Trump lies. A lot. Perhaps this is harsh. Maybe I should say “Trump’s statements are falsehoods inaccurate a lot. At least it seemed so to me while watching Trump ramble.
Forever questioning myself, I began wondering if instead of the validity of his claims, I wasn’t just reacting to Trump’s knee-jerk racism. Or his anti-Muslim xenophobia. Or his bullying misogyny.
So, like a good Progressive, I researched. And it turned out I was right. Trump misinforms often. But I was surprised of how often. Especially when he is going out of his way to paint Secretary Clinton as “crooked.”
But, as usual, it’s a good idea to check out your source of information when it comes to name calling. And it turns out that Trump’s a terribly unreliable source. Who often relies on other unreliable sources, like the National Enquirer and wildly inaccurate crime statistics compiled by a white supremacist.
Below is a summary of my research. Including an InfoGraphic summarizing the article at the bottom of the page. Share at will.
How Common are Trump’s Lies Falsehoods Inaccuracies?
I pulled data from the Tampa Bay Time’s Pulitzer Prize winning fact-checking site Politifact, and did a quick comparison of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
The results were illuminating. Especially with the Right-Wing smear campaign that has many moderate Democrats — like my mother, a retired, 75-year-old teacher — stating that they sort of distrust Hillary.
Based on the data (see end of the article for the full breakdown)...
- A statement by Trump is 260% more likely to be false than a statement by Secretary Clinton.
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Hillary is 1150% more likely to make a factual statement than Trump. (FYI This is not a typo — that is 1150%, or one-thousand one-hundred and fifty percent)
- The less-true something is, the less-apt Hillary is to say it. On the other hand, Trump seems to prefer untruths to truths.
- If you’re interested, Bernie and Hillary fared similarly. Both made false statements 13% of the time. And Hillary is actually a touch more likely to tell the truth (23% to Sanders’ 15%)… though the difference may not be statistically significant due to the smaller size of the Sanders sample (96 statements rated versus Hillary’s 199).
So much for “crooked Hillary.” She looks like the straightest arrow running, which shocked me. Since I thought Bernie Sanders would be the most honest. Go figure.
How Bad are Trump’s Lies Falsehoods Inaccuracies?
All told, pretty bad. Not only does the Donald tell a lot of falsehoods, the ones he does tell are substantial. These are not just misstatements of facts. And Politifact has an annoying habit (in my view) of bending over backwards to find lies told by Democrats to “balance” lies told by Right-Wing sources.
This results in a lot of fluff being included.
For instance, one of of Hillary Clinton’s statements rated “Mostly False” came during a campaign stop in PA after Villanova won the NCAA basketball championship over North Carolina. The game was tied, and Villanova won by sinking a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Clinton’s statement that won her a Mostly False rating? "I love those come-from-behind victories.”
Really? Balance is balance, but this is a false-negative if I’ve ever seen one. And yet, it’s in Clinton’s record. But unlike this piece of fluff, Trump’s directly reflect his policy stances and proposed solutions. And, sad to say, his questionable “fit” for the job of President. Below are a few of his “Greatest Hits” ...
A SAMPLING OF TRUMP'S MISINFORMATION
Trump “tells it like it is[n't]”
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How “it [really] is” based on evidence
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"ISIS is making millions of dollars a week selling Libyan oil." |
David Mack, an expert on Libya and terrorism, called Trump’s claim a "gem of misinformation." |
"You have to be a citizen to vote," but with same-day voter registration, "you have places where people just walk in and vote." |
In states with same-day voter registration, people don’t just walk in and vote. They have to provide the same level of identification as when registering in advance. |
"We're the highest taxed nation in the world." |
Data from 2014 shows that the United States actually places near the bottom or around the middle of the pack. |
"I was totally against the war in Iraq, saying for many years that it would destabilize the Middle East." |
Fact checkers at the Tampa Bay Times found “no evidence of Trump warning about regional destabilization before or after the war started.” |
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InfoGraphic: Trump’s Lies Falsehoods Inaccuracies
Feel free to share this with your friends. Because what makes Trump scary is how cock-sure he sounds. If he was dealing from an honest deck, and things were the way he’s been saying, he may have a point.
But things are different than the way he portrays them.
I think he knows this. He's trying to con America like he conned the people who trusted his name and got burned on Trump University.
Data:
Here’s the data in full. Please note that, for simplicity, I have combined Politifact’s “Pants on Fire” rating with “False.” Mostly because misinformation is misinformation, but whether something is “Pants on Fire” rather arbitrary.
RANKING CANDIDATES' MISINFORMATION (POLITIFACT THOURHG 05/22/2016)
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Donald TRUMP |
HILLARY Clinton |
Bernie Sanders |
True |
2% |
23% |
15% |
Mostly-True |
6% |
27% |
38% |
Half-True |
15% |
21% |
17% |
Mostly-False |
15% |
16% |
19% |
False |
61% |
13% |
13% |
|