There’s a saying that truth is the first casualty of war. And for sure, the war that the Trump administration is waging against people it calls the “enemy within” is grounded in shamelessly repeated lies.
President Trump’s public life is one long war against the truth. He lies relentlessly and blatantly. He uses political intimidation and legal extortion to suppress critical media coverage, while rewarding outlets that are willing to promote official propaganda.
The truth is dangerous to tyrants. That’s why they suppress the media and squelch freedom of speech.
And let’s remember one very important truth: Even though Trump is willing to abuse his access to immense power, he does not have the power to suppress the truth, so long as there are people willing to bear witness.
As civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. said, borrowing from a poet writing a century earlier: “Truth crushed to earth will rise again.” Let’s remember, too, the impact that images of southern segregationists’ brutality had on America’s conscience and on our history.
Mamie Till insisted on an open casket funeral for her tortured and murdered son, insisting, “Let the people see.” Television coverage of unjustifiable police violence against peaceful protesters on Selma’s “Bloody Sunday” shocked millions of Americans.
These images broke through the lies of Jim Crow’s defenders. They exposed the cruelty of corrupted and dishonest politicians and law enforcement officials. They made it clear that might does not make right.
Today, images gathered and shared by journalists, activists and bystanders are exposing the lies and cruelty of the Trump regime.
There’s an instantly iconic photo of Rev. David Black being shot in the head by ICE agents in Chicago firing pepper balls or chemical agents as he peacefully prayed and spoke to them. That shooting was captured on video and shared widely on video, like so many acts of official violence.
Once again, Americans are being shocked by the casual and sometimes sadistic cruelty the Trump regime is hurling against people going about their daily lives — and neighbors who come to their defense.
As Stephen Miller’s war against racial and ethnic minority communities and allies intensifies, truth-telling and lie-destroying images have become essential to the defense of freedom.
Trump has told police and ICE agents that they can do “whatever the hell [they] want.” And news reports suggest that ICE agents are getting even more aggressive. “They are the ones that are making it a war zone,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said.
It may well be that the Trump regime’s strategy is to use official violence to provoke responses they can use to justify even greater repression, not only against people on the streets but also against community groups, nonprofits and funders who oppose the nation’s slide into authoritarianism and fascism.
And that’s why nonviolent resistance is so important. And why it’s essential to shred official lies.
That’s presumably why ICE agents have been violently attacking and detaining photographers, journalists and people using their cell phones to show the world what Trump has unleashed. And that’s presumably why the Department of Homeland Security has falsely claimed that it’s illegal “violence” to record ICE raids. One more lie, one more assault on Americans’ First Amendment freedoms.
Courts have repeatedly ruled that it is legal for people to film law enforcement activity. “The First Amendment is designed above all to give citizens the right to criticize and report on government abuse,” was how law professor David Cole put it.
It is also possible to undermine official propaganda by exposing it to ridicule.
Oregon officials have repeatedly denied claims that the “war-ravaged” city of Portland is “burning to the ground” — language used by White House officials to justify turning the U.S. military against the people living there.
That truth-telling by public officials is important. But what has probably had a greater impact on debunking those lies has been Portlanders sharing video of people happily enjoying the city and others protesting peacefully.
That’s why we use the First Amendment and why it’s so important that we protect it.
The Trump administration’s war on the mainstream media and the capture of media outlets by Trump-aligned billionaires highlight the importance of independent outlets and journalists as well as on-the-ground documentation by individuals who are committed to defending truth, justice, and the American Way.
So keep the cameras rolling.
Svante Myrick is president of People For the American Way.
