Is Trump a pathological liar? Probably? It’s hard to say since everything about him is a lie, a manufactured untruth. His prowess as a businessman is a lie, he inherited his wealth from his father. His friends are bullshit. His face and hair are their own misadventure in truth telling. The Toronto Star has been keeping a tally of the falsehoods being told by our current president. With Trump’s return to the “campaign/not campaign trail” last week in Iowa—his bullshit game is back into fifth gear.
We are keeping track. Below is a list of every false claim Trump has made since his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2017.
Trump is averaging 2.1 false claims per day.
They have the list which can also be sorted by topic. Some of the choicest from the list:
"Former Homeland Security Advisor Jeh Johnson is the latest top intelligence official to state there was no grand scheme between Trump & Russia."
Source: Twitter
In fact: Johnson was Secretary of Homeland Security, not “Advisor,” and Trump’s claim is inaccurate even leaving that aside. Testifying before a House committee, Johnson was not nearly so definitive; asked if he had any evidence of Trump collusion with Russia, he said: “Not beyond what has been out there, open-source, and not beyond anything that I'm sure this committee has already seen and heard before directly from the intelligence community.” He then added that he hadn’t had access to intelligence “over the last five months,” as the investigation has continued.
Under “jobs.”
“You see what we’re doing, you see what we’ve already done. Homebuilders are starting to build again.”
Source: Iowa campaign rally
Homebuilders are building less under Trump than they did during the end of the Obama era. “U.S. housing starts hit eight-month low; building permits weak,” read a Friday headline from Reuters. The story began: “U.S. homebuilding fell for a third straight month in May to the lowest level in eight months as construction activity declined broadly, suggesting that housing could be a drag on economic growth in the second quarter.”
And the idea that someone would believe this whopper is amazing.
“I put a little clause. Handwritten. It said, anybody builds a pipeline in the United States will use American steel and fabricate in America. No more taking it over on boats. Very simple.”
Source: Iowa campaign rally
This is wrong in four ways. First, the order is separate from other orders, not a “clause” in the order on Keystone XL. Second, the order was not as forceful as Trump said: it said merely that the government should develop a plan to require pipelines to use American materials — “to the maximum extent possible and to the extent permitted by law.” Third, the order was not handwritten by Trump; it was typed in precise legalistic language. Fourth, Trump created the misleading impression that he is forcing Keystone XL to use American steel; that pipeline has already been granted an exemption, Politico reports, because it is not a “new” pipeline.
I’m sure The Toronto Star is being generous in their choices. I think the only words he ever even believes he means when he speaks are “I,” “me,” “my,” “Donald Trump.” The New York Times released a similar list on Friday, seen here. They noted Trump told a "public lie or falsehood every day for his first 40 days." It has golden-oldies like last week’s:
JUNE 21 “Right now, we are one of the highest-taxed nations in the world.” (We're not.)
And this:
MARCH 20 “With just one negotiation on one set of airplanes, I saved the taxpayers of our country over $700 million.” (Much of the cost cuts were planned before Trump.)
And this:
MARCH 13 “First of all, it covers very few people.” (About 20 million people gained insurance under Obamacare.)
Nevertheless, his hardcore fans are still with him. What will it take?
Trump has retained the support of most of his voters as well as the Republican leadership in Congress. But he has still paid some price for his lies. Nearly 60 percent of Americans say the president is not honest, polls show, up from about 53 percent when he took office.