Tag: Trump lies

Donald Trump said 4 things that aren’t true in a single 47-word tweet

The following article by Chris Cillizza was posted on the CNN website February 3, 2018:

(CNN) — On Saturday morning, before heading out for a round of golf, President Donald Trump tweeted this:

“This memo totally vindicates ‘Trump’ in probe. But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on. Their was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead). This is an American disgrace!”

The “memo” in question is the one released by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-California, that alleges that a dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele was the sole reason a FISA warrant was granted to surveil one-time Trump aide Carter Page. (Got all that?) Continue reading “Donald Trump said 4 things that aren’t true in a single 47-word tweet”

Trump claims GOP memo ‘totally vindicates “Trump” in probe’

The following article by Jenna Johnson was posted on the Washington Post website February 3, 2018:

President Trump approved the release of a controversial and classified congressional memo on Feb. 2. Here are some of its main claims. (The Washington Post)

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump said Saturday morning that a disputed four-page House Intelligence Committee memo that was composed by Republicans and released on Friday “totally vindicates ‘Trump’ ” in an FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, including possible ties to his campaign.

“This memo totally vindicates ‘Trump’ in probe. But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on,” the president wrote in a tweet at 9:40 a.m. Saturday. “Their was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead). This is an American disgrace!” Continue reading “Trump claims GOP memo ‘totally vindicates “Trump” in probe’”

Trump ends Twitter silence with blatant lie, gets corrected by Fox News

The following article by Aaron Rupar was posted on the ThinkProgress website February 1, 2018:

Even Trump’s favorite network acknowledges his SOTU audience was not the largest ever.

Credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

On Tuesday evening, President Trump posted a tweet of a live stream of his State of the Union speech. He didn’t tweet again until Thursday morning, when he told a blatant lie about his speech’s audience.

“Thank you for all of the nice compliments and reviews on the State of the Union speech. 45.6 million people watched, the highest number in history,” Trump tweeted. “@FoxNews beat every other Network, for the first time ever, with 11.7 million people tuning in. Delivered from the heart!”

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

Thank you for all of the nice compliments and reviews on the State of the Union speech. 45.6 million people watched, the highest number in history. @FoxNews beat every other Network, for the first time ever, with 11.7 million people tuning in. Delivered from the heart!

Twitter Ads info and privacy

But according to widely-shared Nielsen numbers released Wednesday, Trump’s first State of the Union was not the most watched in history.

In fact, as Fox News pointed out after Trump’s tweet, it wasn’t particularly close, with the three presidents who immediately preceded Trump each delivering State of the Union Addresses watched by more than 45.6 people.

Fox News Research

✔@FoxNewsResearch

TV Viewers:
2018: 45.6M
2017: 47.7M*
2016: 31.3M
2015: 31.7M
2014: 33.3M
2013: 33.5M
2012: 37.8M
2011: 42.8M
2010: 48.0M
2009: 52.4M*
2008: 37.5M
2007: 45.5M
2006: 41.7M
2005: 38.4M
2004: 43.4M
2003: 62.1M
1993: 66.9M* (largest TV audience)

*Not an official SOTU

Twitter Ads info and privacy

The data released by Nielsen doesn’t include the number of people who streamed the speech online — but that’s also the case for previous years.

Trump’s lie about his SOTU audience is reminiscent of the one his administration pushed about his inauguration crowd size. Despite clear photographic evidence that the crowd at Trump’s inauguration was far smaller than for Obama’s, the Trump administration spent the first days of Trump’s presidency insisting that it “was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration. Period. Both in person and around the globe,” as then-Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s infamously said during his first press briefing.

It turned out that not only was Trump’s in-person inauguration crowd size smaller than Obama’s, but his TV ratings were smaller as well.

Trump lies about big things, like his claim that millions of voters cost him the popular vote (no such thing happened), and small stuff, like the penalty in China for shoplifting (it’s not 10 years in jail). His lie about his SOTU audience comes while his lawyers are trying to prevent the president from sitting down for a sworn interview with Special Counsel Robert Mueller — a setting where even small fibs could land him in legal trouble.

Coincidentally, the positive news cycle Trump sought to bask in by not tweeting on Wednesday was ruined by explosive Mueller news. On Wednesday afternoon, CNN broke news, later corroborated by other outlets, that Trump asked Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein — the official overseeing Mueller’s investigation in the DOJ — about his political allegiances during a White House meeting. In the evening, the New York Times published an explosive account about how Mueller’s team has honed in on Trump’s role in crafting a misleading statement about his campaign’s Russia connections.

View the post here.

Continue reading “Trump ends Twitter silence with blatant lie, gets corrected by Fox News”

How Truthful Was Trump in His First Year? Before His State of the Union, What Our Fact Checks Show

The following article by Linda Qiu was posted on the New York Times website January 30, 2018:

President Trump is expected to tick off accomplishments from his first year in office during his first State of the Union address. Credit Eric Thayer for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — In his first State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Trump is expected to tick off accomplishments from his first year in office and present his policy vision going forward — and The New York Times will fact-check him as he speaks.

There is no guarantee that Mr. Trump will stick to the script. While his impromptu tweets and remarks are more prone to be inaccurate or unfounded, the president’s prepared speeches tend to be more tempered, even if they have taken facts out of context, included overstated or undue self-praise or offered bleak and exaggerated diagnoses.

Here are some lessons and themes drawn from a year of fact-checking Mr. Trump’s public remarks, interviews and social media posts as president. Continue reading “How Truthful Was Trump in His First Year? Before His State of the Union, What Our Fact Checks Show”

Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated claims about chain migration, NYC terror suspect

The following article by Miriam Valverde was posted on the PolitiFact website January 24, 2018:

Credit: Morris MacMatzen/Getty Images

President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that more than 20 people have migrated to the United States due to family ties to a terror attack suspect.

A man drove a truck onto a bike lane and pedestrian walkway in Manhattan on Oct. 31, killing eight people and injuring 12 others. The suspect, Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, is an Uzbek national whom Trump has singled out as a reason why “chain migration” and a visa lottery program should end. Continue reading “Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated claims about chain migration, NYC terror suspect”

One Year Later, a Look at Trump’s Pledges About the Presidency

The following article by Linda Qiu was posted on the New York Times website January 23, 2018:

A rally for President Trump last month in Pensacola, Fla. Credit Tom Brenner/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — As a freewheeling candidate on the campaign trail, Donald J. Trump amassed a long list of promises.

Some became rallying cries and signature to his candidacy (“build the wall”). Others reflected conventional Republican policy wishes (repealing the Affordable Care Act). And then there were the unorthodox pledges about how he would comport himself in office, a few probably improvised (“I will never be in a bicycle race”) or doomed from the start (“We won’t tweet anymore — not presidential”). Continue reading “One Year Later, a Look at Trump’s Pledges About the Presidency”

A year into his presidency, Trump is breaking one of his big ethics pledges

The following article by Melanie Schmitz was posted on the ThinkProgress website January 22, 2018:

A year into his presidency, no payments have been made.

WASHINGTON, DC – AUGUST 10: The Trump International Hotel is shown on August 10, 2017 in Washington, DC. The hotel, located blocks from the White House, has become both a tourist attraction in the nation’s capital and also a symbol of President Trump’s intermingling of business and politics. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

An Associated Press report on Monday showed that despite President Trump’s pledge to donate all profits his hotels received from foreign governments, his business has not yet made a single payment to the U.S. Treasury.

In 2017, the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. hosted several events entertaining groups from Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and Kuwait, as well as another promoting business between the United States and Turkey. The initial deadline to make a donation of those profits was set for the end of last year, but the deadline came and went with no payout. Continue reading “A year into his presidency, Trump is breaking one of his big ethics pledges”

President Trump’s claim that ‘nearly 3 in 4’ convicted of terrorism are foreign-born

The following article by Salvador Rizzo was posted on the Washington Post website January 22, 2018:

Trump says a new report on terrorism shows the dangers of immigration. We dig into the facts, and find fishy math and misleading language. (Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)

“New report from DOJ & DHS shows that nearly 3 in 4 individuals convicted of terrorism-related charges are foreign-born. . . . [W]e need to keep America safe, including moving away from a random chain migration and lottery system, to one that is merit-based.”
— President Trump, in a pair of Twitter posts, Jan. 16

Making the case for tighter immigration controls, Trump cites a new report from the Homeland Security and Justice departments that says foreign-born people accounted for 73 percent of the convictions for international terrorism and related offenses from 9/11 through 2016. Continue reading “President Trump’s claim that ‘nearly 3 in 4’ convicted of terrorism are foreign-born”

President Trump made 2,140 false or misleading claims in his first year

The following article by Glenn Kessler and Meg Kelly was posted on the Washington Post website January 20, 2018:

After a year in office, President Trump has made 2,140 false or misleading claims and flip-flops. He now averages 5.9 per day. (Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)

One year after taking the oath of office, President Trump has made 2,140 false or misleading claims, according to The Fact Checker’s database that analyzes, categorizes and tracks every suspect statement uttered by the president. That’s an average of nearly 5.9 claims a day.

We started this project as part of our coverage of the president’s first 100 days, largely because we could not possibly keep up with the pace and volume of the president’s misstatements. Readers demanded we keep it going for another year. The database has proved so useful — and even sparked the interest of academicians — that we now plan to keep it going for the rest of Trump’s presidency. Continue reading “President Trump made 2,140 false or misleading claims in his first year”

Trump calls the U.S.-Mexico border ‘extremely dangerous.’ It is — but not for Americans.

The following article by Alex Horton was posted on the Washington Post website January 17, 2018:

A U.S. Border Patrol team uses a dog in a search for undocumented immigrants near the U.S.-Mexico border Dec. 9, 2015. (John Moore/Getty Images)

“The border” is an evocative concept. A majority of Americans do not live near it, and their encounters with the roughly 2,000 miles that separate the United States and Mexico have mostly been art emphasizing lawless badlands — in the form of Cormac McCarthy books and films such as “No Country for Old Men” and “Sicario.”

You can add President Trump’s Twitter feed to that. On Tuesday, the president wrote: “We must have Security at our VERY DANGEROUS SOUTHERN BORDER, and we must have a great WALL to help protect us, and to help stop the massive inflow of drugs pouring into our country!” Continue reading “Trump calls the U.S.-Mexico border ‘extremely dangerous.’ It is — but not for Americans.”