Don Tow's Website

Donald Trump has been the President of the U.S. for less than 18 months, but his behavior and public statements already have an adverse impact on one important aspact of the American government and society.  His frequent outright lies, on almost every subject under the sun, have desensitized people, other government leaders, and the media so that such outright lies are no longer that important as an assessment of whether a political leader should be criticized, or should even remain in office.  It is as though they have been vaccinated against being affected by these lies.  This article discusses some examples and implications.

Essentially on a daily basis on every topic, ranging from personal to national to international issues, Trump has repeatedly lied, even on purely factual issues not subject to any interpretation.  Furthermore, his lies have often been immediately pointed out by various fact checkers.  Yet, negative consequences for him have been drastically less than comparable actions for other political leaders in the past.

Samples of Trump’s Lies:  Trump’s lies are too numerous to be listed in this article.  Here are two references:

1. “Trump’s Lies” by David Leonhardt and Stuart A. Thompson, NY Times, 12/14/2017.  This article listed a couple hundreds of Trump’s lies up to 11/11/2017.
2. “President Trump lied more than 3,000 times in 466 days” by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large, 5/9/2018.  This article keeps a finer and more detailed check of Trump’s lies from 1/20/2017 to end of April 2018.

We illustrate with some examples:

• 1/21/2017:  Referring to the Times magazine, Trump said “I have been on their cover 14 or 15 times.  I think we have the all-time record in the history of Time magazine.”  In reality Trump was on the cover 11 times and Nixon appeared 55 times.
• 1/25/2017:  Referring to the inauguration ceremony, Trump said “the audience was the biggest ever.  But this crowd was massive.  Look how far back it goes.  This crowd was massive.” But official aerial photos show Obama’s 2009 inauguration was much more heavily attended.
• 2/6/17:  “I have already saved more than $700 million when I got involved in the negotiation on the F-35.”  But much of the price drop was projected before Trump took office.
• 2/16/17:  Referring to the Electoral College voting, Trump said “We got 306 because people came out and voted like they’ve never seen before so that’s the way it goes.  I guess it was the biggest Electoral College win since Ronald Reagan.”  But George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama all won bigger margins in the Electoral College.
• 2/16/17:  “Walmart announced it will create 10,000 jobs in the United States just this year because of our various plans and initiatives.”  But the jobs are a result of its investment plans announced in Oct. 2016.
• 2/24/17:  “Obamacare covers very few people”  But Obamacare increased coverage by a net of about 20 million.
• 3/4/17:  “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”  But there is no evidence of a wiretap.
• 3/31/17:  “We have a lot of plants going up now in Michigan that were never going to be there if I — if I didn’t win this election, those plants would never even think about going back. They were gone.”  But these investments were already planned.
• 4/11/17:  “I like Steve, but you have to remember he was not involved in my campaign until very late. I had already beaten all the senators and all the governors, and I didn’t know Steve.”  But he knew Steve Bannon since 2011.
• 4/28/17:  “The trade deficit with Mexico is close to $70 billion, even with Canada it’s $17 billion trade deficit with Canada.” But the U.S. had an $8.1 billion trade surplus, not deficit, with Canada in 2016.
• 7/17/17:  “We’ve signed more bills — and I’m talking about through the legislature — than any president, ever.”  But Clinton, Carter, Truman, and F.D.R. had signed more at the same point.
• 7/19/17:  “But the F.B.I.. person really reports directly to the president of the U.S.”  But he reports directly to the attorney general.
• 7/25/17:  “We have the highest taxes anywhere in the world, and this will really bring them down to one of the lowest.”  But tax rates in the U.S. are below average, overall and for an industrialized country.
• 7/28/17:  “The previous administration enacted an open-door policy to illegal migrants from Central America. “Welcome in. Come in, please, please.”  But Obamad deported millions
• 7/28/17:  “We have trade deficits with almost every country because we had a lot of really bad negotiators making deals with other countries.”  But the U.S. has a trade surplus with more than 100 countries.
• 7/31/17:  “And even the President of Mexico called me – they said their southern border, very few people are coming because they know they’re not going to get through our border, which is the ultimate compliment.”  But Mexico’s president says he didn’t call Trump.
• 8/3/17:  “The Russia story is a total fabrication.”  But it is not.
• 8/22/17:  “I mean truly dishonest people in the media and the fake media, they make up stories. They have no sources in many cases. They say ‘a source says’ – there is no such thing.”  But the media in these cases did not make up sources.
• 8/22/17:  “We have become an energy exporter for the first time ever just recently.”  But the U.S. isn’t projected to become a net energy exporter until 2026.
• 9/6/17:  “The taxes are crazy – the highest-taxed nation in the world.”  But we’re not. 
• 9/27/17:  “No, I don’t benefit. I don’t benefit. In fact, very very strongly, as you see, I think there’s very little benefit for people of wealth.”  But the tax plan would personally benefit Trump and other wealthy individuals. 
• 10/6/17:  “They also just said that there has been absolutely no collusion. They just said that. Yesterday. Two days ago. Senate. There has been no collusion.”  But the Senate didn’t say that.
• 10/16/17:  Referring to Trump’s remarks and actions toward women, Trump said “All I can say is it’s totally fake news, just fake. It’s fake. It’s made-up stuff, and it’s disgraceful what happens, but that happens in the world of politics.”  But Trump himself has bragged about groping women. 
• 11/11/17:  “I’d rather have him – you know, work with him on the Ukraine than standing and arguing about whether or not – because that whole thing was set up by the Democrats.”  But there is no evidence that Democrats “set up” Russian interference in the election.
• 3/27/18:  On numerous occasions in 2017 and 2018 (and even as early as 2016 and 2015), Trump had said that the U.S. will build a wall on the border of the U.S. and Mexico and that he will get Mexico to pay for the wall.  But he is no longer saying that any more.  Instead, since 3/27/18, he has voiced the possibility of getting the U.S. military to pay for the wall.
• 5/3/18:  On many occasions in 2017 and 2018, Trump had denied that he knew anything about the $130,000 hush money he, through his personal attorney Michael Cohen, paid off to the porn actress Stormy Daniels for an alleged affair in 2006.  But in a 5/3/18 tweet, he admitted that he had paid back Mr. Cohen for this hush money.
• 6/5/18:  Referring to the 2018 Superbowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles, Trump said “I had uninvited the Birds from the traditional post-Super Bowl victory visit. Why? In part because only a small number of players decide to come, and in part because some of their players had been kneeling or standing in the locker room during the national anthem.”  But no Eagles player kneeled during the national anthem in 2017, and the Eagles was one of just seven NFL teams with a perfect non-kneeling record for 2017, and they didn’t wait in the locker room either.

Assessment and Implications:  Trump has lied publicly probably more than the sum of lies of all the previous 45 presidents.  Furthermore, on many lies, he kept repeating the same lies on several subsequent occasions even though various fact checkers had already pointed out his lies.  And many of his lies are on pure facts, and not subject to any interpretation.  So it seems that speaking the truth is of no importance to Trump.  He lies to try to cover his own bad behaviors, including potentially illegal behaviors, to gain a financial advantage or a political advantage, to try to change history, especially the part of history related to him.  He has exhibited complete contempt for civil behavior or the rule of law.  He is not concerned about the welfare of other people, except himself, his family, and his empire.

Normally, such behavior would lose the respects of others, and the political support for a politician.  However, unfortunately, there are still a very large number of people in the U.S., especially Republicans and Evangelical Christians, who continue to voice strong support for him.  This raises the serious concern about the type of country and society that the U.S. has become.

Take for example, infidelity.  More than half a century ago, we had many presidents who had extra-marital affairs, including Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson.  The morality in those times was to accept those deeds and let those deeds lied buried.  However, starting in the late 1960s and 1970s with the Vietnam War movement, Watergate, and women’s liberation movement that led to the first resignation of a sitting president, an awakening of morality, and feminism, our society was no longer so forgiven for a politician engaging in extra-marital affairs.  This became clear in 1987 with the downfall of Gary Hart, who was way ahead in the polls within both the Democratic Party and in competition with the Republican Party.  He was projected to win easily the Democratic presidential primary over Walter Mondale and other nominees, and to win easily the presidential election over the Republican presidential nominee George H. W. Bush.  But that was before his affair with Donna Rice on the yacht Monkey Business became public. [1]  In 1987, the public was no longer so forgiven for a man running for the office of the president of the U.S. to engage in an open extra-marital affair.

During the last 30 years, that kind of mentality has remained dominant in the American conscience and in the American political arena.  That is why so many political candidates have dropped to the wayside once frequent lyings and infidelity became public.  Unfortunately, that may be changing with Donald Trump.  He has lied so frequently and behaved so badly that the American public has become desensitized, so that such behavior doesn’t seem to turn people away from supporting him.  In other words, the American standard for assessing political leaders has changed for the worst.  This may be the most important and dangerous legacy of Donald Trump.

[1] For a good article about Gary Hart, see “How Gary Hart’s Downfall Forever Changed American Politics,” New York Times Magazine, September 18, 2014.