TRUMP RALLIES CONSIST OF 68% - 76% OF FALSE STATEMENTS

…Trump’s people at a typical Trump rally 

The president is close to surpassing 5,000 false or misleading claims since the start of his presidency.

We have come to recognize that President Trump has decided that his campaign rallies are so successful, that the majority of his communication to the American public is either through Twitter or at a massive campaign style rally.

Based on the fact that Trump, for helping his party for the mid-terms, he will spend 40% of his efforts around the country by having multiple campaign style rallies to help GOP candidates all over the country.

Based on that decision, the fact checker at The Post decided to fact-check what Trump says at these rallies.

The results are even worse than one would have expected.

It was found that in the last two recent Trump rallies, 68% to 76% of 98 statements made by the president were false or misleading.

Now, I am not going to list all of the statements that were false, but I will give you a break-down of  just the September 9^th rally in Montana.

Here it is:

In the Sept. 9^th rally, there were: 36 false statements, 22 misleading statements and two unsupported claims.  There were 28 accurate or mostly accurate statements.

All told, on Sept. 9, only 32% of his statements could be considered accurate or mostly accurate. At both events, at least 40% of his “claims” were false or mostly false.

It is a small wonder that the president is close to surpassing 5,000 false or misleading claims since the start of his presidency.  This is according to The Post’s, Fact Checker’s Database.

If you want to read all of the false statements, The Washington Post fact checkers have written a very long article where they list all of the statements, and they explain why they are false.  You can Google that article, but even they say they are grateful to any readers who make it all the way through the list.  They had decided that it was very important for them to make sure that their analysis of the earlier rally would be replicated at a second event, which it was.  Therefore, they were able to conclude that since the president is known for repeating the same false statements and claims over and over again, it stands to reason that all of the rallies between now and the November election will also have between 68% to 76% of false statements.

Here is just a short example of some of the false statements that the president continues to repeat:

"We have the best economy in history.”

False. The president can certainly brag about the state of the economy, but he runs into trouble when he repeatedly says it is the best in history. By any important measure, the economy today is not doing as well as it did under Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson and Bill Clinton and even Ulysses S. Grant in the 1870’s.

"The stock market is at record highs.”

As a plain statement, this is basically correct. But it’s worth noting the percentage increase in the Standard & Poor’s index under Obama in his first 19 months as president was 62% compared to 24.5% under Trump. In addition, the current president inherited a roaring bull market.

"Unemployment is at historic lows.”

False. The unemployment rate, currently 3.9%, this is low but it is not historic. The unemployment rate was as low as 2.5% in 1953. In fact, it was below 3.9% for much of 1951, 1952 and 1953. The unemployment rate was as low as 3.4% in 1968 and 1969 and was 3.8 percent in 2000.

"More Americans are working today than ever, ever, ever before.”

This is highly misleading. Of course there are more Americans working. That’s because there are more Americans than ever before. More meaningful measures of the overall health of the job market will take population into consideration. The unemployment rate, or the share of people who don't have jobs, was at 3.9% in August and that was not a record low.

"Our coal miners are back to work.”

False. As of August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 53,100 coal miners were employed, a gain of 2,400, or 4.6%, under Trump. But that's still fewer than the number a year before his inauguration, and a far cry from the 89,700 employed in January 2012.

"We've started the wall.”

False. Trump sought $25 billion from Congress to build a southern border wall, but he only received $1.6 billion with strings attached that said none of the concrete prototypes he had viewed in March could be used. Moreover, only fencing could be used, mainly to replace existing fencing. In “Orwellian” fashion, “fences” have now become “walls”.

"Everybody wants the wall.”

False. A survey by Gallup in June found that 57% of those surveyed opposed expanding the construction of walls along the nation's southern border.

"We've spent $3.2 billion on the wall.”

False. Trump super inflated the money that has been appropriated, it’s $1.6 billion, and as noted, that cannot be used for the wall. Trump appears to be adding the money authorized by Congress in the Spring with another $1.6 billion proposed by lawmakers in a new spending bill this September.

“We have 25,000 people showing up to speeches.”

Totally False. None of Trump’s post-election rallies attracted 25,000 people; most have been under 10,000.

"We're paying for NATO. We're paying this massive percentage of cost.”

False. Yes, the United States is the largest contributor to NATO’s organizational expenses, which includes its headquarters in Brussels and subordinate military commands, but it funds only 22% of these programs. Separately, the US defense expenditure represents 72% of US defense spending across all NATO members. But this reflects what the United States spends on all military programs, not just those related to Europe.

"I got them to pay billions of dollars more. … They couldn't believe, for years, NATO spending was going like this.”

False. NATO’s guideline is that defense expenditures should amount to 2% of each country’s gross domestic product by 2024. In 2017, the United States and three other countries met that standard, and Poland spent virtually 2%. NATO allies have been steadily boosting defense spending since 2014, after Russia annexed Crimea. In any case, these funds would not be going to the United States or even necessarily to NATO; this is money that countries would spend to bolster their own militaries.

"Justice Gorsuch was first in his class at Harvard. First in his class at Oxford.”

False. Gorsuch graduated from Harvard Law School cum laude, which is an honors designation but below magna cum laude and summa cum laude. Very few students earn summa cum laude, the next 10% earn magna cum laude and the next 30% earn cum laude, according to Harvard. So Gorsuch was in the top 40% of Harvard Law School graduates. Michelle Deakin, a Harvard Law spokeswoman, confirmed that Gorsuch did not graduate first. He earned a doctor of philosophy (DPhil) degree at Oxford’s Faculty of Law, and a spokeswoman there said that the doctoral students are not ranked.

"That electoral college, we won by a lot.”

Totally False. Trump narrowly won the electoral college, as a swing of less than 50,000 votes would have flipped three states and cost him the election. He is also one of the few elected presidents to have lost the popular vote.

"You look at The Washington Post or the New York Times, I can never get a good story. I mean, you look at this horrible thing that took place today, it's really — is it subversion? Is it treason? It's a horrible thing.”

False. Trump poses this as a question, but it’s not a question. Treason against the United States is limited under Article III of the Constitution to “levying war against the United States, or adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.” Writing an unflattering editorial about the president is pretty remote from either of those categories. “There is a very big difference between disloyalty to a president and disloyalty to the United States,” said Carlton F.W. Larson, a professor of law at the University of California at Davis and author of a forthcoming book on treason. “And it was precisely to prevent any such confusion that the framers drafted Article III as carefully as they did.”

"The New York Times, you remember, it's very famous. Nobody's ever seen it before, maybe never done before. They apologized for their bad coverage of me.”

False. The New York Times did not apologize to its subscribers for its coverage of Trump.

"Nancy Pelosi said yesterday she wants to raise your taxes.”

Highly Misleading. Pelosi has said she wants to reopen the tax bill and “strengthen” middle-class tax cuts, which are due to expire in 2025, while rolling back tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.

"We're respected again as a nation. We're respected again as a nation.”

False. Polls by Gallup and the Pew Global Attitudes Project show worldwide views of the United States and its president have become more negative since Trump took office. The Washington Post and others have reported that world leaders and allied nations often are baffled or upset by Trump's actions and pronouncements.

"Republicans stand for stopping illegal immigration, fixing horrible trade deals, cutting your taxes in a major, major way, biggest tax cut in the history of our country.”

False. Trump’s tax cut is nearly 0.9% of GDP, much smaller than Reagan’s tax cut in 1981, which was 2.89% of GDP. Trump’s tax cut is the eighth-largest since 1918, smaller than two tax cuts passed under Obama.

"For years, you watched as your leaders apologized to other countries for America. They apologized. We're so sorry. We're so sorry. So sorry.”

False. Trump here references a phony talking point advanced by Republicans during Barack Obama's presidency, that Obama “apologized” for America. The Fact Checkers examined each of the citations for Obama's so-called “Apology Tour” and found they were often taken out of context. Obama never said he apologized or was sorry.

(George W. Bush, however, did say he was “sorry for the humiliation suffered by the Iraqi prisoners and the humiliation suffered by their families” after reports of prisoner abuse emerged in Iraq.)

There are many more false statements that you can Google if you are interested.

The point is that this ignorant and narcissistic president is making the United States look ridiculous to the rest of the world, and it will take years to make up for the mismanagement and unnecessary spending that this president is doing to the country.

Copyright G.Ater  2018