Michiko Kakutani

History is repeating itself. This time without even the pretext of war, and with added heartbreaking cruelty. Under Mr. Trump’s “zero tolerance” border enforcement policy, nearly 3,000 children were separated from their parents, and while the administration later halted these separations, it neglected to keep proper records and is now struggling to find and reunite families.

Once again, national safety is invoked to justify the roundup of whole groups of people. Once again, racist stereotypes are being used by politicians to ramp up fear and hatred. And once again, lies are being used to justify actions that violate the most fundamental American ideals of freedom, equality and tolerance.

[...]

President Trump not only lies with astonishing temerity and abandon, but those lies connect into equally false narratives that gin up the worst fears and prejudices of his base.



https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/13/opinion/when-america-incarcerated-my-family.html

Michiko Kakutani (@michikokakutani), the former chief book critic for The New York Times, is the author of the forthcoming book “The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump.”