The fact is what is currently being performed

But it’s not just those who want to portray Joyce who should look at their ties and surfaces. The rule also applies to Trump. In fact, Trump himself is an observer and thinker of the surface. Maggie Haberman also sees it that way. She has described how Trump infers his existence from the public visibility or performance of something. This was the logic during the Corona period, for example: If you discuss the dangers of the COVID virus on an open stage, you create them in the first place; if you don’t talk about the dangers, you make them disappear.

According to Haberman, something is true, factual or existent for Trump because it is being performed or discussed in public at the moment, but only for as long as it is being performed or discussed. She writes: “Trump had always appeared to believe that things only existed if they were discussed openly, and he set about minimizing the [COVID] virus in public, despite private warnings from National Security Council team that it was significant and from aides such as Kellyanne Conway and Brad Parscale to treat it seriously.”⁸⁴ Once again: for Trump, according to Haberman, whatever is being performed and is therefore visible is true or fact. Truth as a show in real time, live: this is either the most extreme performative concept of truth and fact imaginable—or none at all.

Notes

1. ⁸⁴Haberman, Confidence Man, p. 414.