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| Magician Pretending to Saw a Woman in Half |
President Donald Trump is good at that kind of thing. In his White House speech of July 16, 2026, Donald Trump created the illusion that he was proving something, but it was mostly smoke and mirrors. A magicians’ trick. Now, Trump did not promise to saw a woman in half and put her back together. He did, however, promise this:
“Tonight, I'm announcing the immediate declassification and release of critical intelligence, revealing shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure.”Trump promised to expose “vulnerabilities” in our election system. However, did he prove his point? I contend that he did not, for he failed to live up to his own standards. A reasoned argument has three essential parts: (1) the evidence, (2) the conclusion, and (3) a link that connects the evidence to the conclusion.
Trump then emphasized that he was going to present wonderful evidence, a “declassification and release of critical intelligence," evidence that the powers that be, the Deep State, had covered up for years:
“This vital information has for many years been covered up and hidden from you, the American people — our beautiful, our great American people.”Sadly, Trump’s argument failed because the evidence that the White House subsequently published on its official website continued to cover up information that the American people might want to see. He gave the illusion that he had proven something, but the evidence he cited did not prove his conclusions.
Here is Trump’s claim, and here is his reference:
“You can see these documents for yourself at whitehouse.gov, that's whitehouse.gov, go check it out. Our purpose in disclosing this information is not to weaken confidence in elections, but to earn that confidence by confronting vulnerabilities and correcting them very, very quickly, and that's what we're doing.” [italics added]Trump never described this information in any detail during his actual speech. That always makes me suspicious. Instead, he told us to look at a website. So, I looked at WhiteHouse.gov, where I quickly found that a number of the cited documents did not open on my computer. Hmm. What about the ones that did open? Well, it just seems to me that if the speaker’s idea is “disclosing” information, that well, information should be disclosed. Alas! When I opened one of the White House links to information about alleged Chinese infiltration into our election systems, I uncovered this glorious page:
And this one!
The reader is surely thinking, maybe there is secret information in those documents that needs to stay private. I don’t doubt that for a moment. Still, Trump said that his purpose was to disclose secret information for the public to examine, information that had been hidden by the Deep State, and yet that information was not disclosed, I see no way to think that Trump kept his promise.
To me, as a somewhat critical listener, it seems obvious that anyone who looks at these blanked out pages is going to say, well, these are just blanked out pages. Blanked out pages don’t show anything, do they? So what purpose do they accomplish?
Those questions are easy to answer. Trump's bizarre non-disclosure proved nothing but accomplished plenty. After all, neither Trump nor his team showed even the slightest interest in proving anything to a careful listener or reader. No! They presented what communication professionals call “the illusion of proof.” Trump claimed that our elections are in danger. He seemed to present enormous amounts of evidence, not in his speech, but on a website. That evidence, if we trouble ourselves to look at it, proved little, but an uncritical listener could – and probably will – imagine that Trump had now proved something important, that Democrats should be ashamed of themselves, and that Trump had now established that the Democrats and the Chinese and who knows who else have cheated in our elections. After all, Trump made an important claim, and then gave evidence, and, if one doesn't look into too much detail, one might think that Trump had established his claim. One might even think that he had disclosed something useful to know.
Donald Trump Created the "Illusion of Proof" in His April 13, 2020 Coronavirus Task Force Press Conference
In a Rose Garden Speech, Trump Pretended to Have a Healthcare Plan
Yet, even a casual glance shows that Trump failed to prove his claim. He failed to live up to his own standard, which was to disclosed the documents. Instead, we only got smoke and mirrors. An illusion worthy of a great magician. But proof? No. Magicians do not saw young women in half and put them back together. That is only an illusion. Neither did Trump prove that anything big was wrong with our elections. He only created an illusion.
Those questions are easy to answer. Trump's bizarre non-disclosure proved nothing but accomplished plenty. After all, neither Trump nor his team showed even the slightest interest in proving anything to a careful listener or reader. No! They presented what communication professionals call “the illusion of proof.” Trump claimed that our elections are in danger. He seemed to present enormous amounts of evidence, not in his speech, but on a website. That evidence, if we trouble ourselves to look at it, proved little, but an uncritical listener could – and probably will – imagine that Trump had now proved something important, that Democrats should be ashamed of themselves, and that Trump had now established that the Democrats and the Chinese and who knows who else have cheated in our elections. After all, Trump made an important claim, and then gave evidence, and, if one doesn't look into too much detail, one might think that Trump had established his claim. One might even think that he had disclosed something useful to know.
Donald Trump Created the "Illusion of Proof" in His April 13, 2020 Coronavirus Task Force Press Conference
In a Rose Garden Speech, Trump Pretended to Have a Healthcare Plan
Yet, even a casual glance shows that Trump failed to prove his claim. He failed to live up to his own standard, which was to disclosed the documents. Instead, we only got smoke and mirrors. An illusion worthy of a great magician. But proof? No. Magicians do not saw young women in half and put them back together. That is only an illusion. Neither did Trump prove that anything big was wrong with our elections. He only created an illusion.
by William D. Harpine
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N.B.: Note that mainstream news media have, with great care, gone over all of the released documents so far, and generally concluded that Trump, at best, overstated his case. They are obviously right. What I add is that Trump created an illusion, a pretense, a dramatic and convincing demonstration that he had proved something, while proving little.
Research Note: The concept of the “illusion of proof” comes from a landmark article by an important communication professor, the late Barnet Baskerville, "The Illusion of Proof," Western Speech, 25 (1961): 236-242. The journal is now called Western Journal of Communication. Sadly, although this invaluable article is not readily available online, a large research library might be able to find you a copy.
N.B.: Note that mainstream news media have, with great care, gone over all of the released documents so far, and generally concluded that Trump, at best, overstated his case. They are obviously right. What I add is that Trump created an illusion, a pretense, a dramatic and convincing demonstration that he had proved something, while proving little.
Research Note: The concept of the “illusion of proof” comes from a landmark article by an important communication professor, the late Barnet Baskerville, "The Illusion of Proof," Western Speech, 25 (1961): 236-242. The journal is now called Western Journal of Communication. Sadly, although this invaluable article is not readily available online, a large research library might be able to find you a copy.
To understand the structure of reasoned arguments, there is still no better source than Stephen Toulmin, The Uses of Argument.
Copyright ©2026 by William D. Harpine
Images of redacted pages are public domain, from WhiteHouse.gov
Image of magician is public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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