words spill out.

[sakabatou]

20. Dump making shit up?

*pretends to be shocked*

[Martin68]

21. "Trump lies?" That's not news.

[orangecrush]

22. With every breath he takes, he lies

[Ol Janx Spirit]

24. Political propaganda is built on lies just like this.

Hannah Arendt characterized the effectiveness of lying as a political tool in her seminal post-war classic The Origins of Totalitarianism:

“Society is always prone to accept a person offhand for what he pretends to be, so that a crackpot posing as a genius always has a certain chance to be believed. In modern society, with its characteristic lack of discerning judgment, this tendency is strengthened, so that someone who not only holds opinions but also presents them in a tone of unshakable conviction will not so easily forfeit his prestige, no matter how many times he has been demonstrably wrong. Hitler, who knew the modern chaos of opinions from first-hand experience, discovered that the helpless seesawing between various opinions and ‘the conviction that everything is balderdash’ could best be avoided by adhering to one of the many current opinions with ‘unbendable consistency.’

…the propaganda of totalitarian movements which precede and accompany totalitarian regimes is invariably as frank as it is mendacious, and would-be totalitarian rules usually start their careers by boasting of their past crimes and carefully outlining their future ones.”
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psych-unseen/202001/illusory-truth-lies-and-political-propaganda

We must come to terms with the fact that these are not just lies, but they are targeted propaganda with an aim towards certain outcomes--and we must learn how to counter them. To dismiss them as mere lies is allowing them to do their intended damage. This is political propaganda in the tradition of all of the worst dictatorships in history.

[Irish_Dem]

26. Is Trump lying or does he really believe this, or is this what he is told?

[Eliot Rosewater]

27. Show me where the mainstream media is pushing back on this slide

And even if you can whatever media source it is we would be lucky if 1 million people are looking at it let alone half the country which is what we need.

For the last eight years when the piece of shit tells a lie, which is every time he talks, that lie becomes the truth in most of the country because we no longer have a media that pushes back.

[vapor2]

28. ANYONE just want to apologize to the UN for his effn embarrassment ?