Trump is out. But the consequences of his actions are here to stay.
Donald Trump’s actions as the President of the US include more than 20,000 false statements in the last four years. What does one expect when they google the name of the President of the United States of America followed by the word lie? A one-time scandal, a Twitter campaign by opposition due to failure to keep up his promises. Well, if you google ‘Trump lies’, you find a dedicated Wikipedia page, a YouTube Documentary and a Wall exhibiting President Trump’s lies. All because Trump lied. A lot.
Watch: President Trump’s 20,000-plus false or misleading claims
The Tip Of The Iceberg
Washington Post tracks of all the lies President Trump has said, on which subject and fact-checking the actual truth. You can find actual graphics detailing the rise of false claims throughout the years. The article has tracked 22,247 lies as of August 27, 2020 in 1316 days of presidency. If this sounds bad enough, a follow-up of the article talks about how the lies caught speed after the pandemic started. In October, President Trump’s average stood around 50 lies per day.
It is embarrassing when your top vetted attribute as a President is lying. But it is downright evil when you lie in an emergency.
What Trump Lies About?
“Within three short years, we built the strongest economy in the history of the world….In a new term as president, we will again build the greatest economy in history.”
This is one of the most repeated claims by President Donald Trump. But America’s economy wasn’t peaking even before the pandemic and came sliding down after.
“The wall is being built. It’s going to be finished very soon.”
There’s no wall. Some barrier like structures here and there. That too embroiled in controversies of corruption.
You will find more infographics at Statista
“We passed the largest package of tax cuts and regulation cuts by far in American history.”
Trump’s tax cut was not by far the largest in American history, it was less than half of the largest cut of 2.89 by Ronald Reagan in 1981. Trump’s tax cut amounts to nearly 0.9 percent of the gross domestic product, which is smaller than the ones passed by his predecessor Obama.
“We’ve rebuilt our entire military.”
Trump has made this claim multiple times, certainly because it resonates with his supporters but the reality is that the budget for military has gone down under Trump. Trump built a house of cards and called it his Make America Great Again campaign.
The Pandemic Of Lies
The pandemic really brought out the unreliable nature of Trump’s claims. The US President made many false claims about the outbreak, the nature of the disease and the cure. In February, Trump claimed “when we get into April, in the warmer weather — that has a very negative effect on that, and that type of a virus.”
This claim came very early along when public-health experts and epidemiologists weren’t able to tell if warm weather would actually have any effect on the virus. With the pandemic is still raging, it is certainly false.
Furthermore, Trump constantly undermined the pandemic by making claims like that it is “fading away. It’s going to fade away.” He also tried to downplay the outbreak in the states by constantly downplaying the numbers. These dangerous and insensitive claims kept coming from the President’s mouth as the pandemic claimed more lives in the US than in any other country. Yet, the President remains unfaced by anti-mask protests, gatherings and critics, refusing to that the public health emergency situation seriously.
Done For Good?
One might be tempted to thinking that the false claims and their repercussions would be over now that Trump is set to leave the White House. But his lies were heard and processed by millions of Americans. Much of Trump’s fearmongering, false claims and propaganda is here to stay.
You will find more infographics at Statista
Claims like “…no borders, open borders — everybody just pour right into our country..” or “Mexico is partly to blame for COVID-19 surges in the Southwest.” give rise to bigotry and discrimination against immigrants in the States. These and his ridiculous claims against China are going to affect America for years to come.
