Trump tweets about his health remind me of a story my late father-in-law Peter Worthington told about covering the Six Day War in 1967 ... 1/x

Pete was in Cairo on the day the war started. He was awoken early by air raid sirens. He turned on Radio Cairo to listen for news. Time passed until an announcer delivered a bulletin. "The Zionists attacked at dawn. We shot down six of their planes and suffered no losses." 2/x
Pete shaved and prepared to go visit the air ministry for himself. The announcer returned to the air. "Update: we shot down TWELVE Zionist planes and suffered no losses ourselves."

He understood the Egyptians had suffered a bad defeat. 3/x
He finished dressing, knotted his tie, and the announcer was back.

"Update again. We shot down FIFTY Zionist planes and suffered no losses ourselves."

That's when he realized that the entire Egyptian air force had been wiped out.

4/x
(NB I may have the figures wrong in the anecdote, I'm telling the story from memory, but you get the idea.)

5/x
But there's more!

Nasser's habit of telling absurd lies led him to multiplying

By Day 2 of the war, the truth of what happened on Day 1 could not be concealed. So Nasser now told a new lie: yes his air force had been wiped out - but not by the feeble Zionists. 6/x
No, the attack on the Egyptian Air Force had been the work of the US Mediterranean fleet! This new lie so outraged President Johnson that he refused to talk to Nasser for 48 hours of ever more radical Egyptian military disaster. Story told here https://t.co/vXbfeupN9x 7/x
Anyway, bottom line for Trump: smaller lies last longer.
-END -

More from David Frum

I got overnight via email a query from @briansflood at Fox News, the principal part of which I reproduce below. I answered by email too. I'll append that reply in the next threaded tweet:


My reply:


Hunter Biden's dubious business activities have been reported for years. Here for example is @TheAtlantic in September 2019, year *before* @nypost
https://t.co/qZBTpyuysM


That emails attributed to Hunter Biden were circulating was also known well before the NYPost story in October. Here's TIME magazine https://t.co/JvpEKdG0U4


What @NYPost added to the work earlier done by others was a new *origin* story for the materials that circulated in Ukraine in 2019. When other media organizations attempted to corroborate that story, hijinx ensued. https://t.co/ZJGZWq7etU @thedailybeast account

More from Trump

Trump: Day 1,407 (THREAD)
-13,454,254 Cases of COVID-19 in US
-US CV-19 Death Toll Rises to 271,026
-Day 20 Since Biden Declared Winner
-Day 424 at a Trump-owned Property
-Touts Assassination of Iran Scientist
-Appointed Judge Rejects PA Lawsuit
-$3M Recount Increases Biden Lead


https://t.co/hOfTV6hRNx


https://t.co/KYBIm6Qohw


https://t.co/Bj5tluZ5dh


https://t.co/Q9YG4btKvH

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