The Washington Post Fact Checker Staff

Perhaps, because of this Coronavirus pandemic and staying home too much, I'm growing impatient and grumpy, making the book "Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth", by the FactCheck staff at the Washington Post, the third consecutive book I stopped reading about half way through. I felt it was becoming tiresome, because it's pretty much a compilation of everything I've been hearing for the past several years. However, after a respite of a few days, I relented and did go back and finish the book.

As the book's title makes clear, the book deals with President Trump's tendency to take liberties with the truth. The Fact Checking team at the Washington Post have collected Trump's statements, and point out the inconsistencies or the exaggerated claims he makes. But it's not just fact checkers or opponents of the President who point this out. Many Trump supporters and members of his own Administration have been as critical if not more so of the President's trouble with the truth. Trump's longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, called out the President for falsehoods, saying he's even more dishonest behind the scenes than he appears in public. Anthony Scaramucci, Trump's short-lived White House Director of Communications, has called Trump a congenital liar. Defense Secretary James Mattis said Trump is impervious to facts. And Chris Christie, a friend and supporter of Trump, told CNN in February, 2019 that Trump will lie about things he doesn't even need to lie about - that's worse in many respects.

The basis of this book is that Trump's own words are easily and readily shown to be false or very misleading, and the Fact Checkers of the Washington Post have been compiling these misstatements for the past three years. Some people, such as Casey Mulligan, chief economist of Trump's Council of Economic Advisers from 2018 - 2019, believe that making exaggerated claims is part of Trump's strategy for getting additional press coverage. A simple statement by the President on one of his policies may generate only a minor newspaper column. However, when Trump deliberately exaggerates, he knows that the press will want to correct him, and in so doing, unwittingly provide much more coverage of whatever policy statement the President is making. This further helps the President get his message out to his supporters, who readily forgive any exaggerations or embellishments, and instead simply retain the main point which the President is trying to make.

As an example, when the President recently talked about building over 200 miles of a powerful NEW border wall with Mexico, the Fact Checkers note that only about 3 miles of NEW fence have been built. The rest of those 200 miles of fencing are simply rebuilds and repairs to sections of pre-existing wall. So the Fact Checkers have caught the President making a statement which is demonstrably wrong, since only about 3 miles, not 200 miles, of NEW wall have been built. But supporters only care that the border is more secure than it was previously. So by exaggerating claims, the President is using the mainstream media to write and talk even more about the message he's trying to get out to the public. Supporters don't care how many "Pinocchios" the Fact Checkers give to the President's statements, and only get more angry over mainstream media "nit-picking" criticisms of the President.

Meanwhile, opponents of the President become more critical because of these exaggerations and false statements. As another example, in October, 2018, in a rare bi-partisan measure, Congress passed a bill addressing the Opioid epidemic. The Bill passed 393 to 8 in the House, and 98 to 1 in the Senate, and the only Senator to vote against was a Republican. But, at a rally in Ohio, Trump said the bill passed with very little Democratic support - quite a misrepresentation of the facts. Democrats complain that the President is lying and further polarizing the Country, and that if the President wanted to unite the Country, this was a missed opportunity to show he could work with both Parties to get things done.

This behavior of the President isn't new. As he states in his own earlier books, he seems to take pride in his ability to spin a story to his own benefit. In "The Art of the Deal", Trump doesn't use the word "lie" about his distortions, embellishments, falsehoods, or "alternate facts", but instead refers to them as "hyperbole", which by definition means these are at best overstatements or exaggerations, and not to be taken literally. He found this practice useful in his real estate development dealings, giving banks and buyers a positive feeling about buying into his properties as "the best ever", "the grandest", "the most luxuriant", etc. Associating the Trump name with everything that's "the best ever" has served him well in his business, and he's made hyperbole part of his persona. He describes himself as "the smartest", "the richest", "the most physically fit", "the best deal maker", "smarter than the Generals", "the best negotiator", "least racist person ever", etc. That's how he's marketed his brand, and how he's marketing himself in the Presidency.

Whether this is harmless embellishment to make his supporters feel good, or whether these false statements result in people "tuning him out" because they stop believing anything he says is an unanswered question in the book. If the President lies too much, would the Country know if his recommendations are really the best course of action, or simply something of a political nature or for self-aggrandizement. If people stop taking his statements seriously, it could be very dangerous for the Country.

The authors acknowledge that Trump isn't the first or only politician to be caught in a lie. Politicians in both parties will bend the truth if it works to their advantage. And they've noted that past Presidents have lied, perhaps to protect national security, to gain advantage in diplomacy, to shield the public from damaging information, or sometimes lie inadvertently due to sloppy work of a staffer.

President Eisenhower lied about sending secret spy planes over the USSR, but was caught when the Soviets shot down the U2 spy plane and captured Gary Francis Powers. He subsequently referred to this lie as his greatest regret during his presidency. LBJ lied about minimizing the Vietnam War, and decided not to run for a second term as president. Nixon lied about Watergate, and resigned the presidency following the scandal. Reagan lied about the Iran-Contra scandal, which tainted his legacy. Clinton lied about his affair with Monica Lewinsky, and subsequently was forced to apologize for his lies. George W. Bush erroneously declared in his State of the Union Address that Saddam Hussein was seeking yellowcake for his WMD program, but that statement was later shown to be false and based on inconclusive research. And Obama famously declared that "...if you like your health care, you can keep it", and didn't work out well for him. But generally, these erroneous statements were "owned" by each speaker, and they regretted making them.

Trump, on the other hand, rather than admitting to a misstatement, a fabrication, or a lie, simply denies it with no remorse. With no acknowledgement of making false statements by the President, the Fact Checkers believed it was important to point out that we shouldn't accept every statement from the President without first checking those claims. They believe that had journalists done a better job prior to invasion of Iraq, the Bush claim in his State of the Union address that Saddam Hussein was seeking yellowcake in Africa for developing nuclear weapons may have been shown to be false, and an unnecessary war may have been avoided. At that time, the press was too willing to take the Administration's words as fact and didn't challenge enough. As a result, we went to war, leading to continuing turmoil in the Middle East, leading to untold numbers of injuries and deaths, and costing trillions of dollars. If at some point in the future President Trump might declare that Iran, North Korea, or some other adversary is presenting an imminent threat to our country, we'd all like to have trust that the President is telling the truth, and that the facts behind the claim have been verified by people not afraid to speak the truth to power.

Because the President never apologizes, and Administration officials who have disagreed with President's statements don't keep their jobs very long, the Fact Checkers at the Washington Post are trying to ensure that the public is aware when official statement coming from our Government are known to be inaccurate. So far, they've come up with a catalog of over 16,000 examples of lies or misstatements in his first several years in Office.

But at this point in time, I'm beginning to question if further Presidential lies are having an impact on Trump supporters or Trump haters. Everyone is in their own camp, and after documenting the first hundred, the first thousand, or the first ten thousand examples of lying, no one seems to be influenced any more. Supporters mostly recognize that the President isn't always telling the truth, but accept that as Trump's way to mess with people, to spin up the press, or to give supporters what they want to hear. To supporters, it's an aside to what the President is trying to do, which is to reduce corporate and individual tax rates, cut regulations, tighten the borders, and appoint the "right type" of judges to the courts. Meanwhile, Trump opponents are no longer surprised by the President's misstatements, and have long ago stopped listening to him.

So to me, the book isn't likely to influence readers, but is probably most useful as a convenient resource for future journalists looking for a collection of President's most outrageous transgressions compiled in one location, or perhaps useful to someone just coming out of a coma over the past three or four years.

Readers will find that the book contains a collection sound clips of Trump's speeches, selections of his tweets, letters, or other written remarks, each of which has been reviewed and proven to be in conflict with the actual facts. Some are gross distortions or just plain wrong, others are half-truths or made-up statements which have no basis in fact.

The first section of the book lists a number of Trump's most noteworthy falsehoods across all subjects, such as:
Stormy Daniels and paying her hush money;
The promise to build a southern border wall which will be paid for by Mexico;
The claim that his policies didn't separate children from parents at Mexican border (falsely blamed Obama for the law);
That he ensured all Americans will get health insurance, even with preexisting conditions;
That he is strengthening NATO;
That he made it possible for Veterans to go to private hospitals if VA facilities are filled (Obama enacted that legislation 2 yrs earlier, Trump simply updated it);
That he gave taxpayers the biggest tax cut in American history; (according to the Treasury Dept means of measuring, it's the 8th largest cut in the past 100 years);
That between 3 million and 5 million illegal votes caused Trump to lose popular vote;
That Obama had Trump's phones tapped in Trump Tower;
That he's the most popular Republican EVER! (The data shows that among recent GOP Presidents, GW Bush, Reagan, GHW Bush, and Ike all had higher positive ratings among Republicans.

Sections 2 through 4 detail his lies about himself, his perceived enemies, and his deception of his political base.
Section 5 shows how he uses his favorite transmitter of falsehoods - Twitter.
Sections 6 through 10 cover his major policy areas - Immigration, Economics and Trade, Foreign Policy, Ukraine, and the Coronavirus.
The Conclusion considers Trump's impact on American politics, and an Appendix shows how he combines misstatements, lies, and the occasional fact at his campaign rallies.

If there's a way to summarize the book, it may be that Trump follows the advice of his long time lawyer and mentor, Roy Cohn, which is to never admit any error, constantly repeat falsehoods, and have no shame about your tactics. Trump latches onto flimsy conspiracy theories, isn't bothered by his contradictions, gets many of his facts wrong, misleads about things big and small, and attacks his opponents with outrageously false claims and hyperbolic rhetoric. His defenders, like Rudy Giuliani, declare that there is no such thing as an absolute truth, that "truth isn't truth", and Trump simply has "alternate facts". The cumulative effect is nihilism, there is no truth, no right or wrong, no data or evidence, only relativism, point of view, and biased opinion.

Hopefully, this will not become a template to follow for future Presidents.… (mehr)

So I kinda feel like this should be required reading in this era. With the ongoing toxic brew of lies and half truths coming out of Washington these days, the world needs more investigative reporters like those from The Washington Post and The New York Times. This is a fairly meaty, straightforward analysis of statements Trump has made and the real world data behind them. A lot of what is mentioned in here I was familiar with, but there was new material that was new to me or clarified things I wasn’t completely familiar with. This is a really good, just the facts book for those interested in the truth. Thank you to Netgalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review.… (mehr)

If you don't want to read the whole book, although I did, skip to the appendix and get all the claims and fact checking in a nutshell. I already knew most of what this book has fact-checked, but some of it was new to me. I continue to be appalled that so many people prefer to believe lies and conspiracy theories rather than doing some fact checking and becoming aware of the truth.

Although much of the information was not new to me, seeing it all laid out as it is in this book is very disconcerting. Many presidents have had one lie, one major misstep, that follows them. This “president” has had so many that we tend to forget the earlier, the less egregious ones. Laid out well, and with solid information rather than guessing and innuendos, this book is a good one to read if you really care about this country.… (mehr)

This was an incredible look back on the Trump years via so many of his "falsehoods, misleading claims and flat-out lies." It is written by the fact checking staff at the Washington Post. The authors break down his most important lies into categories making it easier for the reader to follow. Each lie is debunked with accurate facts. My favorite part was the section where the authors covered one of Trump's rallies, pointing out and debunking the myriad of lies in that rally. I have to admit I often watch Trump's rallies as a sport - to see how many lies I can see. I am proud to admit, I am pretty good at it. I enjoyed this book immensely.… (mehr)