{"id":303430,"date":"2025-02-12T09:08:46","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T09:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=303430"},"modified":"2025-02-14T07:58:42","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T07:58:42","slug":"the-art-of-deception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=303430","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Deception"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Wyatt Peterson \u2013 <span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><a style=\"color: #ffff00;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unz.com\/article\/the-art-of-deception\/\">The Unz Review<\/a><\/span> Feb 10, 2025<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>n his 1987 book <em>The Art of the Deal<\/em>, Donald Trump describes a stunt he pulled a few years earlier that involved deceiving Holiday Inn executives into partnering with him on the construction of a casino. Trump, who owned a strip of land along the Atlantic City boardwalk, lied when he told the hotel chain\u2019s top brass that construction was already underway and that encouraging progress was being made. In reality ground had barely been broken at Trump\u2019s site which, at that time, was little more than a plot of empty land. On the day the executives were scheduled to appear on-site, Trump \u201cdirected his construction manager to hire dozens of pieces of heavy equipment to move dirt around the site, digging holes and filling them back up if necessary.\u201d \u201cWhat the bulldozers and dump trucks did wasn\u2019t important\u2026so long as they did a lot of it,\u201d Trump said. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/art-of-the-deal-trump-presidency-2017-4\">Source<\/a>: <em>Business Insider<\/em>, Apr. 20, 2017]<\/p>\n<p>The hoodwink worked just as Trump expected, for he knew that the mere <em>appearance<\/em> of activity would be enough to persuade the hotel executives to invest in his project.<\/p>\n<p>A similar trick is being played on the American people today.<\/p>\n<p>So far the Trump administration\u2019s oft-touted \u201cmass deportations\u201d scheduled to begin on \u201cday one\u201d have yet to materialize. The daily totals through the first few weeks are nowhere near high enough to make even a slight dent in the number of illegals who have entered the US over the last eight years alone. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/ice-raids-mass-deportations-numbers-first-week-2022360\">At the current rate<\/a> it would take 28 years to deport the 11 million people <em>officially<\/em> claimed to be in the country illegally, and Trump\u2019s daily deportation total would have to hit at least 2,700 to reach even one million per year. In spite of his fervid campaign rhetoric, the highest single day <em>arrest <\/em>total since Trump took office is just over 1,100 and even that fell to a paltry 300 per day by late last week. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/national-security\/trump-angry-deportation-numbers-are-not-higher-rcna191273\">NBC News<\/a> reports:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\u201cIn order to fulfill Trump\u2019s Inauguration Day promise of \u2018millions and millions\u2019 of deportations, the Trump administration would have to be deporting over 2,700 immigrants every day to reach 1 million in a year. And\u2026arrests do not always equal immediate detentions, much less deportations. Of the more than 8,000 immigrants arrested in the first two weeks of the Trump administration, 461 were released, according to the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To distract from these lackluster numbers, the blustering border czar Tom Homan is routinely situated in front of television cameras to huff and puff and issue hollow threats to illegals about the imminent crackdown set to begin any day now. The final touch is added when news cameras capture footage of ICE agents in major cities going door-to-door giving the <em>appearance<\/em> of activity by the new administration, while the actual figures concerning arrests and deportations continue to fall. It seems the deception has been successful enough to satisfy a large portion of the MAGA base, many of whom can rarely be accused of investigating things too deeply.<\/p>\n<p>Juxtaposed with Trump\u2019s inability to enforce domestic policies is his considerable efficiency in supporting Israel.<\/p>\n<p>Just over a week after his inauguration \u2014 which, symbolically, was held inside the US Capitol for the benefit of a champagne-sipping crowd of billionaires that included former \u2018Never Trumpers\u2019 Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Sergey Brin, while his MAGA base was left out in the cold \u2014 Trump signed an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2025\/01\/additional-measures-to-combat-anti-semitism\/\">Executive Order to \u2018Combat Antisemitism in the United States.\u2019<\/a> The order, which calls on the Department of Justice to prosecute Americans for so-called antisemitism, \u201ctakes forceful and unprecedented steps to marshal all Federal resources to combat the explosion of anti-Semitism on our campuses and in our streets\u201d and ominously asserts \u201cIt shall be the policy of the United States to combat anti-Semitism vigorously, using all available and appropriate legal tools, to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Bezos-Innauguration.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wpa-warning wpa-image-missing-alt aligncenter size-full wp-image-303432\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Bezos-Innauguration.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" data-warning=\"Missing alt text\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Bezos-Innauguration.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Bezos-Innauguration-480x320.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 640px, 100vw\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Tech oligarchs Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>The new face of the MAGA movement.<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Within days of Trump signing the order, five major universities (Columbia, Northwestern, Portland State, University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities) were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/trump-education-dept-launches-probe-explosion-antisemitism-5-universities\">placed under investigation<\/a> by the Department of Education for allowing \u201cantisemitism\u201d \u2014 i.e., criticism of Israel\u2019s genocide \u2014 to flourish on their respective campuses. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IsraeliPM\/status\/1885005452401918377\">took to X<\/a> to formally thank President Trump, \u201con behalf of Israel and the Jewish people\u2026for his executive order to fight antisemitism and support for terrorism on American campuses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On February 4, Trump met with Netanyahu at the White House and was curiously <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/02\/06\/middleeast\/netanyahu-trump-golden-pager-intl\/index.html\">gifted a golden pager<\/a> by the Israeli leader in what can easily be perceived as a not-too-subtle threat. If so, it would seem that Trump got the message. During his press conference the 47th President reiterated his support for the forceful relocation of the 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza (down from 2.2 million in 2023) and added that he would <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/02\/04\/politics\/netanyahu-trump-white-house-meeting\/index.html\">consider deploying US military personnel<\/a> to the region to assert U.S. sovereignty over the Gaza Strip:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\u201cThe US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too. We\u2019ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out. Create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area [Israelis]\u2026do a real job, do something different.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s statement may have come across to some as just another sensational off-the-cuff remark but, in fact, it\u2019s entirely in keeping with previous statements both he and his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2024\/mar\/19\/jared-kushner-gaza-waterfront-property-israel-negev\">son-in-law Jared Kushner<\/a> have made about Gaza being a \u201cphenomenal location\u201d with \u201cvery valuable waterfront property,\u201d as well as with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/israel-hamas-war\/article-799756\">Netanyahu\u2019s \u201cGaza 2035\u201d initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Trump-Netanyahu.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wpa-warning wpa-image-missing-alt aligncenter size-full wp-image-303433\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Trump-Netanyahu.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"548\" data-warning=\"Missing alt text\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Trump-Netanyahu.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Trump-Netanyahu-480x411.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 640px, 100vw\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>The President of the United States helped to his seat by an altruistic bellhop<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Three days after meeting with Bibi, Trump broke \u201ca long-standing precedent for congressional review of major weapons sales\u201d by approving a $7.4 billion arms transfer to Israel after Congress halted a proposed $1 billion \u201carms sale\u201d to the Zionist state that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jns.org\/trump-administration-asks-congress-to-ok-1-billion-arms-sale-to-israel\/\">would\u2019ve been paid for<\/a> by the U.S. taxpayer. A Feb. 7, 2025 report in <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/us\/us-state-department-approves-military-sales-worth-74-billion-israel-2025-02-07\/\">Reuters<\/a><\/em> provided some details about the transfer:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\u201cU.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s administration announced on Friday that it had approved military sales to Israel worth some $7.4 billion, despite a Democratic lawmakers\u2019 request that the sale be paused until he received more information\u2026The announcement came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Washington for meetings with Trump, administration officials and members of Congress. Representative Gregory Meeks\u2026denounced what he termed a decision to break with a long-standing precedent for congressional review of major weapons sales\u2026He said the decision showed a lack of respect for Congress as a co-equal branch of government. \u2018In the United States we do not have kings \u2014 we are a democracy rooted in the Constitution, governed by laws,\u2019 Meeks said.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The $7.4 billion transfer comes on the heels of Trump\u2019s 90-day pause on all foreign aid (with the exception of Israel of course!) and his decision to stop funding the UN\u2019s Palestine relief agency UNRWA, both actions resulting in the Palestinian people being unable to receive adequate medical supplies, food deliveries and other vital resources necessary for survival.<\/p>\n<p>After ensuring Israel was provided the necessary munitions to \u2018finish the job\u2019 in the Middle East, Trump took aim at the international courts that have been a thorn in the side of Netanyahu &amp; Co. since shortly after October 7.<\/p>\n<p>First he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/clykenglv32o\">signed an executive order<\/a> cutting aid to South Africa, citing, among other things, the genocide case brought at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Israel:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\u201cIn addition, South Africa has taken aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies, including accusing Israel, not Hamas, of genocide in the international court of justice, and reinvigorating its relations with Iran to develop commercial, military and nuclear arrangements.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He then signed <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-icc-sanctions-israel-order-01beee050ae84d0d9eae66d00bc8ead9\">an executive order<\/a> imposing economic and travel sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its chief prosecutor Karim Khan over the court\u2019s decision to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The order accuses the ICC of \u201cillegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.\u201d The ICC is the world\u2019s only permanent global tribunal for crimes against humanity, aggression, war crimes and genocide, all of which Bibi and Gallant are patently guilty of carrying out. According to <a href=\"http:\/\/time.com\/\">Time.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\u201cThe warrants said there was reason to believe Netanyahu and Gallant used \u2018starvation as a method of warfare\u2019 by restricting humanitarian aid, and intentionally targeted civilians in Israel\u2019s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. Israeli officials deny the charges.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Making a mockery of Israel\u2019s denials, Yoav Gallant himself <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/program\/newsfeed\/2023\/10\/9\/israeli-defence-minister-orders-complete-siege-on-gaza\">told the media<\/a> shortly after 10\/7:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\u201cWe are imposing a complete siege on the city of Gaza. There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s ICC executive order <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/world\/icc-trump-sanctions-israel-gaza-international-criminal-court-rcna191175\">has been condemned<\/a> in a joint statement by 79 nations including France, Germany, Spain and Brazil, expressing \u201cregret\u201d at \u201cattempts to undermine the court\u2019s independence, integrity and impartiality.\u201d For his final trick Trump lifted sanctions on 30 of Israel\u2019s most extreme settler groups in the West bank, and re-imposed \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d sanctions on Iran, targeting her oil network which supplies extraordinary amounts of discounted crude to China.<\/p>\n<p>Trump, like many swindlers, is a showman who manipulates public perception with the virtuosity of someone who has spent years working in television. While millions of MAGA diehards actually believe his actions are motivated by a consideration for the public welfare, the reality is that Trump is first-and-foremost beholden to mega-rich donors who are always guaranteed a return on their sizeable deposits. It\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/haaretzcom\/status\/1797727456113103358\">been reported<\/a> in the Israeli press, for example, that in return for her donation of $100 million to Trump\u2019s presidential campaign, ultra-Zionist Miriam Adelson expects annexation of the West Bank. So too does Israel\u2019s extremist Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2024\/11\/11\/far-right-israeli-minister-orders-preparations-for-west-bank-annexation\">wrote on X<\/a> after Trump\u2019s landslide victory in November, \u201cthe year 2025 will, with God\u2019s help, be the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,\u201d making use, like U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, of the Biblical name for the territory comprising the West Bank.<\/p>\n<p>If there\u2019s one takeaway from Trump\u2019s first three weeks in office it\u2019s that, in matters of foreign policy at least, it doesn\u2019t appear he will do anything other than fulfill his obligations to the wealthy donors who returned him to the White House. Due to his ability to manipulate conservative perceptions, however, it\u2019s unlikely there will be any meaningful opposition from his base.<\/p>\n<p>On November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill enshrining Martin Luther King Jr. Day a federal holiday. Shortly before signing the legislation Reagan received a letter from Republican Governor Meldrin Thomas pleading with him to veto the bill on account of King being \u201ca man of immoral character\u201d who had \u201cwell established\u201d communist affiliations. Although sympathetic to Thomas\u2019s grievance, Reagan refused to hinder passage of the bill, replying, \u201cOn the national holiday you mentioned, I have the reservations you have, but here the perception of too many people is based on an image, not reality. Indeed to them, the perception is reality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reagan\u2019s insight is as applicable to Donald Trump in 2025 as it was to MLK in 1983. The popular image of Trump as an intrepid adversary of the Deep State holds powerful sway over the minds of many Americans but stands in contrast to the reality of him as a <em>shabbos goy<\/em>, operating primarily on behalf of his billionaire donors, Benjamin Netanyahu and the state of Israel. I can think of no other political leader who could shut down the US economy, appoint a clown like Tony Fauci to spearhead a national pandemic response, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=p_0wIUz1P1w\">give $500 billion to Sam Altman and Larry Ellison<\/a> to produce AI-generated mRNA vaccines, and still receive historic levels of support from conservative Americans. Again, as that other great paragon of conservatism Ronald Reagan said, \u201cthe perception of too many people is based on an image, not reality.\u201d Few would know better than the former Hollywood actor-turned-politician who, as the 40th president of the United States, granted amnesty to over 3 million illegal aliens without suffering even the slightest damage to his stellar legacy.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_145220\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Reagan-satanc-salute.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-145220\" class=\"wpa-warning wpa-image-missing-alt wp-image-145220\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Reagan-satanc-salute.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"525\" data-warning=\"Missing alt text\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Reagan-satanc-salute.jpg 670w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Reagan-satanc-salute-300x262.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-145220\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">President Ronald Reagan. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>In spite of his role in the Iran-Contra Affair and other treasonous misdeeds,\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Ronald Reagan\u2019s legacy remains unharmed<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Originally posted at <a href=\"https:\/\/truthblitzkrieg.com\/2025\/02\/10\/the-art-of-deception\/\">Truth Blitzkrieg<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wyatt Peterson reveals how prior to becoming president, Donald Trump deliberately duped Holiday Inn executives into investing into one of his projects with a staged construction site. Is he doing the same thing today with the American people? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":303431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,15,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-303430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Behind_The_News","category-Hidden_and_Revisionist_History","category-Inside_the_White_House_and_Washingtons_Beltway"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=303430"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":303434,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303430\/revisions\/303434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/303431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=303430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=303430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=303430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}