Feb 12, 2017

Twenty things President Trump said that weren't true in the first twenty days of his presidency.

theantediluvian 

January 20th

1. Lying at the Liberty Ball:



"The crowd was unbelievable today. I looked at the rain, which just never came, you know, we finished the speech, went inside, it poured then we came outside," he said. "The helicopter scene was an incredible scene, and then, amazingly it rained—like God was looking down on us."


In reality? The rain actually started as he was beginning his speech. So what does that say about whether or not (weather or not?) God was endorsing Trump?



January 21st

2. Making things up in a speech at the CIA HQ:


"Time magazine — and I have been on their cover, like, 14 or 15 times. I think we have the all-time record in the history of Time magazine. Like, if Tom Brady is on the cover, it's one time, because he won the Super Bowl or something, right? I've been on it for 15 times this year. I don’t think that's a record, Mike, that can ever be broken."


Here in this timeline? Trump has been on the cover 11 times — and that's a lot — but it's not 15 and it's not even close to the record. Richard Nixon was on the cover 55 times.

January 22nd

3. Inventing alt-facts in a tweet:


"Watched protests yesterday but was under the impression that we just had an election! Why didn't these people vote? Celebs hurt cause badly."


What's wrong with this tweet? It's not unreasonoble to speculate that celebrities hurt "the cause" (it's a tremendous cause like the world has never seen before), President Trump has absolutely no idea what percentage of the protesters voted. Baseless, insulting and completely made up.

January 23rd

4. Trying to convince congressional leaders that he's good enough, smart enough and doggone it, people like him:


President Donald Trump claimed at a meeting with congressional leaders Monday that he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton in last November's election because between three million and five million "illegals" cast ballots, multiple sources told Fox News.


What about in the real world? Not one state election official gave even a hint of credence to this malarky (that's right, in the Trump Era we're going to need to use all the synonyms for lie, lying and liar) nor have any election experts in any way endorsed his claims — to the contrary — authors of one of the two misrepresented studies put out a release stating, "We wish Donald Trump would stop citing our work." The author of the second study tweeted, "As I’ve noted before, voting integrity better in this election than ever before. Zero evidence of fraud." Youch.



January 25th

5. In a flagrant fabrication during his first major TV interview as President:


“Look, when President Obama was there two weeks ago making a speech, a very nice speech. Two people were shot and killed during his speech,” Trump told ABC News’ David Muir. “You can’t have that.”


Was that true? Not even a little bit true. Nobody was shot to death on January 10th in Chicago. There were five shootings that day but none of them happened during Obama's speech.

6. Another deranged doozy from the ABC interview:


"No, no, you have to understand, I had a tremendous victory, one of the great victories ever. In terms of counties, I think the most ever or just about the most ever. When you look at a map it's all red."


Tremendous victory or tremendous lie? President Trump lost the popular vote by 3 million votes. His Electoral College win ranked 46th out of 58 elections. While he did end up winning the most counties since Reagan, Nixon won 327 more counties than Trump.

January 26th

7. At the GOP retreat in Philly, proving he can lie with the worst of them:


“The president of Mexico and myself have agreed to cancel our planned meeting scheduled for next week,” Trump said at the GOP retreat in Philadelphia. “Unless Mexico is going to treat the United States fairly, with respect, such a meeting would be fruitless and I want to go a different route.”


Fact or fiction? If you thought this is what really happened, you were WRONG! But! But! You can't cancel a meeting with Donald Trump! He cancels on you!
edit on 2017-2-9 by theantediluvian because: (no reason given)





January 27th

8. In a damnable distortion during an interview on Christian Broadcast Network:


"They've been horribly treated. Do you know if you were a Christian in Syria it was impossible, at least very tough to get into the United States? If you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible and the reason that was so unfair, everybody was persecuted in all fairness, but they were chopping off the heads of everybody but more so the Christians."


Impossible to believe? It should be — on its face — but read here if you're not convinced.



9. Fictionalizing recent history in a joint conference with Theresa May:


"I happened to be in Scotland at Turnberry, cutting a ribbon when Brexit happened, and we had a vast amount of press there. And I said 'Brexit' — this was the day before, you probably remember — I said 'Brexit is going to happen,' and I was scorned in the press for making that prediction. I was scorned."


Mandela mania? Perhaps President Trump is flitting through alternate timelines and not just a liar who makes things up? That would explain why he whipped up this whopper when it's public record that he wasn't in Scotland until the day after the vote.

January 28th

10. Too triggered to tweet straight:


“Thr [sic] coverage about me in the @nytimes and the @washingtonpost gas [sic] been so false and angry that the times actually apologized to its….. …dwindling subscribers and readers.They got me wrong right from the beginning and still have not changed course, and never will. DISHONEST”


Who's really false and angry here? Both of these "failing" newspapers have seen their subscriptions go up. Not only did he lie about that, he lied about the apology. I know the best apologies. Believe me. Tremendous apologies. This ain't no apology.

January 29th

11. From a fallicious post on Facebook:


"My policy is similar to what President Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months."


How similar is similar? As it turns out, not that similar. Obama's actions were responsive where Trump's are preemptive. Obama's actions narrowly targetted Special Immigrant Visas for refugees from Iraq. Period. And despite a lull during one month, refugees were admitted in every month in 2011.

January 30th

12. Deceptive Donald strikes again via Twitter:


“Only 109 people out of 325,000 were detained and held for questioning. Big problems at airports were caused by Delta computer outage, protesters and the tears of Senator Schumer.”


Sounds legit? It might if there weren't so many obvious holes. First off, he might have told DHS to get on-board with his bulls# — because the number they gave was 721. Secondly, the Delta outage was more than a full day after the "big problems" started.



February 2nd

13. Spreading disinformation from his Facebook page:


Trump’s post, which is still up as of Sunday morning, read: “Smart!

'Kuwait issues its own Trump-esque visa ban for five Muslim-majority countries | Al Bawaba,’” citing the source of the information


Did it really happen? Nope. The President of the f'ing United States of America was posting links to fake news. Officials from Kuwait, Pakistan, etc immediately came and said it was completely untrue. Part of the official statement from Kuwait read, "categorically denied media reports that it planned to stop issuing entry visas for some nationalities."

14. Following up in a tweet about Iran had formally being "put on notice," prevarication:


"Iran was on its last legs and ready to collapse until the U.S. came along and gave it a lifeline in the form of the Iran Deal: $150 billion."


Pesky reality begs to differ? This figure isn't new — it was being debunked waaaaay back in March. Most experts estimate the actual value of the assets (which are Iran's assets) to be about $100 billion. Beyond that, the assets have encumbrances, most notably about $20 billion in debt to China. When it's all said and done that $150 billion number is about a third of what President Trump continues to claim.

 February 3th

15. Old Unreliable erupts again on Twitter:



"Thank you to Prime Minister of Australia for telling the truth about our very civil conversation that FAKE NEWS media lied about. Very nice!"


Does "the truth" mean the opposite thing in the Southern Hemisphere as it does in the Northern? According to an Australian official, the call was "hostile and charged." Other sources in the Australian government said that WaPo's reporting on the call was "substantially accurate," though everyone from both governments denied the call ended with Trump hanging up on Turnbull. Turnbull himself when pressed in a radio interview with Melbourne's 3AW, commented, "The call ended courteously, that's all I want to say about that."

February 4th

16. Not one to let reality get in the way of a good tweet:


“What is our country coming to when a judge can halt a Homeland Security travel ban and anyone, even with bad intentions, can come into U.S.?”


You can't make this stuff up? You can. Our country doesn't let just anyone in. In terms of refugees, the process for those from most parts of the world takes on average a year to 18 months. Those from places like Syria are looking at about two years.

February 5th

17. Fibbin' to Bill O'Reilly in an interview:


“California in many ways is out of control, as you know. Obviously the voters agree, otherwise they wouldn’t have voted for me.”


But wait! Isn't that diametrically opposed to the truth? Why yes, yes it is. Donald Trump got 31.5% of the popular vote in California while Hillary Clinton got nearly twice that at 61.5%.



February 6th

18. Telling tall tales on Twitter:


"Any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election. Sorry, people want border security and extreme vetting."


Can you spot the fake? I won't even bother to cite a source. Declaring any poll that he doesn't like "fake" is overtly deranged.

February 7th

19. In yet another disgracefully inaccurate tweet:


"It is a disgrace that my full Cabinet is still not in place, the longest such delay in the history of our country. Obstruction by Democrats!"


Objective reality? Though it has been at a slower pace than recent predecessors, not having a full cabinet at this point is not even close to historical. Obama's last nominee was confirmed in April. Bush 41 and Clinton had confirmations into March.



20. Spewing faleshoods at an address of the Major Cities Chiefs Association at their winter conference:


"And yet the murder rate in our country is the highest it’s been in 47 years, right? Did you know that? Forty-seven years. I used to use that -- I’d say that in a speech and everybody was surprised, because the press doesn’t tell it like it is. It wasn’t to their advantage to say that. But the murder rate is the highest it’s been in, I guess, from 45 to 47 years."


Is he 'telling it like it is?' Not even close. According to the FBI statistics, the murder rate in 2015 was 5 per 100k, which is less than half of what it was in 1980 (10.2). In terms of total homicides, 1991 has the record with 24,703. There were a total of 15,696 murders and non-negligent man-slaughters in 2015.

I listed 20 but while searching the interwebz, I came across lists of 40 or more — since the inauguration — and fact checkers breakdowns detailing as many as a dozen falsehoods, inaccurate statements, etc from a single speech. Whether you love him or hate him, I can't believe that any reasonable person would argue that the sheer volume of bulls# that continues to gush from the President of the United States is a good thing. It's often said by supporters that Trump "lacks a filter" and that's taken to mean that he's somehow more candid.

I suggest that he is in fact missing a filter alright but that filter is one that screens out the bulls# for fear of being caught in lie and damaging one's credibility.



posted on Feb, 9 2017 @ 12:08 PM
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