Difference between revisions of "Mendacity"

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<li><b>Trump lied about news reports that he had described his business network as complex, immediately after he canceled a news conference about his business affairs, claiming their complexity created the need for them to prepare further.</b> “In another message Thursday, Trump accused the media of working ‘so hard to make my move to the White House, as it pertains to my business, so complex, when actually it isn't!’ Except it was Trump and his team who specifically had cited the complexity of his business operations when they canceled a long-planned Thursday news conference that was supposed to explain how he'd separate his government duties from his business affairs while in office.” (<i>Los Angeles Times</i>, December 16, 2016)
 
<li><b>Trump lied about news reports that he had described his business network as complex, immediately after he canceled a news conference about his business affairs, claiming their complexity created the need for them to prepare further.</b> “In another message Thursday, Trump accused the media of working ‘so hard to make my move to the White House, as it pertains to my business, so complex, when actually it isn't!’ Except it was Trump and his team who specifically had cited the complexity of his business operations when they canceled a long-planned Thursday news conference that was supposed to explain how he'd separate his government duties from his business affairs while in office.” (<i>Los Angeles Times</i>, December 16, 2016)
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<li><b>Trump repeatedly lied about the U.S. unemployment rate, first falsely claiming that it was at 20% (the actual unemployment rate was below 6%), then more than doubling his false claim to 42%.</b> “Only a couple of months ago, in his presidential announcement speech, real-estate developer Donald Trump said the ‘real’ unemployment rate was 18 to 20 percent, which earned him a ‘false’ from PolitiFact. […] Now he's touting a figure that is more than double his previous claim. […] If 20 percent was false, 42 percent is worthy of Four Pinocchios.” (<i>Washington Post</i>, August 21, 2015)
 
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Revision as of 17:38, 15 October 2019

Generally

  • 1973: Trump brazenly lied when federal regulators sued his company for racial discrimination, claiming prosecutors had not contacted him before notifying the press of the charges against him, despite evidence that prosecutors had in fact called Trump before contacting the press. "The family's attempts to slow down the federal case were at times nonsensical. Trump submitted an affidavit contending that the government had engaged in some unspecified wrongdoing by releasing statements to the press on the day it brought the case without first having any "formal communications" with him; he contended that he'd learned of the complaint only while listening to his car radio that morning. But Trump's sworn statement was a lie. Court records show that the government had filed its complaint at 10 a.m. and phoned him almost immediately afterward. The government later notified the media with a press release. Prosecutors responded to Trump's affidavit by showing he had fudged his claim by using the term "formal communication"—an acknowledgment, they said, that he had received what only he would characterize as an informal notification—which they described as an intentional effort to mislead the court and the public. But the allegation slowed the case; it required government lawyers to appear in court to shoot down Trump's false charge." (Newsweek, October 31, 2016)
  • 1984: The New York Times noted that news profiles of Trump had an unusual tendency to publish false and misleading information about the man and his wealth. “It is often pointed out that Mr. Trump is prone to exageration in describing his projects. Oh, he lies a great deal, says Philip Johnson with a laugh. But it's sheer exuberance, exaggeration. It's never about anything important. He's straight as an arrow in his business dealings. Sometimes exaggeration just seems to swirl around him. A recent television show, 'Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, reported that his Greenwich, Conn., waterfront home is a $10 million estate. Mr. Trump will admit that, yes he paid less than one-third of that and says: I didn't tell them that. Various figures, ranging from $6 million to $10 million have been reported as the amount he paid for the Generals, but, as one who was involved in the negotiations says, the figure is closer to $1 million. Mr. Trump answers: I never told them those other figures. And just about every profile ever written about Mr. Trump states that he graduated first in his class at Wharton in 1968. Although the school refused comment, the commencement program from 1968 does not list him as graduating with honors of any kind. He says he never told them that either.” (New York Times, April 8, 1984)
  • One communications expert has observed that Trump’s pattern of deceit is similar to most chronic liars, except for his greater-than-usual willingness to commit his faleshoods to writing, and to stick to them in the face of mountains of contradicting evidence. “Lyn Van Swol, a University of Wisconsin-Madison communications professor who has studied political deception, said Trump in some ways fits the model of those who dissemble -- they tend to be verbose, as if concocting a structure of support for their misstatements. But he also uncommonly commits falsehoods to writing -- via Twitter. That's rare because it is ‘much more high-stakes, much more permanent,’ she said. Nor does he adjust his assertions after being informed -- in Trump's case repeatedly -- that he is wrong. ‘He's unusual,’ she said. ‘I don't know if it's self-deception, where someone coming in with a different opinion doesn't matter, or it's strategic, where repetition increases the suggestion of truth.... The more it's repeated, the more it's believed.’” (Los Angeles Times, December 16, 2016)
  • In a deposition, Trump once argued that claims in promotional literature that he was "developing" a building didn't mean that he was in fact the "developer" of those buildings. “In one lawsuit -- filed against him by condo owners who wanted their money back for a Fort Lauderdale condo that was never built -- he testified in a sworn deposition, ‘Well, the word 'developing,' it doesn't mean that we're the developers.’” (USA Today, June 2, 2016)
  • In another deposition, Trump defended marketing literature that claimed he personally "handpicked" instructors for Trump University, even though he had no role in selecting them. “In lawsuits over his Trump University, he testified that he had never met instructors who were described in the university's promotional materials as being ‘handpicked’ by him. ‘It depends on the definition of what that means, handpicked,’ Trump said during an exchange with a lawyer in a sworn deposition last December.” (USA Today, June 2, 2016)

Specifically

  1. December, 2016: Trump lied about the Obama Administration's response to Russian interference during the 2016 election, falsely claiming they had failed to notify the public about the problem. “Dawn had barely broken Thursday when Donald Trump once again broadcast via Twitter a provably false claim: that the Obama administration had not raised an alarm about Russian interference in the presidential election until after Hillary Clinton's defeat. In fact, on Oct. 7, the administration issued an official statement accusing the Russians of being behind the cyberattacks that appear to have harmed Clinton's campaign. ‘Only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized these activities,’ the administration statement said at the time. Nor was the issue a surprise to Trump. He had publicly called on the Russians in July to find and release Clinton's emails. He talked in September about accusations of Russian hacking and commented on them during the fall presidential debates.” (Los Angeles Times, December 16, 2016)
    • Trump’s lies about the Obama Administration’s response to Russian election interference were framed around dispute about the legitimacy of his election. “Trump's Russia tweet marked the second time in four days that he has falsely asserted that the Obama administration did not say anything in public about the Russian hacking until after the election. He seemed to be trying to frame concerns about Russian intervention in the election as an effort to delegitimize his victory. In fact, many of those alarmed about the matter -- a group that includes Republicans -- have said that there's no indication the intervention cost Clinton the White House, and that their concern rests with the larger issue of Russian duplicity.” (Los Angeles Times, December 16, 2016)
  2. Trump lied about news reports that he had described his business network as complex, immediately after he canceled a news conference about his business affairs, claiming their complexity created the need for them to prepare further. “In another message Thursday, Trump accused the media of working ‘so hard to make my move to the White House, as it pertains to my business, so complex, when actually it isn't!’ Except it was Trump and his team who specifically had cited the complexity of his business operations when they canceled a long-planned Thursday news conference that was supposed to explain how he'd separate his government duties from his business affairs while in office.” (Los Angeles Times, December 16, 2016)
  3. Trump repeatedly lied about the U.S. unemployment rate, first falsely claiming that it was at 20% (the actual unemployment rate was below 6%), then more than doubling his false claim to 42%. “Only a couple of months ago, in his presidential announcement speech, real-estate developer Donald Trump said the ‘real’ unemployment rate was 18 to 20 percent, which earned him a ‘false’ from PolitiFact. […] Now he's touting a figure that is more than double his previous claim. […] If 20 percent was false, 42 percent is worthy of Four Pinocchios.” (Washington Post, August 21, 2015)

Crowd Sizes

  • 1984: Donald Trump attended his football team’s opening game in the United States Football League, falsely boasting that it had a larger crowed than the NFL's Super Bowl. “Donald Trump, who deals in 68-story skyscrapers, waved toward the 62,300 people crowding the two-tiered block of Alabama real estate known as Legion Field and decided that things were looking up in the risky business of confronting the Establishment of professional football. ‘Look at that,’ he said, ‘They didn't have that many more people at the Super Bowl. There's a fever for this sport. The National Football League is the Establishment, and we're confronting it.’ […] Trump watched his investment at work from a carpeted booth high over the 50-yard line, where he was joined by his wife, Ivana, and by Jason Seltzer, president of the team, and several deputies. For Trump, who is 37 years old and president of the Trump Organization, it was no time to fret over an investment in something as unproved as football in the springtime.” (New York Times, February 27, 1984)
  • September, 2015: Donald Trump complained during a phone interview on CNN that the news channel’s reporters had accurately pointed out one of his campaign events in South Carolina had not drawn a large crowd. “Donald Trump was very annoyed when he called in to CNN on Thursday morning. ‘It was sort of interesting yesterday. Your reporter in South Carolina who was absolutely terrible,’ Trump said, referring to CNN's Randi Kaye, who covered Trump's speech in Charleston. ‘I made a speech to the African American Chamber of Commerce in South Carolina. Wonderful people. And the room was full, every seat was full. When I went to the stage, everybody forward. They all rushed to the front of the room. It was a ballroom. They all rushed to the front of the room. And when they did that, you had half of the seats in the back were empty, because everyone was standing in the front.’ Trump went on to ask that his interviewer tell CNN head Jeff Zucker that it was terrible reporting. Photos suggest that it wasn't. Reuters photographer Randall Hill took a photo of a man named Lloyd Petersen, checking his camera before Trump spoke. Rows of empty seats are visible behind him. Associated Press photographer Mic Smith captured the crowd during Trump's speech. You can see Trump on stage, gesturing. And you can see that most of the audience members are still in their seats.” (Washington Post, September 24, 2015)