In reality, where is the "Fake News"

I can assure you I try really hard to believe President Trump when he makes a proclamation via his tweets, but it’s becoming more and more difficult to do so in light of the fact that during his 466 days of rule he has made 3001 incorrect or misleading claims, averaging 6.5 per day.

Some of the more noteworthy claims include the following:

The claim, that he passed the biggest tax cut in history, when in fact it ranks eighth.

The claim, that a border wall was needed to stop the flow of drugs across the southern border, even though the Drug Enforcement Administration says a wall would not limit this illegal trade, as much of it travels through legal borders or under tunnels unaffected by any possible physical barrier.

The claim his long-promised border wall is already being built, even though Congress denied him the major funding and prohibited the use of prototypes he had viewed with great fanfare.

The claim, that he has created 3 million jobs “since the election,” even though he did not assume the presidency until almost three months later. About 2.5 million jobs have been created since Trump took the oath of office.

The claim he made after his first year in office, that he had “incredible success” in terms of job growth, even though annual job growth under his presidency has been slower than the last five years of Obama’s term, and during Trump’s first year Americans witnessed the slowest job growth in six years.

The claim that, “wages are going up for the first time in many, many years,” even though they have been rising steadily since 2014.

The claim, that under the Iran nuclear agreement, the United States gave the country $150 billion. That money was always Iran’s money. Iran had billions of dollars in frozen assets in foreign banks around the globe because of international sanctions over its nuclear program. It was simply their money that was unfrozen which Iran estimated at $32 billion.

The claim, that President Xi Jinping of China instantly agreed to a request from Trump to allow the sale of U.S. beef after years of blocking it. China had already agreed to such sales under a deal brokered by the Obama administration.

The claim, that the U.S. trade deficit with China is $500 billion. In reality it is about $300 billion.

The claim “we have done more than anybody in a year” and “I accomplished more than I promised.” In reality, at the end of his first year, Trump had signed fewer bills than any president since Dwight D. Eisenhower.  However, he has made up for lost time since the one year mark and in a year and a half is now tied with George W. Bush.

The claim by President Donald Trump that he is “undoing the government’s rampant spending that occurred under former President Obama’s watch.”   The facts are President Trump signed  a  tax plan that will increase the deficit by an estimated $1.7 trillion.

 

The claim Trump made about rescinding the recent policy of separating border crossing immigrants from their children, “You can’t do it through an executive order.”  President Trump three days later signed an executive order doing just that.

However, one of my favorite Trumpian tweets was made approximately two weeks ago.  After the historical North Korean Summit our President stated, “Before taking office people were assuming that we were going to War with North Korea.  President Obama said that North Korea was our biggest and most dangerous problem. No longer - sleep well tonight!”

Last Friday Trump stated, “The existence and risk of proliferation of weapons-usable fissile material [nuclear] on the Korean Peninsula [and] the actions and policies of the Government of North Korea . . . continue to constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.”

Guess we shouldn’t “sleep well” after all, since this basically contradicts his earlier message.

President Trump consistently labels media outlets as “Fake News” and untrustworthy information sources for our citizens.  Perhaps as the old saying goes, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”