The nation’s Liar-in-Chief gives license to his administration to make false and misleading claims

We know that Trump constantly makes false and misleading claims.

The Washington Post kept detailed records of Trump’s mistruths and at the end of his first term it reported that the President had made 30,573 false or misleading claims in his four years in office.

The pace of Trump’s false and misleading claims increased throughout his first term, with nearly half of the 30,573 claims coming in his final year.

When he took office for his second term, Trump set the standard and tone for his Administration.

Cabinet officials like Attorney General Blanche, HHS Secretary Kennedy and Defense Secretary Hegseth followed the path of their leader and freely made false and misleading statements and hid information the public should know.

Todd Blanche has operated like Trump’s lawyer, not the lawyer for the nation. He has faced court orders over apparent violations of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, including the withholding of certain FBI interview notes and the failure to review foreign-language materials that may be covered by the Act.

During his confirmation hearings and later at congressional hearings, Secretary Kennedy claimed, falsely, that he had not been anti-vaccine. His actions as HHS Secretary repeatedly belie his claim.

Recently, Kennedy addressed a conference of the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense, which he once headed. Kennedy made clear at the conference that his claim of not being anti-vaccine was ridiculous. He told the anti-vaccine advocates, “Let me be clear: You have a strong and steadfast friend in the White House. We’ve accomplished in 19 months things that would have seemed unthinkable two years ago.”

Defense Secretary Hegseth has been accused of lying about the Iran war and hiding information. In particular, Hegseth wrongly claimed the reports about deteriorating conditions aboard the Lincoln aircraft carrier had been “completely misrepresented.” This week it was revealed that eight Navy personnel assigned to the Lincoln carrier strike group attempted suicide during its extended deployment in the Middle East.

These are just a few examples of what happens when an entire administration is given license by the President – the nation’s Liar-in-Chief – to make false and misleading claims and hide information from the public.

On Tuesday, in an approximately 40-minute speech to the United Nations, Trump took his lies, false claims and misrepresentations to a world audience.

The New York Times fact-checked the Trump speech and here are some examples of what they found:

Trump: “When you add the United States and Venezuela together, we have more than 60 percent of the oil in the world.”

New York Times: This is exaggerated. The United States and Venezuela have about 22 percent of the nearly 1.6 trillion barrels of global reserves and about 23 percent of the oil produced daily.

Trump: The United States has carried out dozens of strikes on cartel drug boats, destroying 97 percent of the drugs coming into the ocean and sea. You’ve seen it; they disappear very quickly, and we’re down 90 percent. They’re down 97 percent.”

New York Times: This lacks evidence. For months, Mr. Trump has claimed a decimation of maritime drug trafficking as an achievement of unauthorized boat strikes in the waters off Central and South America that began last September. But that claim is unsupported, unlikely, and disputed by his own administration.

The New York Times had previously fact-checked other claims that Trump repeated in his speech.

According to the Times:

• He falsely claimed to have ushered in $21 trillion in foreign investments. (This is almost double the White House’s own tally, which includes broad pledges and previously announced investments.)
• He falsely claimed to have signed the largest tax cuts in American history. (The tax cuts signed into law last summer rank sixth.)
• He overstated credit for settling eight wars. (It is an exaggeration to call some of the conflicts “wars,” and some countries dispute Mr. Trump’s role in others.)

Trump has been lying to the nation at least since 2011, when he began his campaign to question Barack Obama’s birth in the United States. He has incessantly lied about the 2020 election being stolen from him – it was not – and about widespread fraud in voting by mail – it did not happen.

There is plenty of lying in American politics. But there is no one in the known history of American politics who has been a nonstop, obsessive liar and maker of false and misleading statements like Trump is.

President Trump has used these lies and false claims to dangerously undermine the confidence of the American people in our elections, democracy, government, media, the rule of law and the courts, among others.

But it appears based on his current record-low approval ratings that the public at large is finally seeing through his never-ending con. The public is now overwhelmingly rejecting his performance on issue after issue – his war of choice in Iran, his handling of the economy and inflation, his ridiculous false claim that affordability is a hoax.

By the time his second term runs out, few will miss his departure from the nation’s capital.

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Fred’s Weekly Note appears on Thursdays in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s newsletter, and other recent editions, here. And subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.