Friday, May 22, 2020

Donald Trump's Favourite Lie

Over a period of only 670 days, Donald Trump has falsely claimed he had the best economy in United States history a total of 291 times.

Trump first made the claim on June 3, 2018. The most recent example, as logged by the Washington Post's team of Trump-Lie-Counters, was on April 2, 2020:
We had the strongest economy in the world. We had our best ever. We had probably the best economy in the history of the world, bigger than China, bigger than anybody.
WaPo:
Before the coronavirus pandemic shuttered businesses and sent unemployment soaring, the president could certainly brag about the state of the economy in his first three years as president. But he ran into trouble when he made a play for the history books. By just about any important measure, the economy under Trump did not do as well as it did under Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson or Bill Clinton. The gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 2.3 percent in 2019, slipping from 2.9 percent in 2018 and 2.4 percent in 2017. But in 1997, 1998 and 1999, GDP grew 4.5 percent, 4.5 percent and 4.7 percent, respectively. Yet even that period paled in comparison against the 1950s and 1960s. Growth between 1962 and 1966 ranged from 4.4 percent to 6.6 percent. In postwar 1950 and 1951, it was 8.7 percent and 8 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate reached a low of 3.5 percent under Trump, but it dipped as low as 2.5 percent in 1953.
In the last seven weeks, Trump has stated this particular lie many more times, most often in the context of how unfair it is (to Trump himself, of course) that the coronavirus disrupted the US economy. (Well, maybe you should have done something when you were first warned in November 2019.)

Trump has spoken this particular lie well over 300 times now, but here are the dates of the 291 lies (including nine times on November 4, 2018, two days before the midterm elections):
June 3, 2018
June 4, 2018
June 5, 2018
June 8, 2018
June 12, 2018
June 13, 2018
June 14, 2018
June 16, 2018
June 18, 2018
June 19, 2018
June 20, 2018
June 22, 2018
July 2, 2018
July 4, 2018
July 13, 2018 (2 times)
July 15, 2018
July 16, 2018
July 23, 2018 (2 times)
July 25, 2018
July 30, 2018
August 3, 2018
August 5, 2018
August 11, 2018
August 13, 2018
August 15, 2018 (2 times)
August 16, 2018
August 17, 2018
August 20, 2018 (2 times)
August 22, 2018 (2 times)
August 23, 2018 (2 times)
August 29, 2018 (2 times)
September 4, 2018
September 5, 2018 (3 times)
September 6, 2018 (2 times)
September 7, 2018
September 9, 2018
September 15, 2018
September 16, 2018 (2 times)
September 18, 2018
September 19, 2018 (2 times)
September 20, 2018 (2 times)
September 21, 2018
September 23, 2018
September 24, 2018
September 25, 2018
September 28, 2018
September 30, 2018 (2 times)
October 1, 2018 (2 times)
October 5, 2018 (2 times)
October 8, 2018 (3 times)
October 9, 2018
October 10, 2018
October 12, 2018
October 15, 2018 (2 times)
October 18, 2018
October 21, 2018
October 22, 2018 (3 times)
October 26, 2018
October 30, 2018 (2 times)
October 31, 2018
November 1, 2018 (3 times)
November 2, 2018 (3 times)
November 3, 2018 (3 times)
November 4, 2018 (9 times)
November 6, 2018
November 14, 2018
November 15, 2018 (2 times)
November 17, 2018
November 21, 2018
November 29, 2018 (2 times)
December 6, 2018
February 20, 2019
February 24, 2019
February 26, 2019
February 27, 2019 (2 times)
March 1, 2019
March 3, 2019
March 9, 2019
March 12, 2019 (2 times)
March 17, 2019 (2 times)
March 19, 2019 (2 times)
March 25, 2019
March 27, 2019
April 10, 2019
April 14, 2019 (2 times)
April 15, 2019
April 16, 2019
April 21, 2019
April 23, 2019
April 24, 2019
April 28, 2019
May 1, 2019
May 2, 2019
May 4, 2019
May 5, 2019
May 10, 2019
May 11, 2019
May 12, 2019
May 13, 2019
May 15, 2019
May 16, 2019
May 18, 2019
May 19, 2019
May 21, 2019
May 23, 2019
May 26, 2019
June 4, 2019
June 8, 2019
June 9, 2019
June 11, 2019
June 17, 2019
June 18, 2019
June 19, 2019 (2 times)
June 20, 2019
June 22, 2019
June 23, 2019
June 24, 2019
June 25, 2019 (2 times)
June 27, 2019 (2 times)
June 29, 2019 (2 times)
July 1, 2019
July 15, 2019
July 16, 2019 (5 times)
July 19, 2019 (2 times)
July 21, 2019
July 22, 2019 (2 times)
July 24, 2019
July 25, 2019
July 27, 2019
July 29, 2019
July 31, 2019 (2 times)
August 12, 2019
August 25, 2019
September 11, 2019
September 12, 2019
September 17, 2019 (3 times)
September 20, 2019
September 21, 2019 (2 times)
September 23, 2019
September 24, 2019 (2 times)
September 25, 2019
September 27, 2019
October 3, 2019 (2 times)
October 8, 2019
October 9, 2019 (2 times)
October 11, 2019
October 14, 2019 (2 times)
October 15, 2019
October 16, 2019
October 20, 2019 (2 times)
October 22, 2019
October 24, 2019
October 27, 2019
October 28, 2019
October 29, 2019
October 31, 2019 (2 times)
November 1, 2019
November 3, 2019
November 7, 2019 (2 times)
November 8, 2019 (3 times)
November 13, 2019
November 14, 2019
November 18, 2019
November 19, 2019
November 21, 2019 (2 times)
November 25, 2019
November 27, 2019
December 5, 2019
December 6, 2019 (3 times)
December 8, 2019 (2 times)
December 9, 2019
December 11, 2019 (2 times)
December 12, 2019
December 15, 2019
December 17, 2019
December 18, 2019
December 23, 2019
December 30, 2019
January 6, 2020
January 8, 2020
January 9, 2020
January 12, 2020
January 13, 2020
January 14, 2020
January 15, 2020
January 20, 2020
January 21, 2020
January 23, 2020
January 25, 2020
February 1, 2020
February 3, 2020
February 5, 2020
February 9, 2020 (3 times)
February 10, 2020 (2 times)
February 13, 2020
February 18, 2020 (2 times)
February 19, 2020 (2 times)
March 2, 2020 (2 times)
March 4, 2020 (2 times)
March 13, 2020
March 17, 2020
March 18, 2020
March 22, 2020
March 23, 2020
March 26, 2020 (2 times)
March 28, 2020
March 29, 2020 (2 times)
March 30, 2020
April 1, 2020
April 2, 2020
Trump's other popular lies:
ongoing construction on his border wall (257 lies),

the size of his tax cut (197 lies),

overstating the impact/size of US trade deficits (177 lies),

the amount the US receives from foreign countries in trade tariffs (150 lies; American consumers pay Trump's tariffs, not foreign countries),

exaggerating the US's contributions to NATO (121 lies), and

Democratic collusion with Russia in 2016 (96 lies; again, the opposite was true).

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