Tag: Trump lies

Trump said he granted a disaster declaration at the request of North Carolina’s Republican senator. It came from the state’s Democratic governor.

Washington Post logoUnder federal law, requests by states for disaster declarations are made by governors.

With Hurricane Dorian heading in the direction of North Carolina, President Trump appeared to inject politics into the process on Tuesday night.

“At the request of Senator Thom Tillis, I am getting the North Carolina Emergency Declaration completed and signed tonight,” Trump wrote in a tweet, adding: “Hope you won’t need it!”

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

At the request of Senator Thom Tillis, I am getting the North Carolina Emergency Declaration completed and signed tonight. Hope you won’t need it!

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View the complete September 4 article by John Wagner on The Washington Post website here.

White House Admits Trump Faked China Phone Calls To Boost Stock Market

Trump is now putting out fake information to boost the stock market that he remains invested in as president.

CNN reported, “Still, Trump flashed signs of optimism this week that the trade war could be resolved, saying he’s received calls from Chinese officials saying they wanted to restart talks. Though Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin insisted there had been “communication,” aides privately conceded the phone calls Trump described didn’t happen they way he said they did. Instead, two officials said Trump was eager to project optimism that might boost markets and conflated comments from China’s vice premier with direct communication from the Chinese.”

The White House admitted that Trump lies to boost the stock market, which means that the market, like the rest of the country can’t believe a single word that comes out of the president’s mouth. It goes beyond the fact that Trump is a pathological liar.

View the complete August 30 article by Jason Easley on the PoiticusUSA website here.

Trump Says China Will Suffer as Data Shows Trade War Hurting U.S.

New York Times logoWASHINGTON — President Trump said on Tuesday that Chinese manufacturing would “crumble” if the country did not agree to the United States’ trade terms, as newly released data showed his trade war was washing back to American shores and hurting the factories that the president has aimed to protect.

Days after new tariffs went into effect on both sides of the Pacific, a closely watched index of American manufacturing activity fell to 49.1 from 51.2, signaling a contraction in United States factory activity for the first time since 2016. The companies responding to the Institute for Supply Management survey, which the index is based on, cited shrinking export orders as a result of the trade dispute, as well as the challenge of moving supply chains out of China to avoid the tariffs.

The manufacturing sector’s struggles are likely to increase as the world’s two largest economies continue to escalate their trade fight. On Sunday, Mr. Trump placed a new 15 percent tariff on a range of consumer goods, including clothing, lawn mowers, sewing machines, food and jewelry, and Beijing retaliated by increasing tariffs on $75 billion worth of American products. China also said on Monday that it was filing a complaint at the World Trade Organization over Mr. Trump’s new tariffs.

View the complete September 3 article by Ana Swanson on The New York Times website here.

Disinformation is catalyzing the spread of authoritarianism worldwide

AlterNet logoThere’s a segment of the American left that believes we’re in no position to be outraged over Russia’s multifaceted campaign to swing the 2016 election to Trump because the U.S. has meddled in its share of elections in other countries. Setting aside the fact that this is a prime example of the tu quoque fallacy, it ignores the specific context of that intervention. The Kremlin didn’t help elect a generic Republican who is sympathetic to their interests–they worked on behalf of a clownish and corrupt narcissist who has no clue whatsoever about how to govern and has emboldened an ethno-nationalist movement that’s ripping the country apart.

But that argument also fails to grasp that this isn’t just about us. As I wrote for The Nation in 2017, long before Trump descended on that gaudy golden escalator to announce his candidacy with a rant about Mexico sending us their rapists, Russia had honed its tactics in Estonia, followed soon after by attempts, with varying degrees of success, to disrupt the domestic politics of Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Finland, Bosnia and Macedonia.

While those efforts were on behalf of politicians and parties that were seen as advancing the Kremlin’s interests, and weren’t strictly ideological, in most cases they resulted in support for far-right ethno-nationalists.

View the complete August 31 article by Joshua Holland on the AlterNet website here.

‘He’s not going to lie to this country’: Trump’s new press secretary gives a tortured and laughable defense of the president’s endless deception

AlterNet logoDefending President Donald Trump is not an easy job, so there are always some who insist that we should give his spokespeople credit for trying their best in a vexing position. But since no one needs to be a professional defender of the president — anyone who could get such a job has other options — we shouldn’t treat the pleas for sympathy with much credibility.

With that in mind, new White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham’s latest defense of the president’s lies should be greeted with laughing derision. In a new piece by Washington Post reporter Paul Fahri, Grisham took the admittedly impossible task of defending Trump’s lies to new, extreme heights (or depths, depending on where you’re standing):

“Do I believe that their coverage is slanted and biased? Yes. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. A majority of reporters are liberal. A lot of reporters are uncomfortable with him and his blunt way of speaking. I think this is the first time they’ve been so publicly called out for some of their behaviors and their instinct is to fight back rather than take a step back” and assess their conduct.

His blunt way of speaking? Does Grisham think Trump never lies?

View the complete August 28 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here.

NOTE:  President Trump sworn to uphold the U.S. Constitution.  He lies (see the ‘Trump never lies’ link above), and then attacks this country’s free press when they report he lies.  Now, he has a communications staff that is taking that same lie to a higher level.)

Trump leans into deal-maker reputation

The Hill logoPresident Trump is leaning into his deal-maker persona, seeking to project confidence about the economy ahead of his 2020 reelection bid.

At the Group of Seven (G-7) summit’s conclusion on Monday in Biarritz, France, Trump’s efforts were on full display.

The president spoke optimistically about the prospect of a deal to end the trade war with China, while championing a separate tentative trade agreement with Japan.

View the complete August 27 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

NOTE:  Please note there has been no formal announcement of this “deal” with Japan. And, China’s official channels said there were no phone calls to the Trump administration. And, take a look at our post on Trump’s business failures here.

Fact-checking President Trump’s G-7 news conference

Washington Post logoIn a lengthy news conference at the conclusion of the Group of Seven summit of industrialized democracies, President Trump made numerous false, misleading or inaccurate statements on a variety of issues. Here’s a tour through some of the more noteworthy ones, in the order in which he made them.

“The tariffs have hit them [China] very hard. In a fairly short period of time, the United States will have collected over $100 billion in tariffs.”

As we have repeatedly noted, U.S. tariffs are a tax on the American people, not China. The tariffs are generally paid by importers, such as U.S. companies, who in turn pass on most or all of the costs to consumers or producers who may use Chinese materials in their products. (Technically, we should note that as a matter of demand and supply elasticities, Chinese producers will pay part of the tax if there are fewer goods sold to the United States.)

Numerous economic studies have found that the tariffs are costing American households hundreds of dollars a year. Moreover, China has retaliated by hiking duties on U.S. exports, costing the U.S. the equivalent of about $40 billion a year in lost exports. That’s why Trump has already spent $28 billion to bail out farmers who have lost access to Chinese markets.

View the complete August 27 article by Glenn Kessler on The Washington Post website here.

Sixty-eight minutes in Biarritz: A glimpse into Trump’s unorthodox mind

Washington Post logoThe Debrief: An occasional series offering a reporter’s insights

BIARRITZ, France —  For many minutes on Monday, President Trump stood on foreign soil at the close of the Group of Seven summit here and trashed his predecessor. He bragged about his personal properties from the presidential podium and suggested that he will hold next year’s G-7 gathering at his Doral golf course in Florida, which has “incredible” conference rooms and “magnificent” bungalows.

And he defended both Vladi­mir Putin and Kim Jong Un, suggesting that the Russian strongman deserves an invite to future G-7 summits and that the North Korean dictator is an honorable man who will not let Trump down.

The U.S. president’s news conference here was presaged by an aide saying Trump would answer anything if the first two questions stayed on topic. Trump seemed more interested when the questions went off topic — and for 68 minutes in a seaside auditorium, he offered a lens into his un­or­tho­dox mind, a range of false or dubious statements, and the myriad ways he has changed the presidency in 31 months.

View the complete August 26 article by Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.

US, Japan move closer to limited trade deal

NOTE:  Trump announced this as a deal at the G-7, but it appears there is no firm deal.

Trump, Abe outline possible deal that could open Japanese markets to $7 billion in U.S. goods

The United States and Japan have reached a tentative agreement that could give President Donald Trump a trade win for his farm constituency and could protect Japan against steep auto tariffs that the administration is threatening to impose on imported vehicles.

Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe outlined the agreement in principle on agriculture, industrial tariffs and digital trade Sunday during the G-7 summit in France. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the agreement, if finalized, would open Japanese markets to an additional $7 billion in U.S. products.

Abe said negotiators will continue to fine-tune the language. The two leaders said they hoped to sign the agreement in New York in late September when the U.N. General Assembly meets. There was no mention of whether Congress would have a role in approving the agreement.

View the complete August 26 article by Ellyn Ferguson on The Roll Call website here.

Trump insists trade talks have restarted with China, but details are elusive

Washington Post logoBIARRITZ, France — After several days of whiplash statements about China that brought new tariffs, olive branches, countermeasures, reversals and bravado, President Trump on Monday said trade negotiations are set to resume once more.

“We’ve gotten two calls and very, very good calls,” Trump told reporters at the Group of Seven summit. “Very productive calls. They mean business. They want to be able to make a deal.”

Trump later clarified that the calls had occurred as recently as Sunday evening. Other administration officials were more circumspect, and it wasn’t clear how substantive any interaction had been. “There were discussions that went back and forth, let’s leave it at that,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters.

View the complete August 26 article by Damian Paletta and David J. Lynch on The Washington Post website here.