Truth takes a holiday
When President Trump travels to one of his campaign speeches, he leaves the truth behind.
I’d say he travels light, but he makes sure he takes a satchel-full of attacks, hyperbole, half-truths and downright blarney — to the delight of his ecstatic crowds.
“They just came out with a poll, did you hear? The most popular person (in) the history of the Republican party is Trump! So, I said, does that include Honest Abe Lincoln,” Trump boasted at his rally in Tampa, Florida last week.
For the record, scientific opinion polls didn’t exist until 1935 — 70 years after Lincoln’s death.
Besides, nobody bothered to tell him that his support is lower than every post-WWII Republican president — except Gerald Ford’s.
It’s as if he claimed he makes better use of Twitter than any Republican president in the history of the republic. He’s surely not more honest than Honest Abe.
The Washington Post calculates that Mr. Trump has made 4,229 false or misleading claims in the 558 days he’s been in office.
That equals a hefty 7.6 faulty statements a day.
And when he ad libs during speeches, that number is sure to increase.
He told his cheering crowd, “Outside, if you want to go, we set up for the first time a tremendous movie screen, because we have thousands and thousands of people outside that couldn’t get in.”
That wasn’t true.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, “There were no massive TV screens and no Jumbotrons outside of the Trump rally.”
The Times did say that there may have been hundreds of people outside. But that’s if you count the estimated 150 protesters and counter-protesters who showed up.
Trump knows how to work his audiences into a frenzy.
Mention Hillary Clinton, and the attendees will erupt into chants of, “Lock her up. Lock her up.”
Be mindful, though, that there are members of Trump’s presidential campaign who are much closer to being locked up, than Hillary Clinton is.
He can elicit boos by simply bringing up Sen. John McCain.
He always claims that it was McCain who turned “thumbs-down” and stood in the way of his repeal of parts of Obamacare last July.
McCain’s “no” vote did contribute to the repeal’s failure. But he wasn’t the only Republican to vote against it. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined 48 Democrats in opposing it.
Trump never mentions those senators. Instead, he’d rather use an honorable American, who’s currently fighting for his life, as fodder for one of his sick rallying cries.
The folks in Tampa were excited to learn that work has already begun on Trump’s prized border wall.
“We’ve got $1.6 billion and we’ve started large portions of the wall,” he bragged — without the least bit of evidence to support that statement.
That $1.6 billion earmarked by Congress is for replacing old fencing. It has nothing to do with new wall construction.
Trump is compelled to let his audiences know that he’s improving America in ways that it’s never been improved before.
“In the second quarter of this year, the United States economy grew at the amazing rate of 4.1 percent,” he says.
Except it’s not “amazing.”
Four times under President Obama, the economy grew by that much.
In fact, the economy grew by 4.6 percent twice, and by 5.2 percent once under Obama.
Trump is sure to get a huge round of applause when he claims, “We passed the biggest tax cuts and reform in American history. Biggest cuts in history.”
That’s true, if you don’t count the three other times since 1940 when taxes were (adjusted for inflation) cut even more.
He also announced he’s taking a stand against people from other countries voting in our elections.
He wants everybody to get identification to vote.
“You know, if you go out and you want to buy groceries, you need a picture on a card – you need ID,” he reminded the folks down in Florida.
No, you don’t!
It’s doubtful that anybody will tell him that bit of truth.
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter and anchor for Entertainment Tonight and 20-year TV news veteran. Email him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.