In 2021, a study conducted by the Washington Post found that our former president, Donald Trump, had made 30,573 false claims since 2017.
It isn’t unusual for politicians to mislead or exaggerate; after all, they are politicians. However, few politicians share the same disregard for factual accuracy as does Donald Trump.
For example, excluding the misleading claims and quotations that needed context (levied by both candidates), when it comes to objectively false claims, during the course of their recent debate, Trump made 30 and Harris made 1. That’s one factual lie every 1 minute and 45 seconds from Trump.
When it comes to the country’s economic well-being, the lie that the modern Republican Party is better for the economy still holds fast. Looking at it from an undistorted lens, Donald Trump’s economic plans, both during his presidency and in his future proposals, have raised concerns about significantly increasing the national deficit. His administration’s 2017 tax cuts, which primarily benefited corporations and the wealthiest Americans, were projected to add over $1 trillion to the deficit over a decade. Despite promises of growth-driven revenue increases, the anticipated economic boost failed to fully materialize, leaving a larger fiscal gap. Moving forward, Trump has signaled his intent to pursue further tax cuts and increased military spending without offering substantial plans to offset the lost revenue, which would likely continue to balloon the deficit. His focus on short-term growth and immediate political wins risks burdening the country with long-term fiscal instability.
He’s also just bad at foreign policy. Despite constant claims that foreign leaders respect him, the only truthful statements here were that the incredibly corrupt Victor Orban of Hungary and the Libertarian Argentinian president Javier Millie (who has destroyed the Argentinian economy, boosting inflation by 200%) respect him. But, if we truly look at the world stage, Donald Trump’s disdain for multilateral institutions like NATO and the United Nations, where he repeatedly criticized member contributions and questioned their relevance, has fostered tensions with key global partners. His erratic foreign policy, marked by a mix of isolationism and aggressive rhetoric, led to moments where NATO and UN leaders openly laughed at or disrespected him, notably during the 2019 NATO summit when world leaders were caught on camera mocking his behavior. These incidents reflected the diminishing respect for U.S. leadership on the world stage under his tenure.
Donald Trump’s immigration policies have been riddled with false claims and misleading rhetoric. Despite the fact that the crime rate is dropping and there are numerous studies showing that immigrants—both documented and undocumented—commit crimes at lower rates than native-born citizens, Trump consistently paints immigrants as a threat to national security. Furthermore, he claims that through government-funded programs, illegal immigrants are robbing the American people of their tax dollars by leeching off the welfare system. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that adding immigrants as both workers and consumers will grow the American economy by $7 trillion and increase tax revenue by $1 trillion in the next decade. In addition, a study conducted by the Libertarian Cato Institute found that for every dollar reaped by first-generation immigrants in benefits, $1.38 is paid to the government. This rings true even for illegal immigrants who pay billions in taxes each year and yet are excluded from almost all federal benefits because, ironically, documentation is needed to receive those benefits.
Of course, it would not be accurate to say that this lack of candidness is limited solely to our politicians. Placing emphasis on attaining viewership, many news corporations have begun to appeal to specific audiences. The danger of this diversion from truthful reporting is particularly worrisome to those who use more conservative media. A study by the Pew Research Centre found that when it comes to people identifying as Republicans, the majority find media conglomerate “Fox” to be the “news” agency they turn to for trusted reporting. In contrast, those leaning Democrat utilize a far more diverse group of news agencies, averaging 22 sources out of the surveyed possible 30. When it comes to the spread of baseless conspiracy theories, Fox News is up there relative to other accredited news sources. After the 2020 election, dissatisfied political reporters took to restating the President’s false claims about election fraud, legitimizing the accusations tweeted by Donald Trump. After a plethora of court cases and investigations, not a bit of evidence was found identifying voter fraud, save a desperate phone call made by the Former President begging the Georgia Secretary of State to find him more votes.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that somehow the conservatives have cultivated an environment in which critical thinking and the use of evidence are actively discouraged in the pursuit of ideology. Given the evidence above, it is not untrue to say that most, if not all, of what Trump says to back his campaign is a departure from the truth. So why would we vote for a person who needs to make as many false claims as he does in order to justify his viewpoints? Without a push for the use of facts and logic to inform voters in this country, future elections will likely lead us further down the path towards the debilitation of the United States of America.
Indresh Chandel