Trump’s history of making false claims with no evidence
Trump’s latest lie, claiming that Obama wire-tapped Trump Towers before the election, is just the latest in a long history of lies – making wild claims with no basis in fact.
Here are some highlights from the Trump alternative facts universe.
Birtherism
In March 2011, Trump began promoting the idea that Obama wasn’t born in the United States, a claim previously confined to fringe right-wing conspiracy theorists. It was a suspicion presented without evidence, and Obama ridiculed Trump for it during the 2011 White House Correspondents Association dinner. Last September, without explaining why, Trump abandoned the claim with a statement: “Mr. Trump believes President Obama was born in the United States.”
Voter fraud that made him lose the popular vote
On Nov. 27, Trump tweeted: “In addition to winning the Electoral College, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” He cited no evidence. He also tweeted that voters from Massachusetts illegally voted in New Hampshire, which caused Trump to lose that state last November. No evidence was found to support that claim either.
His Electoral College win the biggest since 1984
During his Feb. 16 news conference, Trump claimed that his Electoral College win was the biggest since President Ronald Reagan’s in 1984, when he carried every state except Minnesota and the District of Columbia. However, election records showed that Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton (two times) and Obama (twice) won higher percentages of the electoral vote than Trump — in five of the seven elections since Reagan won his last.
There was major terrorist attack on Feb. 17 in Sweden
“Look at what happened last night in Sweden,” Trump told a crowd in Melbourne, Fla., on Feb. 18.
But no major incident had “happened” in Sweden. Trump had seen a Fox News show making claims about immigrants and crime in Sweden. In response, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt took to Twitter: “Sweden? Terror attack? What has he been smoking?”
And on and on it goes…
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