Donald Trump averaged 15 false claims a day in 2018, an unprecedented year of deception
- The Washington Post’s Fact Checker’s database, which tracks every suspect statement uttered by the president, said he had accumulated more than 7,600 untruths during his presidency
- On November 5, the day before the midterm elections, Trump held three rallies, yielding a total of 139 false or misleading claims
US President Donald Trump’s year of lies, false statements and misleading claims started with a series of morning tweets.
Over a couple of hours January 2, Trump made false claims about three of his favourite targets – Iran, The New York Times and Hillary Clinton.
He also took credit for the “best and safest year on record” for commercial aviation, even though there had been no commercial plane crashes in the United States since 2009 and, in any case, the president has little to do with ensuring the safety of commercial aviation.
The fusillade of tweets was the start of a year of unprecedented deception during which Trump became increasingly unmoored from the truth.
When 2018 began, the president had made 1,989 false and misleading claims, according to The Washington Post’s Fact Checker’s database, which tracks every suspect statement uttered by the president.
By the end of the year, Trump had accumulated more than 7,600 untruths during his presidency – averaging more than 15 erroneous claims a day during 2018, almost triple the rate from the year before.
Even as Trump’s fact-free statements proliferate, there is growing evidence that his approach is failing.