The first debate between Biden and Trump in the new presidential race took place. Shock and panic for Democrats who seriously thought about replacing a candidate in the presidential election. The dishonesty and arrogance of Trump, which made many remember the strange relationship of the former US president with the truth. Pinocchio – so often called lying Donald by media critics and journalists – remained true to himself. And he said a lot of things that skillful fact-checkers have already put on the shelves, giving verdicts that are disappointing for the general public. Biden’s 5 Post-Truth Statements vs. Trump’s 35 Misleading Statements. This was the conclusion made by the publication’s fact-checkers The Washington Post.
Trump and the post-truth
In 2016, the words “post-truth”, “post-factuality”, “fake news” became the words of the year in numerous national dictionaries, including the Australian Macquarie Dictionary. The popularity of the new terms among users was precisely related to the figure of Trump, his barbaric attitude to facts and the famous phrase: the truth is real, but lies are more effective. The message about the Australians’ choice was illustrated by a photo of Trump, who “holds in his hands” a fact-checking verdict – “Pants on fire”, which refers to the English expression: “Liar, liar, pants on fire!” ) and is used to refer to liars whose “pants are on fire” because of their false statements. In Ukrainian, this expression can be translated as “Liar, liar, pants on fire!”
The grotesque culmination of Trump’s post-truth – press secretary Sean Spicer’s patently false claims about the incredible number of people attending Trump’s inauguration were excused as “alternative facts.”
Lies in the Trumpian sense are usually offered as “alternative truths” to those willing to believe them, rather than being universally sanctioned as lies.
Watched closely by PolitiFact
A well-known fact-checking resource PolitiFact published the 1,000th fact check about Donald Trump in February 2024.
Fact-checkers quipped that they had never met a politician who so unapologetically shared Trump’s disdain for factual accuracy.
The independent fact-checking organization PolitiFact recognized Trump’s judgment as the lie of the year three times (in 2015, 2017, 2019), in particular, it was about his statements about New York crime, H. Clinton’s participation in the sale of arms to Islamists, Biden’s promises to raise taxes, achievements under Trump’s administration the US economy at the highest historical level.
In the verdict line of PolitiFact fact-checkers, Trump was most often assigned an extreme level of lies – “Pants on fire”, which probably translates as “burnt” in Ukrainian.
The fact-checking saga of Trump began at PolitiFact back in 2011, when the politician used his popularity to spread a conspiracy theory about Barack Obama’s un-American “birth” and undermine his legitimacy as president. The pace of fact-checking increased in 2015, when Trump unexpectedly won the Republican primary and defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016. Already in the position of president, Trump lied a lot, downplaying the threat to public health from COVID-19. After losing to Biden, he continued to spread falsehoods about the results of the vote and the election, culminating in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
For fact-checkers, the 45th president is unprecedented in the number of checks on promises and claims. By comparison, former President Barack Obama has 603 judgment checks, 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has 301 checks, and President Joe Biden has 286.
Trump stands alone and behind a share of valued statements that are to some extent false. About 76% of his statements were rated “Mostly False,” “False,” or “Pants on Fire.” The average score for his 1,000 statements is false.
More than 18% of Trump fact-checks were for “Pants on Fire,” which fact-checkers define as a claim that is not just false, but ridiculous and absurd.
What “burned” during the debate?
Fact checkers note, that the dozens of delusional claims that Trump has used are his favorite arguments, which they have already repeatedly refuted. Trump, without shame, appeals to them every time he has to convince Americans of his exceptionalism. We will remind you that the most significant thing for the post-truth era is that a debunked hoax does not lose its effectiveness if it emotionally “enters” the public.
What “alternative facts” did Trump present this time?
“During his presidency, the United States had the largest economy in the history of the country, and Americans have never done as well as they did under him.”
Fact-checkers refute this bold statement: by almost every important indicator, the economy under Trump has not achieved the same results as under the presidencies of Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Bill Clinton.
“Many merits for the military and no wars.”
Fact checkers indicate: this is not true. Trump often says he was the first president in 72 years to not have a single war.
At least 65 active-duty military personnel have reportedly died in hostilities during Trump’s presidency, as he stepped up commitments in Iraq and Syria to fight the Islamic State group and launched airstrikes in Syria as punishment for a chemical weapons attack. . Trump has also escalated hostilities with Iran, including the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. At the time, Trump said the strike was carried out pursuant to a 2001 military authorization resolution.
“I left Afghanistan, but we left with dignity, with strength, with power.”
Criticizing the way Biden led the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, fact-checkers write, is fair, but we should not forget that Trump also played a significant role in this process. In March 2020, Trump made an agreement with the Taliban that American troops would leave the country by May 2021. Despite rejecting many of Trump’s strategies, Biden chose to stick with the deal, simply stretching out the withdrawal by several months.
“In the last couple of months of my presidency, we’ve had the most secure border in history.”
This is not true, fact checkers state.
Trump’s efforts to close the border completely failed until the start of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, when he was able to turn away migrants citing a public health emergency.
Then the number of detentions at the border began to increase again.
In Trump’s last two months in office, the number of arrests was significantly higher than in the last two months of Obama’s presidency.
“I forced NATO to allocate hundreds of billions of dollars.”
Fact-checkers have long noted that Trump has a poor understanding of how NATO is financed and operated. He has repeatedly claimed that other members of the alliance “owe” money to the United States and that they are in arrears on their payments. He then took credit for the money that “flowed in” as a result of his negotiations, even though most of the increase in those countries’ contributions was set under guidelines drawn up under the Obama administration.
Since 2006, NATO guidelines have required each member state to spend at least 2% of its gross domestic product on defense. In 2014, NATO decided to increase its spending in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in Ukraine. This money does not go to the coffers of NATO, as Trump often claims. Direct funding, for military operations, maintenance, and headquarters activities, is based on gross national income—the total domestic and foreign production owned by the country’s residents—and is regularly adjusted.
“The Secretary General of NATO said that Trump has done the most incredible job that I have ever seen.”
When Trump was president, he often attributed quotes to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that could not be verified, such as: “Secretary Stoltenberg is probably Trump’s biggest fan, to be honest. He goes everywhere and talks — he gave a speech recently. He said: “Without Donald Trump, NATO might not exist.” Stoltenberg did not say that, fact-checkers emphasize.
“It could be 18, it could be 19 or even 20 million people.”
Trump has never met a number he couldn’t double, triple, quadruple, or even quintuple. Here he manages to take the real number — the roughly 5 million migrants who arrived during the Biden presidency — and quadruple it. He then offers a prediction to make it sound even bigger.
Why are Trump’s lies not only funny, but also dangerous?
Trump’s misleading statements can be dangerous for international politics for several reasons:
- Erosion of Trust: Repeated false or misleading statements can erode trust between the United States and its allies. Trust is the cornerstone of diplomatic relations and international cooperation. When allies cannot rely on the veracity of US leadership’s statements, it undermines the credibility of the United States on the world stage
- Diplomatic Tensions: False statements or misrepresentations can lead to unnecessary diplomatic tensions and even a breakdown in communication and cooperation on critical international issues.
- Impact on Institutions: Misleading statements can negatively impact international alliances such as NATO. It will be recalled that Trump’s repeated false statements about NATO funding and contributions caused outrage among member countries. Such statements can weaken the collective defense position and the unity of the alliance.
- Undermining democratic norms: misleading statements by the head of state can undermine democratic norms and values both at home and abroad. When leaders are not held accountable for false claims, it can set a dangerous precedent and encourage similar behavior in other countries, contributing to the global erosion of truth and accountability in governance.
It remains surprising that despite numerous statements by fact-checkers and the title of the biggest liar, Trump remains the idol of millions of Americans who see him as the only worthy leader of their country.
