Within his first and only term as U.S. President, Donald Trump managed to break a record that not a single one of his predecessors had in history. According to several trusted fact checks, after becoming the US' forty-fifth elected leader back in 2016, Trump had exuded over 30,000 lies during his tenure.
Trump was already famous for his controversial statements, however, the perpetual fibbing underwent a meteoric rise once he took office. Due to the addition of more enticing materials to his repertoire – those involving economics, military, televangelism, and foreign relations – his lies only became more fantastic during the term.
Among the lies to pour out of his Presidency were those that could lead to dangerous and even fatal situations. These critical falsehoods range from idioms that compromised public safety to lies aimed directly towards his political rivals and naysayers. And given that Trump had shored up many political allies and a cultish voter base during his run, the risk of physical casualties among the American populace was at an all-time high.
Sifting through Trump’s political career has yielded 10 of the most dangerous lies he told to the masses that will now be frowned upon in the following piece.
Hurricane Dorian is expected to hit Alabama
One of his most dangerous stunts involved altering critical data on Hurricane Dorian back in early Sep 2019. On Sep 4, he claimed that the storm would hit Alabama despite forecasts stating otherwise; going as far as to display an alternate oceanic map while stating: "We have a better map... in all cases, Alabama was hit, if not lightly in some cases pretty hard."
Rep. Omar supports Al Qaeda
Donald Trump has made many political enemies, including Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar, who he had thrown racist and defamatory remarks towards. His most dangerous attack came on Jul 15, 2019, when he distorted remarks she made back in 2003 about the terrorist group al-Qaeda, claiming that she was professing “love” towards them. He said: "You don’t say ‘America’ with this intensity. You say ‘al-Qaeda,’ it makes you proud."
Saipov brought 22 family members to the U.S. through Chain Migration
Throughout his political career, Trump has been pushing anti-immigration rhetoric down America’s throat. Among his attempts was the one where he tried to link a terrorist and his family to chain migration. Sayfullo Saipov was the infamous terrorist who perpetrated the vehicular attack on Manhattan's West Side Highway in 2017, killing eight people. President Trump said in a statement on Aug 1, 2018: "He has 22 members of his family in the United States because of chain migration."
He loves the Dreamers
Ever since he took office, President Trump has attempted to repeal every policy his predecessor and rival Barack Obama brought to fruition. Among the ones he successfully killed was the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative which protected over 800,000 undocumented youths from deportation. However, when asked about his administration’s decision regarding the fate of DACA during a press briefing on Sep 1, 2017, the President said: “We love the Dreamers, we love everybody.”
Antifa is a terrorist organization
Following the death of George Floyd by Minneapolis police on May 25, 2020, many took to the streets to protest the unjust act. On May 31, 2020, President Trump took a shot at the activist group antifa (short for antifascist) involved in the protests, tweeting the message: “The USA will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.” It didn’t take long for law enforcement nationwide to debunk the claims, but it still placed the activist group in the crosshairs of the opposition.
The 2020 election was stolen
After losing to Joe Biden in the 2020 election, the former President began a futile campaign to flip the election results. During his rallies in early Dec 2020, Trump pushed the outlandish claim that his victory was "stolen by emboldened radical-left Democrats." Things reached a boiling point when he also encouraged his base to occupy the U.S. Capitol in protest on Jan 6. What quickly followed was a misguided attempt to overturn the results that injured 138 police officers and killed 5 people.
The Coronavirus is just a flu
Within the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Trump administration ran a misinformation campaign against the crisis; even going as far as comparing it to the flu. In a misguided tweet posted on Oct 6, 2020, he stated: “Flu season is coming up. Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the flu.”
The pandemic will miraculously disappear
Not wanting to embrace the harsh reality of the global pandemic, Trump tried to push the idea to the American public that the crisis would magically end one day. "It's going to disappear,” Trump stated during a White House event on Feb 27, 2020. "One day, it's like a miracle, it will disappear."
Injecting bleach to treat coronavirus infection
On Apr 24, 2020, during a Coronavirus briefing, Trump claimed that bleach was effective against the pathogen, saying it “knocks it out in a minute.” He even added that it’s more effective when injected into an infected body, boasting, “it gets in the lungs and does a tremendous number on the lungs.”
Coronavirus cases were going down
President Trump made many misleading claims about the pandemic. But the most damning lie of all was the one about its de-escalation. Back on Oct 28, 2020, during a campaign rally in Wisconsin, Trump told the nation that the Covid-19 case numbers were “way down,” insinuating that the pandemic was nearing its end. In reality, coronavirus cases hadn’t fallen or even settled around that time. In fact, the country experienced its second wave during Summer that raised the numbers even higher.
