Trump surpasses 10,000 false claims since becoming president

The tsunami of untruths just keeps looming larger and larger

(Win McNamee/Getty Images)

It took President Donald Trump 601 days to top 5,000 false and misleading claims in The Fact Checker’s database, an average of eight claims a day.

But on 26 April, just 226 days later, the president crossed the 10,000 mark – an average of nearly 23 claims a day in this seven-month period, which included the many rallies he held before the midterm elections, the partial government shutdown over his promised border wall and the release of the special counsel’s report on Russian interference in the presidential election.

This milestone appeared unlikely when The Fact Checker first started this project during his first 100 days.

In the first 100 days, Mr Trump averaged less than five claims a day, which would have added up to about 7,000 claims in a four-year presidential term.

But the tsunami of untruths just keeps looming larger and larger.

As of 27 April, including the president’s rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the tally in our database stands at 10,111 claims in 828 days.

In recent days, the president demonstrated why he so quickly has piled up the claims.

There was a 45-minute telephone interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News on 25 April: 45 claims.

There was an eight-minute gaggle with reporters the morning of 26 April: eight claims.

There was a speech to the National Rifle Association: 24 claims.

There was 19-minute interview with radio host Mark Levin: 17 claims.

And, finally, there was the campaign rally on 27 April: 61 claims.

The president’s constant Twitter barrage also adds to his totals. All told, the president racked up 171 false or misleading claims in just three days between 25-27 April.

That’s more than he made in any single month in the first five months of his presidency.

About one-fifth of the president’s claims are about immigration issues, a percentage that has grown since the government shutdown over funding for his promised border wall.

In fact, his most repeated claim – 160 times – is that his border wall is being built. Congress baulked at funding the concrete wall he envisioned, and so he has tried to pitch bollard fencing and repairs of existing barriers as “a wall”.

President Trump’s penchant for repeating false claims is demonstrated by the fact that The Fact Checker database has recorded nearly 300 instances when the president has repeated a variation of the same claim at least three times.

He also now has earned 21 “Bottomless Pinocchios”, claims that have earned Three or Four Pinocchios and which have been repeated at least 20 times.

Trump’s campaign rallies continue to be a rich source of misstatements and falsehoods, accounting for about 22 percent of the total.

The rally in Green Bay on 27 April was little different, with claims that covered a range of issues:

• He exaggerated the size of trade deficits with Japan, China and the European Union and falsely claimed the United States loses money from such deficits.
• He said he had “nothing to hide” from the Russia investigation but refused to testify under oath.
• He continued his practice of inflating the jobs created under his administration by starting the count from the election, not his inauguration.
• He launched a series of exaggerated or false attacks on Democrats, including claiming the Green New Deal will require every building in Manhattan be replaced (no) and saying Democrats support the killing of healthy babies that have been born (no).
• He overstated the possible impact of the new trade agreement with Canada and Mexico in myriad ways and trashed the North American Free Trade Agreement, even though the differences are modest.
• He took credit for funding a program – the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative – his administration tried to eliminate.
• He made a series of false claims about immigration, such as “open borders bring tremendous crime” (there is no documented link between illegal immigration and crime).

• He claimed he passed the biggest tax cut in history (no) and he said he had cut the estate tax to “zero” (no).
• He said he was one vote away from repealing Obamacare (no).
• He falsely said the United States paid for “almost 100 percent” of NATO (no), that Saudi Arabia inked $450 billion (£348 billion) in deals with the Trump administration (no) and even that the United States subsidises the Saudi military (US aid amounts to $10,000 (£7,750) a year).
• He even claimed that he insisted the new embassy in Jerusalem be made of Jerusalem stone even though ever since the British mandate in then-Palestine, municipal laws have required that all buildings must be faced with this local form of limestone that has a warm, golden hue.

The Washington Post