Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.


I’m not sure why I bother, but here’s a non-exhaustive list of Donald Trump’s big lies. I’m not talking about all the little stuff that automatically dribbles out of his mouth whenever his lips are moving. I’m talking about the big, policy-level lies that he repeats over and over at rallies and on TV. Here’s a sample:

  • Obamacare premiums are up 30, 40, 50%. Wrong. On average, premiums were up about about 9 percent in 2016. If you account for subsidies, the average premium went up about $8, an increase of 7 percent.
  • Among Syrian refugees, there are very few women and children. It’s mostly “young, strong men.” False. According to the UN, something around 10 percent of Syrian refugees are males between the age of 15-25. The rest are women, children, and older men. Among refugees who have made the trip to Europe, probably about half are men, but for an obvious reason: it’s an arduous and dangerous journey, and the men hope to find jobs, get asylum, and then bring in their families later.

What makes this even more interesting is that Trump obviously knows these are lies and doesn’t care. I was browsing through the PolitiFact file on Trump, and pretty much everything they’ve written includes a sentence something like this: “We reached out to the Trump campaign but they didn’t respond.”

They don’t care. Trump knows it’s BS, and he doesn’t even bother making up bogus justifications, the way ordinary politicians do. He knows the media will never really call him on this stuff. Repeat it often enough, and eventually maybe the reporters covering him will even start to believe it themselves.

PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

payment methods

PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate