TrumpTruths

Since Donald Trump first announced his candidacy for president, we have entered a new era. There are many parts to this new era. One of them is the normalization of lies by the president, his administration, and the GOP in general. I'm not talking about the normal political hyperbole, exaggerations, opinions, selective shading of facts and statistics. I am talking about bald face lies. Things that can be proven wrong. The dawning of the post-truth era. I call these TrumpTruths. 

Trump has always had a very casual relationship with the truth. That was not much of a problem when he was a private businessman, when he was the host of a "reality" TV show, or when he was on Howard Stern's radio show bragging about his sexual conquests. It also was only a minor problem during the first part of his campaign for the presidency, when no one took him seriously. It became a problem when he won the GOP nomination and has escalated now that he is president.

The lies started even before his candidacy when he insisted that President Obama was born outside the United States and was not a citizen. He also hinted that Obama was a Muslim. On the very first day of his administration, he insisted that his inauguration crowd was the largest in history. Something not corroborated by the Park Service, DC police, or photo evidence. 

As of May 31, 2018, the unofficial count of Trump lies is 3,251 in 467 days. An average of 6½ per day. There were 250 in May 2018, 8/day. At his 5/29 rally, there were 35. In one hour on 6/20, he spewed 29 lies. Many of those 3,251 lies are repeats. Trump's strategy seems to be if you tell a lie often enough, it becomes the truth. 

Listed below are some of his many lies. Some important, some not, but all untrue.  

• Trump claimed that his State of the Union address had the largest TV audience in history. Not even close. 
  
• He passed the biggest tax cut in US history. There have been at least six larger tax cuts since 1945. The biggest by Reagan in 1981, the last larger one in 2012 by Obama.  
  
• Mexico will pay for his "big, beautiful" border wall. Yet, he keeps asking Congress for funding. 
• The trade deficit with Mexico is $100 billion/year. It was actually $64 billion in 2017.
• Trump said that Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov brought 22 relatives into the United States through "chain migration." He is the immigrant, with a green card, who ran over eight people in New York City. There is no record that he brought a single relative to this country.
• Lottery migration. He constantly states that the foreign countries pick their worst people to send to the US. In fact, the foreign country has no involvement with the lottery immigration (US Diversity Visa lottery) program. Individuals apply to the US State Department. They are vetted by the US and then wait to possibly be chosen. It takes years.
• Talked about what a great letter he got from Kim Jong Un but refused to divulge what was in it. Then at the end of the interview admitted he hadn't read it yet. A completely unnecessary lie by a pathological liar. 
  
• “We've just secured -- you've read all about it -- a $700 billion, largest ever amount of money to support our great war fighters.” It is not even the largest recent military budget. Obama budgeted $710 million in 2011 and $714M in 2010.
• “We have now the lowest number of ships that we've had since World War I.” There are currently 283 Navy ships. There were 279 in 2007. Just to clarify, 283 is a larger number than 279.
• “Very soon you're going to get to 355 beautiful ships. 355.” The 355 number was proposed by the Navy in 2016 before Trump took office. The current schedule is to have 355 ships by 2050. Is that "very soon"?
• “We just got you a big pay raise. First time in 10 years. We got you a big pay increase. First time in over 10 years. I fought for you. That was the hardest one to get, but you never had a chance of losing.” Trump was referring to military raises. According to the Department of Defense, active members of the military have received a raise every year since 1983.
• “Clapper has now admitted that there was Spying in my campaign. Large dollars were paid to the Spy, far beyond normal. Starting to look like one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history. SPYGATE - a terrible thing!” In fact, Clapper said the exact opposite and there is no record that Halper, the alleged "spy", was paid.
• “In the history of our country, no President -- whether it's four years, eight years, or sixteen years, in one case -- has ever passed more regulation cuts.” Unverified. There has never been a president who served 16 years. History is hard.
• “Small business optimism has never, ever been higher, according to polls and charts.” According to the National Federation of Independent Business, there have been 20 times it has been higher
• “We have thousands of judges and they need thousands of more judges. The whole system is corrupt.” Trump was speaking about immigration judges. In fact, there are 334 judges. Again, 334 is less than "thousands".
• “[The stock market] is up almost 40 percent since Election Day.” At the time of this statement, the stock market was up 32%. Rounding up to 40% is a stretch. The market is down in 2018.
• “We've spent $7 trillion -- can you believe that -- $7 trillion in the Middle East. Right out the window.” From 2001 to 2014 the US spent $1.6 trillion in Iraq and Afghanistan. 
• “They wanted it so badly -- San Diego. They wanted it so badly. And I said, you know, if we build it, we will lose a big constituency, because there won't be anybody saying, "We want the wall." But we had to build it. So I know they're very happy about it.” San Diego does not support construction of the wall; even the Republican mayor is opposed. The construction near San Diego is actually a repair of the fence. No "wall" construction has been done.
• “And I'll tell you, the people in Michigan very much appreciate it. It's a big deal. [Chrysler is] leaving Mexico; going to Michigan.” Chrysler is moving one production line from a Mexican plant to an existing Michigan plant. The Mexican plant remains open.
• Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind) "never sponsored a bill that has become a law.” In fact, Trump signed a bill sponsored by Donnelly.

This is just a sample of TrumpTruths, there are many more but you get the idea. Trump has his own version of the world. A world where facts don't matter. I don't know whether Trump believes the lies he spouts or is ignorant of the truth. I suspect it is a mixture. Neither reason is acceptable or flattering to Trump. TrumpTruths are a bane on our society and a danger to our country. Most of us were taught that lying is wrong. Apparently, Trump was not taught that lesson. 

Unfortunately, many Trump supporters don't care. That may be the saddest and most troubling development of this new post-truth era.  

wjh