News

Actions

Politifact: 70% of President Trump's statements are false

Posted at 3:21 PM, Oct 10, 2017
and last updated 2017-10-10 15:21:54-04

It's one of President Trump's favorite phrases: "Believe me."

But in the president's first 263 days in office, the Washington Post has counted 1,318 false or misleading statements.

The latest one was said on Tuesday.

"We're the highest taxed nation in the world," President Trump said. "I'm giving the largest tax cuts in the history of this country."

Neither of those two claims are true, but that hasn't stopped the president from repeating them a combined 36 times since taking office. For the 33rd time he also said that Obamacare is failing, despite the congressional budget office finding otherwise.

"When Donald Trump believes that something is true, he tends to repeat it, and he will repeat the claim after it has been debunked, not just by us, but by other news organizations," said Jon Greenberg with Politifact.

But it's not all repetition either. On Tuesday morning, President Trump tweeted a fresh attack on his new favorite foe.

Except the NFL gave up its tax-exempt status two years ago. 

Of his claims our news partners at Politifact have reviewed, they've rated nearly 70% as mostly false, false or pants-on-fire.

"When you take a look at the sum total and you see that Trump is in the Red zone on the Truth-o-Meter 70% of the time, and Democrats and Republicans are anywhere from 25-40% of the time, that is some kind of legitimate difference," Greenberg said.

So are all the president's falsehoods for salesmanship, political gain and distraction? On this, fact-checkers are quick to answer - you'll have to ask President Trump himself.

To see all of President Trump's facts checked, visit Politifact's website.