Definition of a Hypocrite

Wikipedia says: Hypocrisy is the contrivance of a false appearance of virtue or goodness, while concealing real character or inclinations, especially with respect to religious and moral beliefs; hence in a general sense, dissimulation, pretense, sham.  A person who indulges in hypocrisy is a hypocrite.

In the past, Donald Trump has tweeted, "An 'extremely credible source' has called my office and told me that @BarackObama's birth certificate is a fraud."  4:23 PM - 6 Aug 2012.

He also tweeted, "Congratulations to @RealSheriffJoe on his successful Cold Case Posse investigation which claims @BarackObama's 'birth certificate' is fake."  8:56 AM - 18 Jul 2012

How about one of Trump's hallucinations, recounted on George Stephanopoulos' TV show:
TRUMP: “Hey, I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down. And I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering.”
STEPHANOPOULOS: “You know, the police say that didn’t happen and all those rumors have been on the Internet for some time. So did you misspeak yesterday?”
TRUMP: “It did happen. I saw it.”  (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/11/22/donald-trumps-outrageous-claim-that-thousands-of-new-jersey-muslims-celebrated-the-911-attacks/?utm_term=.613338efd378 )

He also said this, "There was a picture on the front page of the National Enquirer, which does have credibility," Trump said to a room of volunteers and staffers in Cleveland, adding that the tabloid "should be very respected."  In May, Trump had said to Fox News, "You know, his father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald's being -- you know, shot....Right prior to his [Kennedy's] being shot, and nobody even brings it up. I mean, they don't even talk about that. That was reported and nobody talks about it."  (Go to http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-defends-linking-ted-cruzs-father-to-lee-harvey-oswald/ )

Here's a delusional Trump tweet for you: "In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally."  3:30 PM - 27 Nov 2016

Now Donald Trump wouldn't promote the existence via a tweet of a "sex" tape unless it actually had sex in it and it the person he was accusing was actually in it, would he?  Oh yes he would:  "Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M(achado) become a U.S. citizen so she could use her in the debate?"  5:30 AM - 30 Sep 2016

Let us not forget Trump's favorite target, Hillary Clinton and the charitable Clinton foundation in a campaign statement: "Hillary Clinton is the defender of the corrupt and rigged status quo... The Clintons have spent decades as insiders lining their own pockets and taking care of donors instead of the American people.  It is now clear that the Clinton Foundation is the most corrupt enterprise in political history.  What they were doing during Crooked Hillary’s time as Secretary of State was wrong then, and it is wrong now. It must be shut down immediately.”

And that brings us to today, January 11, 2017, with Trump dismissing any possible conflicts of interest and complaining about "fake news" and the "media" being unfair...

Although Trump demanded Clinton close down her charitable foundation from which she made no money (we know this because we have seen her tax returns) and has done much good work with 87% of monies going to the needy, "He told a news conference he had formally given 'complete and total' control to them in a bid to avoid conflicts of interest.  Mr Trump's lawyer, Sheri Dillon said the President-elect had 'isolated' himself from his businesses.  But the Office of Government Ethics said Mr Trump's plan didn't 'meet the standards' of former presidents.  The organisation's director Walter Shaub said the office's primary recommendation was that Mr Trump 'divest his conflicting assets'."  (http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38587628 )

And of course, now he sees "fake news" everywhere (except for coming from himself):
"That's something that Nazi Germany would have done," he said.  He was replying to unsubstantiated allegations that his election team colluded with Russia and there were salacious videos of his private life... Mr Trump said the information "should have never been written and certainly should never have been released...   It's all fake news, it's phony stuff, it didn't happen," he said, adding that "sick people" had "put that crap together... it's an absolute disgrace". (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38586626 )

Trump was not happy that an allegedly "fake news" story damaging to him made it into print and was complaining about it being leaked by Buzzfeed while at the same time falsely accusing CNN of linking to the report, which it did not.  He threatened to throw out a CNN reporter from today's news conference.  I guess CNN is no National Inquirer.

Please note that this "fake news" was actually a privately created report given to John McCain and the intelligence community and in no way was it classified material.  If it is "leaked" to Buzzfeed, there is no culpability necessarily on the part of the intelligence community.  They had no ability to keep the report secret if someone in private life had decided to send it to Buzzfeed.  It's a private report; anyone could have written it, gotten it and forwarded it.  The sources of the report apparently had enough credibility to inspire a John McCain and others to consider it to be worth investigating by the intelligence community.  That is not "fake new" - it's real news.  The report may prove to be false itself, but the fact that this report is being investigated is real news and its leak may be perfectly legal.  Its leaking certainly is as ethical as Trump's birther claims, his claims about Ted Cruz's father and other lies that Trump has promoted.

Unfortunately the President elect seems to have no ability to discern "fake new" from real news, and sadly a large minority of Americans cannot as well.  And even before the inauguration, that a large minority of Americans are learning to accept gross hypocrisy and lies on a scale even more grand than I could have ever imagined is the biggest real news of the day.