False or misleading statements by Donald Trump

Fact-checkers from The Washington Post[1] (top, monthly), the Toronto Star[2] and CNN[3][4] (bottom, weekly) compiled data on "false or misleading claims", and "false claims", respectively. The peaks corresponded in late 2018 to the midterm elections, in late 2019 to his impeachment inquiry, and in late 2020 to the presidential election. The Post reported 30,573 false or misleading claims in four years,[1] an average of more than 20.9 per day.
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During and after his term as President of the United States, Donald Trump made tens of thousands of false or misleading claims. The Washington Post's fact-checkers documented 30,573 false or misleading claims during his presidential term, an average of about 21 per day.[1][5][6][7] The Toronto Star tallied 5,276 false claims from January 2017 to June 2019, an average of 6 per day.[2] Commentators and fact-checkers have described the scale of Trump's mendacity as "unprecedented" in American politics,[13] and the consistency of falsehoods a distinctive part of his business and political identities.[14] Scholarly analysis of Trump's tweets found "significant evidence" of an intent to deceive.[15]

By June 2019, after initially resisting, many news organizations began to describe some of his falsehoods as "lies".[16] The Washington Post said his frequent repetition of claims he knew to be false amounted to a campaign based on disinformation.[17] Trump campaign CEO and presidency chief strategist Steve Bannon said that the press, rather than Democrats, was Trump's primary adversary and "the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit."[18][19]

As part of their attempts to overturn the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Trump and his allies repeatedly falsely claimed there had been massive election fraud and that Trump had won the election.[7] Their effort was characterized by some as an implementation of Hitler's "big lie" propaganda technique.[20]

On June 8, 2023, a grand jury indicted Trump on one count of making "false statements and representations", specifically by hiding subpoenaed classified documents from his own attorney who was trying to find and return them to the government.[21] In August 2023, 21 of Trump's falsehoods about the 2020 election were listed in his Washington, D.C. indictment,[22] while 27 were listed in his Georgia indictment.[23]

  1. ^ a b c Fact Checker (January 20, 2021). "In four years, President Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 20, 2021.
  2. ^ a b Dale, Daniel (June 5, 2019). "Donald Trump has now said more than 5,000 false things as president". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on October 3, 2019.
  3. ^ Dale, Daniel (March 9, 2020). "Trump is averaging about 59 false claims per week since ... July 8, 2019". CNN. Archived from the original on March 9, 2020. Retrieved April 16, 2020. (direct link to chart image)
  4. ^ Dale, Daniel; Subramaniam, Tara (March 9, 2020). "Donald Trump made 115 false claims in the last two weeks of February". CNN. Archived from the original on August 3, 2021. Retrieved August 3, 2021.
  5. ^ Kessler, Glenn (January 23, 2021). "Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims as president. Nearly half came in his final year". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 24, 2021. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
  6. ^ Elfrink, Tim (August 14, 2020). "'Do you regret at all, all the lying you've done?': A reporter's blunt question to Trump goes unanswered". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  7. ^ a b Higgins, Andrew (January 10, 2021). "The Art of the Lie? The Bigger the Better – Lying as a political tool is hardly new. But a readiness, even enthusiasm, to be deceived has become a driving force in politics around the world, most recently in the United States". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 19, 2021. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kessler_12/30/2018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference McGranahan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Skjeseth_2017 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Baker, Peter (March 17, 2018). "Trump and the Truth: A President Tests His Own Credibility". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 21, 2018. Retrieved October 23, 2018.
  12. ^ Dale, Daniel (October 22, 2018). "Donald Trump's strategy as midterms approach: lies and fear-mongering". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on October 23, 2018. Retrieved October 23, 2018.
  13. ^ [8][9][10][11][12]
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference Glasser_8/3/2018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference Davis_Sinnreich_5/14/2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ Farhi, Paul (June 5, 2019). "Lies? The news media is starting to describe Trump's 'falsehoods' that way". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 7, 2019. Retrieved June 7, 2019.
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kessler_12/10/2018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ Remnick, David (July 30, 2018). "Trump vs. the Times: Inside an Off-the-Record Meeting". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on September 24, 2021. Retrieved October 4, 2022.
  19. ^ Illing, Sean (January 16, 2020). ""Flood the zone with shit": How misinformation overwhelmed our democracy". Vox. Archived from the original on October 8, 2021. Retrieved October 14, 2021.
  20. ^ Multiple sources:
  21. ^ "Trump's 2nd indictment: Read the full document text". Politico. June 9, 2023. pp. 40–41. Archived from the original on June 10, 2023. Retrieved June 10, 2023.
  22. ^ Cite error: The named reference Dale-2023a was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  23. ^ Cite error: The named reference Dale-2023b was invoked but never defined (see the help page).