phony

So he retreats to this phony masculine idea of "strength," constructed through Hollywood magic.

It is well established that toward the end of this year’s presidential election campaign, Russians created and disseminated phony videos designed to swing voters away from Vice President Kamala Harris.

“This is how fascism comes to America, not with jackboots and salutes,” Robert Kagan, a political commentator and former editor-at-large for the Washington Post, wrote in 2016, “but with a television huckster, a phony billionaire, a textbook egomaniac.”

The way to get there, however, is not through transparently phony defenses of transparent cowardice.

When he walked into the fast-food restaurant on Sunday, he said to the franchise owner, “I’ve always wanted to work at McDonald’s, but I never did. I’m running against somebody that said she did, but it turned out to be a totally phony story.”