Trump Watch: Falsehoods
President Donald Trump has told more than 5,000 false and misleading claims throughout his first 601 day in office, according to The Washington Post Fact Checker, recently averaging 32 false statements a day.
Trump is famous for his wild accusations and over exaggerated claims, many made on Twitter. The Post’s Fact Checker regularly updates the amount of false or misleading claims Trump makes, fact checking all his statements.
“Everyone knows he lies. The truth is not important to him. He even said that in his book,” said history teacher Jeff Goldstein.
The president has made false claims on Obamacare or otherwise known as The Affordable Care Act, deeming it as “a total disaster” and a plan that needs to be abandoned in our country. This claim is false according to the Congressional Budget report which shows Obamacare as financially stable for the next year.
Most of all Trump has made lies about the Russian investigations and Russian hacking of the 2016 election. Trump has made about 462 lies claiming that the Russian investigation was a hoax lead by Democrats after losing the election to Trump, according to The Post.
He states that there was no interactions with the Russians regarding his campaign but it is still under investigation. The U.S. intelligence community, the Department of Justice, and the House and Senate intelligence committees have all agreed that there was Russian meddling in the election of 2016.
The president has also made approximately 86 false business deal claims. He has made about 517 false claims about the economy since taking office.
For example, Trump claimed that he convinced Ford, an automobile producing company in the U.S., to not move its factory located in Kentucky to Mexico. This statement is false as the CEO of Ford, Mark Fields, made this decision before Trump was sworn into office on Jan. 20, 2017.
Trump repeatedly claims the media is pinning him as a villain. As junior Patrick James puts it, “I don’t want to say too much, but I definitely feel like the media is trying to make him seem like the bad person he isn’t. I personally just feel like they are all over exaggerating to make him, in a sense look horrible,” says James.
As Trump’s presidency continues the number of false claims will seemingly continue to rise. As the president makes many claims and criticisms about fake news and false press, there seems to be an increasing amount of suspicion in his statements and their validity. The Washington Post will continue to update Trump’s false and misleading claims as we continue to watch and differentiate what the truth really is.