Trump’s False Claims: Separating Fact from Fiction
The Washington Post has a Fact Checker section that they send out often that can help you know the truth rather than what Trump says. On Friday, September 27, 2024, 11:15 AM, Glenn Kessler wrote the truth in his article, “Obama and Biden achievements that Trump claims for himself.” Here are some examples from the article:
“Regular readers know we’ve documented many times the false claims that former president Donald Trump has made about his achievements during his presidency. But there are also instances when Trump claims credit for something that either former president Barack Obama or President Joe Biden did. We took a look at a recent sample, including:
- Capping insulin at $35 a month. (Biden passed a law that provided the benefit to all seniors. Trump had a temporary and voluntary pilot program for some.)
- Lowest Black unemployment rate. (Trump set a record, but Biden beat it significantly.)
- Passed VA Choice. (Obama signed a law that let veterans go to private doctors. Trump signed a minor update.)
- Saved the auto industry. (That was Obama. Auto jobs fell under Trump.)”
Trump released an ad about the economy was in trouble. “We took a tour through the points made in the ad, including:
- ‘Their ‘Bidenomics’ led to the highest inflation in 40 years.’ (Inflation hit 9 percent in June 2022, but now it’s at 2.5 percent, roughly equal to the inflation rate in January 2020 when Trump was president)
- ‘Highest gas prices ever.’ (That’s also 2022, and gas prices are much lower now. Adjusted for inflation, gas prices under Biden did not reach a record high.)
- ‘Incomes down’ (Median household income fell for three straight years, including Trump’s last year in office, but two weeks before the ad was released, the Census Bureau reported that real median household income rose four percent in 2023, to $80,610, the first increase since 2019.)”
I encourage you to get the Fact Checker email from The Washington Post email@washingtonpost.com.
A Distorted Reality: Trump’s Dark Vision for America
“Donald Trump’s imaginary and frightening world,” an article by Ashley Parker, from The Washington Post, September 23, 2024, at 5:00 AM EDT gives us a glimpse into Trump’s world. “In Donald Trump’s imaginary world, Americans can’t venture out to buy a loaf of bread without getting shot, mugged or raped. World War III and economic collapse are just around the corner. And kids head off to school only to return at day’s end having undergone gender confirming surgery. The former president’s imagery world is a dark, dystopian place, described by Trump in his rallies, interviews, social media posts and debate appearances to paint an alarming picture of America under the Biden-Harris administration. It is distorted, warped, and, at times absurdist portrait of a nation where the insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to deadly effect were merely peaceful protesters. His extreme caricatures also serve as another way for Trump to traffic in lies and misinformation, using an alternate reality of his own making to create an often terrifying—and he seems to hope—politically devastating landscape for his political opponents.”
There is no one that will escape his comments. “Trump falsely claimed that Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, has said ‘abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine.’ In fact, Walz has not said this, ‘The Washington Post Fact Checker found, and ‘execution after birth’—or infanticide—is illegal in all states. According to the Center for Disease control and Prevention, in 2021, nearly all abortions—93.5 percent—occur at or before 13 weeks, and fewer than 1 percent were performed after 21 weeks.”
Another example is “shortly after news that former Republican vice president Dick Cheney and his daughter, Liz Cheney, a former Republican congresswoman from Wyoming, planned to vote for Harris, Trump took to his Truth Social site to attack them. ‘I am the Peace President, and only I will stop World War III’ he claimed.”
Here is what is being said about Trump: “He’s not the same candidate he was in 2016 or 2020, said Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic strategist who took note of Trump’s ‘imaginary world’ in a post on X this month. ‘He is far more diminished and untethered.’”
Why Do Some Americans Support Trump Despite His Lies?
I have been asked many times, how can people vote for Trump? In this article they give a valuable answer. “Among Trump’s supporters, some seem to accept his false claims as unassailable truths, while others say he sometimes exaggerates—but in doing so accurately captures their fears about real issues facing the nation.” Each article I have read shows me that Trump supporters can only support him by rationalizing, giving excuses, and then expanding the lies Trump tells so they can attempt to make his comment real by repeating them. If you want more examples of his lies and misinformation, then you will want to read this article. Remember, I always provide my resources for my podcasts.
The Violence Stoked by Trump’s Dangerous Rhetoric
Let me show you how Trump’s lies increase violence for others. An excellent example is his attack on Haitians. Here is what happens to people who do not support him. Public Citizen (Published Sunday, September 29, 2024, 11:11 AM) is an important publication. Currently, Texas has been controlled by MAGA Republicans. Here are examples of a few of the threats they receive: “I will kill you without remorse. We will eradicate scum like Public Citizen. I would rip you apart limb from limb if given the chance. You should die slowly, in horrible pain. We hope and pray you die. The FBI should lock you up and anyone who supports you. Get the f___ out of my country.”
Political Bullying in Ohio: Trump’s Influence on Local Leaders
Next, I will take you to “Ohio sheriff says to ‘write down’ addresses of homes with Harris signs”—Portage County, Ohio, Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski, a Republican, told residents to do this. This is an article from The Washington Post, September 16, 2024, at 10:29 PM EDT by Praveena Somasundaram. The sheriff’s suggestions are that there will be an influx of undocumented immigrants if Harris wins. “In Monday posts on X, the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio condemned Zuchowski’s comments, adding that putting up political signs was ‘most decidedly, protected core First Amendment speech.” The Sheriff’s statements have stoked fear among Portage County residents, which is 180 miles northeast of Clark County, where Springfield is located. They have named the Sheriff’s actions as bullying.
Exploiting Shame: How Trump Taps into Rural America’s Pain
If you want to know how white Americans can vote for Trump then Time Magazine on September 12, 2024, 11:28 AM EDT, published this article “How Trump Weaponized White Rural America’s Shame by Arlie Russell Hochschild. There are many good points in this article; however, as a PhD, I appreciate when a writer goes step by step to tell how shame and fear have been shifted into blame as Trump continually does in all his comments. Here is how Hochschild describes it:
“His supporters hear in his words an anti-shame ritual. This ritual is composed of four moments. In Moment 1 Trump says something transgressive. To take an early example, when he announced his presidential bid in 2015, he declared ‘when Mexico sends its people…they’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapist.’ In Moment 2, the punditry (puhn de tree—means experts) shames Trump, saying in essence, ‘You can’t say that! How disgraceful.’ NBC, which hosted Celebrity Apprentice, announced it was severing ties ‘due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump.’ In Moment 3, Trump turns to his followers saying in effect: They hurt me. I’m in pain, as you are, I’m suffering for you. Then comes Moment 4, the most important: Trump roars back at the shammers’ NBC is so weak and so foolish,’ I will protect you against these causes of your distress.”
“As the book of proverbs says, without wood, there is no fire. Sadly, the wood kindling this fire—burning slowly in the declining white working class since the 1970’s—is shame. And the politics attached to it is a danger to us all. The way forward is to think back through the emotional logic of the anti-shaming ritual—from 4 to 3 to 2to 1 and the situation that has made that ritual so strongly appealing in the first place.”
Vice President Harris asked all of us to go to a Trump rally and see what is really going on. If you want a preview of what happens at Trump rallies in Charlie Warzel article, “The Trump Posts you Probably Aren’t Seeing,” in the September 24, 2024, 5 AM ET of The Atlantic. This is an article about the disturbing and honest description of Trump’s tweeting that has been going on for years. Warzel encourages all of us to go back and look at the statements that have not been deleted from Trump’s Truth Social posts, which give the pictures of declining America to his supporters. I think Charlie is correct that Trump is addicted to tweeting, and has no control over what he says and doesn’t want to manage his tweets. Here is a statement from the article that describes these tweets. “On his own website, Trump doesn’t just appear unfit for the highest office in the land; he seems small, embittered, and under the influence of the kind of online outrage that usually consumes those who feel alienated by broad swaths of society. These, unlike on television, his fragmented attention, peculiar thinking and dangerous words cannot hide or be explained away.”
In “The 5-Minute Fix” by Amber Phillips with The Washington Post, on Monday, September 23, 2024, 4:19 PM article she shows how Trump attempting to blame Democrats for the assassination attempt on him is not true. Here are her points:
- Trump has made policy proposals and statements that could weaken democracy. David Alexander Bateman , a democracy expert at Cornell University, says “Trump is a threat to democracy by this point less a political opinion than it is the reasoned and well-informed analysis of the people who study this most closely.”
- He’s the one escalating violent rhetoric, more so than the other guys. Trump has embraced violent rhetoric throughout his political career in ways other mainstream politicians haven’t. He has encouraged rally attendees to beat up hecklers, celebrates the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters as ‘hostages’ and promised to release them from jail if elected, Described his opponents as ‘vermin’, says immigrants are ‘poisoning the blood’ of the country, called the media his ‘enemy,’ warned if he loses: ‘It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.”
We need to go on with more of his ideas that I did not address in Podcast 99 to show more destructive concepts he has that will destroy various aspects of our everyday life.
Trump’s Big Ideas that Will Destroy our Country.
“Trump’s big ideas would stunt U.S. growth and spur inflation,” by Fareed Zakaria, in The Washington Post on September 27, 2024, at 9:17 AM EDT and she gives this statement that she builds on in her article, “The damage he would do is much worse than anything an ‘anti-business’ liberal might offer.”
I grew up in Odessa, Texas, in oil country so I feel appreciative of The New York Times article by Robinson Meyer on September 11, 2024, entitled, “Trump’s Obsession with Oil could Destroy America’s Auto Industry.” In 2010 when Trump came into office, he proudly tore up dozens of policies that were to lower American greenhouse gas emissions and build a competitive domestic clean energy industry. He prioritized oil, coal and natural gas over wind, solar and batteries, which increased emissions by design. “Today, the United States finds itself badly lagging behind China not just in hybrid and electric vehicles but also in many other crucial industries: solar, wind and battery production, as well as the refining of some minerals. Those were the costs of just one Trump term.” Meyer goes on to say that Trump will devastate America’s growing electric vehicle industry, and “his obsession with fossil fuels has blinded him to what will drive industrial competitiveness in the future.”
Vance’s description of their healthcare system to replace Obama care are well addressed in The Washington Post article, “Trump’s ‘concepts of a plan’ would destroy the health-care system,” by Catherine Rampeil on September 19, 2024, at 6:15 PM EDT. I spent years working with insurance companies. The key issues is their plan would allow “insurers to discriminate based on age or preexisting conditions” which is politically unpopular, and “it would probably cause insurance markets to implode.” Each of us need to remember the extraordinarily expensive pre-Obamacare days. Rampeil warns us to be overly cautious the next time Vance or other Republicans promise us “choices” in your health insurance. “The real choice they’re offering you is the option of never getting sick.”
The manipulation Trump tried to do with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky is a story in itself about a strange MAGA conspiracy theory that Trump believed and tried to get Zelensky to investigate it to get what he needed from Trump for his country. This is well documented in The New York Times September 15, 2024, by David French in the article, “Why Trump Won’t Say He Wants Ukraine to Win.”
Standing Against Trump’s Lies for a Better Future
“How Trump’s Lies Are Recharging Efforts to Help Springfield’s Haitians,” in Time Magazine, by Philip Elliott on September 25, 2024, 3:39 PM EDT. “More than 130 people recently packed into a Springfield, Ohio, virtual meeting room. Their goal? To address the wholly unnecessary crisis Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, and their allies had dropped in their laps.
Despite pleas from everyone from the Republican Governor on down to stop, the former President and his running mate have continued to falsely accuse Springfield’s Haitian community of poaching pets for meals. That’s why so many local social service pros gathered last week—to firm up a plan to ensure Springfield’s possibly 20,000 -strong Haitian community not only makes it through this crisis, but comes out the other side stronger.
‘When we come together, we know what we’re working for,’ Kerry Lee Pedraza, the executive director of the local United Way chapter, tells me. ‘We’re working to make this a more inclusive, united community.”
In the face of Trump’s damaging lies and divisive policies, communities like Springfield are showing that unity and truth can prevail. By addressing false accusations and working to strengthen local ties, these efforts demonstrate the power of resilience in overcoming hate and division. As we look toward the future, it’s clear that the fight against misinformation and destructive policies will shape the America we leave for the next generation. That means voting for Harris and Walz and all Democrats and Republicans that support our Democracy and are not Trump supporters.
Sources:
- Kessler, Glenn. “Obama and Biden achievements that Trump claims for himself.” The Washington Post, September 27, 2024.
- Parker, Ashley. “Donald Trump’s imaginary and frightening world.” The Washington Post, September 23, 2024.
- Hochschild, Arlie Russell. “How Trump Weaponized White Rural America’s Shame.” Time Magazine, September 12, 2024.
- Meyer, Robinson. “Trump’s Obsession with Oil could Destroy America’s Auto Industry.” The New York Times, September 11, 2024.
- Rampeil, Catherine. “Trump’s ‘concepts of a plan’ would destroy the health-care system.” The Washington Post, September 19, 2024.
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