Let Us Lie So That Good May Come
How MAGA turned moral corruption into a political strategy
There is an old warning in Christian scripture that condemns a particular kind of moral logic: the idea that lying can be justified if the outcome is good. In Romans 3, Paul rejects the claim that falsehood becomes righteous if it advances God's cause, treating that reasoning not as clever strategy but as corruption itself, because it attempts to convert wrongdoing into virtue by appealing to a supposedly higher purpose.
Yet in modern American politics, this same logic has become an organizing principle of the MAGA movement, where dishonesty is no longer treated as a regrettable tactic but as an acceptable and even praiseworthy method when it is believed to serve a larger political purpose.
Traditional political lying is typically defensive in nature: to hide embarrassment, minimize scandal, or protect reputations, but what MAGA has built differs in both scope and intent. It operates proactively and ideologically, treating truth as negotiable and narrative as supreme, so that the central question shifts from whether something is true to whether it benefits the movement. When it does, truth becomes optional, and when it does not, reality itself is treated as an obstacle to be managed rather than a constraint to be respected.
This is exactly how "alternative facts" functions within the ideological system of Trumpism. It is not just ordinary dishonesty or spin that we have come to expect from politicians; it is a posture toward reality in which evidence is treated as optional, and contradiction is treated as irrelevant, because the point is not to describe the world accurately, it is to maintain the narrative that sustains the movement's identity and power. When the evidence conflicts, the evidence is not weighed and reconsidered. It is attacked, dismissed, reframed, or replaced with generative ai.
For a movement already oriented toward vibes over evidence, generative ai turns the old propaganda impulse into a new capability: the ability to manufacture "proof" when proof is missing. When a story is emotionally useful but factually unsupported, synthetic media can fill the gap. When reality does not cooperate, you can generate a reality that does, simulate events that never occurred, fabricate documents and quotes, and flood platforms with emotionally charged content disconnected from any real-world occurrence, producing a psychological reversal in which belief no longer follows evidence but instead generates it.[1]Reuters: Researchers found major generative image tools can produce misleading election-related images.[2]PBS NewsHour: State election officials warned about misleading AI-generated content and misinformation.
This helps explain why prominent figures in the MAGA ecosystem increasingly admit to "creating stories," promoting claims they know are unsupported, or circulating material they recognize may be false, since these actions are not the product of misunderstanding or error but reflect a strategic posture toward informational warfare, particularly through the media and cyberspace. Participants are not merely mistaken about the truth; they have adopted a posture of hostility toward it, in which contradiction is treated as opposition rather than correction.[3]The Guardian: JD Vance said he is willing to "create stories" to get media attention.
That is not a separate phenomenon from the "alternative facts" mentality, but is just the natural and logical conclusion that we are currently witnessing. If truth is subordinate to the cause, then fabrication becomes not merely permissible but attractive, because it allows the movement to operate without the friction of the real world.
What has changed most dramatically in recent years is not only the volume of this dishonesty, but the information infrastructure that now sustains it. The far right increasingly operates within a parallel media environment constructed from partisan outlets, algorithmically amplified content, anonymous networks, and synthetic media, creating an ecosystem that does more than distort reality and instead functions as a substitute for it. In this system, fabricated images, edited clips, and manufactured screenshots are allowed to stand in for evidence in the court of public opinion, with the result that reality becomes slow, disinformation becomes fast, and speed itself is treated as a form of credibility.[4]The Guardian: Researchers warn coordinated AI bot swarms can spread tailored misinformation at scale.[5]Washington Post: White House admits to sharing and digitally altering image in a Minnesota ICE protest arrest context; experts warned it erodes trust.
In Romans 3, Paul anticipates the reasoning that human unfaithfulness and even outright falsehood can be waved away because God's faithfulness remains, and that the contrast between human wrongdoing and divine righteousness might even make God's truth appear greater. He pushes that logic to its breaking point by naming it directly: "if my lie makes God's truth abound, if my wrongdoing highlights what is good, then why should I still be judged? Why not simply do evil so that good may come?" Even if a lie appears to serve something good, it does not cease to be a lie, and it does not become righteous simply because the person telling it believes the cause is worthy.
That logic now operates in modern far-right politics almost verbatim, translated into secular language. In Minneapolis this month, federal immigration agents killed two U.S. citizens, Renée Good and Alex Pretti, during immigration enforcement operations, and in both cases the official narrative issued by the Trump administration and the Department of Homeland Security was rapidly contradicted by unedited video footage and eyewitness accounts. In each case, the initial government statements described the victims as violent threats, claimed that agents were acting in self-defense, and framed the shootings as necessary responses to imminent danger. Within hours, multiple independent videos showed a far more disturbing reality.[6]Reuters: Bystander video reviewed by Reuters conflicts with DHS claim that Alex Pretti had a handgun; Walz disputes the account.[7]The Guardian: Multiple witness videos show Pretti holding a phone; officials continued calling him an "armed suspect."
In the killing of Renée Good, federal officials and administration figures described her as a "violent rioter" and even labeled her a "domestic terrorist," claiming she attempted to run over an officer with her vehicle.[8]Reuters: Federal officials claimed self-defense in Renee Good killing; protests and scrutiny followed release of additional video. Video footage and forensic evidence told a different story, showing Good attempting to leave the scene and not posing the threat described by federal spokespeople.[9]Reuters visual analysis: Shot timing and positioning indicate the agent fired as Good's car moved past, contesting the ramming claim.[10]Index (3D reconstruction): Preliminary modeling says the agent was not in the vehicle's trajectory at the moment of the shots. Despite this, senior officials and allied media figures continued to repeat the original claims, even as the video circulated publicly and local officials stated that the federal account was false.[11]The Guardian: Local officials disputed the federal narrative in the Renee Good case; DOJ declined to investigate.
Days later, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and U.S. citizen, was killed by federal agents while recording an ICE operation on his phone.[12]Reuters: Identifies Pretti as 37-year-old U.S. citizen and reports he was shot during federal immigration operation in Minneapolis.[13]ABC News: Background on Alex Pretti and summary of disputed DHS claims versus bystander footage.
The Department of Homeland Security initially claimed Pretti approached officers with a handgun and posed an imminent threat.[14]Reuters: DHS said Pretti approached with a handgun and resisted disarmament.[15]AP live updates: Reports DHS statements and the immediate aftermath and protests in Minneapolis. Multiple angles of bystander footage showed him holding only his phone, being pepper-sprayed, taken to the ground, and then shot.[16]The Guardian: Footage description includes Pretti filming on his phone, being pepper-sprayed, tackled, and shot. Witnesses and local officials contradicted the federal account, and Minnesota's governor publicly described the DHS narrative as untrue.[17]CBS Minnesota: State and local officials disputed the federal account; officials say feds denied state access to the scene.[18]Reuters: Walz challenged DHS narrative and called for state investigation.
Yet administration officials continued to defend the shooting using the same disproven talking points.[19]Wired: Documents rapid post-shooting messaging and smear framing amplified by administration allies and influencers.
What makes these cases especially revealing is not only the violence itself, but the speed and confidence with which a false narrative was constructed in defiance of visual evidence. The administration did not simply misstate the facts and then correct the record. It doubled down. It treated video and eyewitness testimony not as corrective information, but as something to be ignored, reframed, or dismissed in order to preserve the preferred story.
This is the same moral logic Paul is confronting in Romans 3, applied to state power. The lie is justified by the cause. The killing is justified by the narrative. The evidence is treated as secondary to the story that must be maintained. The question is no longer what happened, but what version of events best serves the mission. In that framework, even death does not interrupt the logic. It becomes another site for narrative replacement.
The Orwellian character of this response is not incidental. It is the logical outcome of a system in which loyalty to the cause overrides accountability to reality. When video evidence becomes something to be argued away rather than answered to, the boundary Paul is defending collapses in practice. Truth is no longer a standard. It is an obstacle.
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