Trump has made 20,000 misleading or false statements since taking office

Poll: Just 35 per cent of those asked view the president as honest

John T. Bennett
Washington Bureau Chief
Monday 13 July 2020 16:48 BST
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Donald Trump drives golf cart with caddie hanging off the back.mp4

It took Donald Trump 827 days to utter or tweet 10,000 misleading or false statements during his term. But it took the president just 440 to double it.

The president has uttered over 20,000 such statements since being sworn in on 20 January 2017. He nearly doubled his per-day average during his 440-day sprint to the 20,000 mark, according to The Washington Post Fact Checker staff.

The president dropped a whopper on Sunday when he tweeted that Barack Obama played more golf than him while president. But independent White House watchers quickly debunked the claim, noting Mr Obama had hit the links around 90 times at this point in his presidency while Mr Trump has spent more than 250 days at a golf property.

During the 827 days it took him to hit 10,000 false or misleading statements, Mr Trump averaged 12 a day, the newspaper found. But in his 14-month race to 20,000, he increased that average to 23.

That year-plus included his House impeachment and subsequent acquittal after a Senate trial, the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the death of George Floyd while in the custody of white police officers -- and his own plummeting polls numbers.

The president has made nearly 1,000 iffy claims about the coronavirus pandemic and 1,200 about the impeachment saga, according to The Post.

The publication's Fact Checker staff described its database as housing a "tsunami of untruths," writing that it "just keeps looming larger and larger."

The White House had not responded to a request for comment.

Multiple polls show majorities of Americans see Mr Trump as dishonest, while his presumptive general election foe, former Vice President Joe Biden, polls close to 50 per cent on the question of honesty.

A recent Pew Research Center poll found 48 per cent of those surveyed see Mr Biden as honest, but only 36 per cent said the same about the president. A recent Quinnipiac University poll concluded 35 per cent of those polled see Mr Trump as honest, with 44 per cent saying Mr Biden is.

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