Day 360: Trump Lying About Something You Can Easily Debunk With Your Ears
Donald Trump’s lies have become almost incalculable over the past 360 days. “Almost” because The Washington Post has meticulously pored Trump’s every public word and found that Trump recently passed the 2,000 lies mark.
With just 10 days before he finishes his first year as president, Trump has made 2,001 false or misleading claims in 355 days, according to our database that analyzes, categorizes and tracks every suspect statement uttered by the president. That’s an average of more than 5.6 claims a day.
When we started this project, originally aimed at the president’s first 100 days, he averaged 4.9 claims a day. At that pace, it appeared unlikely the president would break 2,000 in a year. But the longer the president has been in the job, the more frequently he touts an assortment of exaggerated, dubious or false claims. (Our full interactive graphic can be found here.)
Trump has lied about margin of electoral college victory, crowd size and even whether it was raining or not. He has lied about timelines — no, a 2,000 mile border wall cannot be built in under a year — about his own success — no, he has not passed more bills in his first year than any president in generations — and about the economy — no, it was not tanking when he took office.
Trump has gotten so aggressive with his lies, that he’s now lying about things that are easily verifiable with your own ears.
In speaking with The Wall Street Journal, Trump bragged about his relationships with President of China, Xi Jinping, and President of Japan, Shinzo Abe. Trump then said something surprising, considering the various “Little Rocket Man” tweets and other slanderings: “I have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un.”
When the comments were printed, Trump proclaimed that the Journal had misquoted him.
There’s some level of irony in Trump calling the Journal “fake news” since they are the only large-scale publication of note that has called for Robert Mueller to resign due to credibility concerns. (The Journal is owned by noted conservative and Fox News CEO Rupert Murdoch.)
Both the Journal and the White House released audio recordings of Trump’s interview.
As if your ears are betrayed momentarily and it’s not readily apparent that Trump clearly says “I” and not “I’d,” the next statement is the nail in the coffin: “I have relationships with people.”
The Journal also hit back, saying:
“A transcript of the interview created by an independent transcription service for The Journal and posted online by the newspaper Thursday evening also said that Mr. Trump had said ‘I’ rather than ‘I’d.’
In the grand scheme of things, Trump lying about “I” vs. “I’d” seems irrelevant. But’s it’s indicative of an administration who constantly thinks they can tell Americans that the sky is brown and people will automatically believe them.
360 days in, 1102 to go
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