Fifteen lies per day.
That’s President Trump’s new record. Last week, he made 103 false claims — nearly double his previous high.
“Trump is incessantly inaccurate, but that number is still remarkable,” says the “Toronto Star,” which continues to keep its running total of Trump’s lying. “To put it in perspective: he uttered fewer than 100 false claims in eight of his first ten months in office. His previous average had been 101 per month.” The “Star” noted that his previous record had been 60 falsities per week.
A potential explanation for the increased lying is that Trump talked a lot more in public last week. He made widely covered speeches in Minnesota, Nevada and to the National Federation of Independent Businesses. And he’s tweeting more. The “Washington Post” had previously reported that Trump was tweeting — and lying — at an increasing rate this month. On June 19, they said he was tweeting 11.3 times a day, a record for him.
But why is he talking and tweeting so much? Perhaps, as Trump is fond of saying, time will tell.
Four of Trump’s selected lies last week:
During a speech to the Nevada Republican Party on June 23:
Lie: “You look at MS-13. We take them out of this country by the thousands.”
Truth: The acting director of ICE has said nearly 800 suspected members of MS-13 were arrested in 2017. That’s not thousands.
Lie: “They want to hire now 5,000 more judges so that a person puts the toe on the land and we have to go to trial.”
Truth: There is no plan or even proposal to hire 5,000 immigration judges. Congress has allocated money for 484 immigration judges, but less than 400 have been hired. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has proposed hiring 375 more.
During a roundtable on June 21:
Lie: “In the meantime, people are suffering because of the Democrats. So we’ve created, and they’ve created, and they’ve let it happen — a massive child-smuggling industry.”
Truth: There is no evidence that Democrats have created a “massive child-smuggling industry.”
At a Cabinet meeting on June 21:
Lie: “The big thing is, it will be a total denuclearization (of North Korea), which has already started taking place.”
Truth: There’s no indication that North Korea is denuclearizing. In fact, NBC News reported Tuesday that satellite images show North Korea is rapidly making improvements to a nuclear reactor despite Trump’s summit with Kim Jong Un.
