-
(#1) Sean Spicer Claims Hitler Never Used Chemical Weapons
On April 11, 2017, Sean Spicer didn't just shove his foot in his mouth. He somehow managed to swallow himself whole, leaving nothing more than a pin-sized hole where the former Press Secretary once stood. After President Bashar al-Assad of Syria used sarin gas to attack a village, Spicer claimed that al-Assad was worse than Hitler because Hitler, at least, didn't use chemical weapons.
Spicer's statement ignores the fact that Hitler used gas chambers to commit genocide during the Holocaust. To make matters worse, Spicer said all of this in the middle of Passover.
-
(#2) Trump Pushes The Lie About President Obama's Birth
One of Trump's favorite lies that's been disproven time and time again is the fiction that President Obama was born in Kenya in 1961 and not Hawaii as he claims. Trump leaned into the birther nonsense in 2012 for an unknown reason – although he was likely attempting to stir the pot for his first presidential campaign. His false claim was adopted as gospel by people who couldn't comprehend how an African American had risen to the position until then only held by wealthy white men. Even though he didn't have to, President Obama released both his “short-form” and “long-form” birth certificates to prove where he was born, and Trump finally admitted that Obama was a citizen.
In 2017, he revamped his birther beliefs.
An 'extremely credible source' has called my office and told me that @BarackObama's birth certificate is a fraud.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 6, 2012 -
(#3) The Trump Administration Distorts Birth Control Research
In October 2017, the Trump administration rolled back Obama-era mandates that compelled employers to offer insurance that covered contraception for female employees. In this new formula, if employers feel like they have a religious or moral obligation to have a say over a woman's body, then they can put a stop to their birth control coverage.
In order to pull this kind of garbage, the Trump administration claimed that there's no evidence linking birth control access to lower rates of unintended pregnancies. By saying that “association and causality can be hard to disentangle," they mean that scientists can't prove whether or not giving birth control to women helps curtail unwanted pregnancies.
However, there's no way to actually test causality. Because birth control reduces risk of pregnancy, you can't just go around and test it on women. It would be highly unethical to have a test group where some sexually active women receive birth control while others receive placebos. By trying to prove causality you would be giving these women a human life to take care of.
So, when it comes to history, where does this go off the rails? Oh, you know, the entire history of research concerning the efficacy of birth control gets ignored and obfuscated in misleading scientific jargon.
-
(#4) Donald Trump Inaccurately Praises General Pershing's Alleged Treatment Of Muslims
There's a story about General Pershing, a senior United States Army officer who served as the commander of the American Expeditionary Force on the Western Front in World War I, that involves him dipping his bullets in pig's blood before executing POWs in order to inspire fear in Muslims during a conflict in the Phillipines. The story goes that this inspired so much fear in Pershing's Muslim enemies (Muslims consider pig’s blood to be unholy and ingesting pork to be a sin) that the conflict ended. This story is a straight-up lie, but Trump used it over and over at campaign rallies, and he even tweeted about it in 2017.
Christopher Capozzola, a history professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology said "There were deliberate efforts to offend Muslim Filipinos’ religious sensibilities, And yes, there was large-scale violence against their communities. But I know of no event like the one that Mr. Trump describes.”
Study what General Pershing of the United States did to terrorists when caught. There was no more Radical Islamic Terror for 35 years!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017 -
(#5) The Official Holocaust Memorial Press Release Forgets To Mention The Jewish People
We're going to need a bigger YIKES for this news story. On January 27, 2017 – Holocaust Remembrance Day – the White House released a very short statement honoring the "victims, survivors, [and] heroes of the Holocaust." The press release didn't make one mention of Judaism or the 6 million Jewish people who were killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
Holocaust Museum issues statement after uproar over White House failure to mention Jews on Remembrance Day. https://t.co/k3KTH35kh8 pic.twitter.com/DhVMVxGSfF
— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) January 30, 2017That's a lie of omission if not something entirely more sinister.
-
(#6) Sarah Huckabee Sanders Doubles Down On The Civil War Revisionism
In a press conference on October 31, 2017, Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended Chief of Staff John Kelly's statement that Robert E. Lee was an "honorable man." She then doubled down on his comments that the Civil War was caused by a "lack of an ability to compromise" and not the South's desire to own human beings. Huckabee Sanders claimed that "many historians" thought that a "failure to compromise was a cause of the Civil War."
Ken Burns, the one historian on the Civil War (and history in general) that really matters, felt the opposite.
Many factors contributed to the Civil War. One caused it: slavery.
— Ken Burns (@KenBurns) October 31, 2017Historian Barbara Fields ended the film: “the Civil War is still going on. It's still to be fought and regrettably it can still be lost.”
— Ken Burns (@KenBurns) October 31, 2017 -
(#7) Sean Spicer Straight Up Lies About Trump's Inauguration Crowd Size
In more recent history, who can forget Inauguration-Gate? Oh those halcyon days when all anyone had to worry about was the size of Trump's inaugural crowd. The whole thing started when the Twitter feed for the National Parks Service tweeted a side-by-side comparison of Trump's inauguration crowd with President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration. Much to the President's chagrin, even Bernie Sanders got in on the fun.
.@realDonaldTrump They did. It wasn't. pic.twitter.com/xqt29RJPEr
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) February 25, 2017The day after the inauguration, the debacle was left to Sean Spicer to clean up, and instead of being honest about the crowd size, he threw down one of the first big lies to come from the Press Secretary's podium:
“Yesterday, at a time when our nation and the world was watching the peaceful transition of power and, as the president said, the transition and the balance of power from Washington to the citizens of the United States, some members of the media were engaged in deliberately false reporting.”
He went after The New York Times for tweeting photos of the crowd/doing their jobs, and then he dropped the lie that would become the basis for Trump's presidency: “This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration—period—both in person and around the globe.”
-
(#8) Donald Trump Claims That He Wasn't All For The Iraq War When He Definitely Was
This lie technically happened prior to Trump's presidency, but it's so in your face that it has to be discussed. At a 2016 Indiana campaign stop, Trump claimed that he was against the Iraq war from the very beginning. He told his audience, “It should have never happened,” as Indiana Gov. Mike Pence stood by his side. “I didn’t want to go from the beginning, and I have proof – from the beginning. I didn’t want Iraq. I said you’re going to destabilize the Middle East, and that’s exactly what happened.” But here's the thing, in 2002, six months before the Iraq war, Trump appeared on The Howard Stern Show and said that said that he supported invading the Middle East.
This is also the guy who claims that he saw Muslims cheering during 9/11, so what else do you expect? If you want to drive yourself extra crazy, watch Donald Trump perform verbal gymnastics to Anderson Cooper in order to try and get around the fact that he was all for invading the Middle East.
-
(#9) They Claim Their Tax Plan Is The Biggest Tax Cut In The History Of The US
Throughout the 2016 campaign, Trump touted a massive tax plan that was going to be "so huge" that it would save the economy. When he finally revealed his planned tax cuts, it turned out that his reform plans weren't actually all that great.
This will be the biggest TAX CUT in the history of our country - and we need it! #TaxReform
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 26, 2017
Read more: https://t.co/o3W9bJkz5k pic.twitter.com/JYckXWEmLuIn fact, his tax plan didn't even stack up to previous tax plans by presidents of both parties. Reuters reports that Regan was able to lower tax rates by 60%, and both presidents Harding and Coolidge were able to cut taxes by almost 66%. On the blue side of the aisle, Kennedy was able to lower taxes by 23%, which is nowhere near what Coolidge did, but it's better than Trump's proposed plan to cut corporate taxes by 15%.
-
(#10) John Kelly Says The Civil War Was Caused By A Lack Of The Ability To Compromise
On October 30, 2017, President Donald Trump's chief of staff, John Kelly, appeared on Laura Ingraham's Fox News show, Ingraham Angle, and he delivered a monologue of nonsense about Robert E. Lee. Kelly first referred to the Southern General as an "honorable man" before offering up racist falsehoods about the catalyst for the Civil War.
"He was a man that gave up his country to fight for his state which in 150 years ago was more important than country. It was always loyalty to state first back in those days. Now it's different today." He continued, "the lack of an ability to compromise led to the Civil War. And men and women of good faith on both sides made their stand where their conscience had to make their stand."
Kelly is, of course, ignoring the fact that the Civil War was started because Southern land owners wanted to keep people as slaves in order to get free labor out of them before breeding those slaves in order to make more laborers who would never be free.
You know what? Author Ta-Nehisi Coates can take it from here.
Notion that Civil War resulted from a lack of compromise is belied by all the compromises made on enslavement from America's founding.
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) October 31, 2017 -
(#11) Donald Trump Thinks Andrew Jackson Would Have Stopped The Civil War
In a Sirius XM interview from May 2017, Trump threw out some very weird alternate history. He claimed that if Andrew Jackson would have lived for a few more decades, then Old Hickory would have been able to put a stop to the Civil War. Trump said, "I mean, had Andrew Jackson been a little later, you wouldn’t have had the Civil War. He was a very tough person, but he had a big heart. He was really angry that he saw what was happening with regard to the Civil War, he said, ‘There’s no reason for this.’” Trump continued to spread this idea that Jackson would have stopped the Civil War via Twitter:
President Andrew Jackson, who died 16 years before the Civil War started, saw it coming and was angry. Would never have let it happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 2, 2017The world would probably be a much better place if Trump had just become an Andrew Jackson fan fiction author instead of President of the United States of America.
-
(#12) Trump Makes A Baffling Claim About His Inauguration Concert
If you're not sure why so many of the Trump Administration's lies have to do with the President's inauguration, it's important to remember that Donald Trump only cares about optics. Artifice and gauche aesthetics are to him what the pursuit of truth was to Barack Obama. He would rather look like he had the biggest and best inauguration than actually do good in the world. Much of Trump's presidency has been about erasing President Obama's eight years in office, so it makes sense that Trump would throw himself an inaugural concert in front of the Lincoln Memorial. In 2009, Obama also held an inaugural concert at the Lincoln Memorial, but Trump attempted to hand wave those festivities away.
He said: “This started out tonight being a small little concert, and then we had the idea maybe we’ll do it in front of the Lincoln Memorial." Trump said, smirking to himself. "I don’t know if it’s ever been done before. But if it has, very seldom.”
Trump on Lincoln Memorial inaugural concert "I don't know if it's ever been done before" pic.twitter.com/YSNFXV6q3K
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) January 19, 2017 -
(#13) Donald Trump Claims Few People Know Abraham Lincoln Was A Republican
This is just a quick hit, and it's not really a lie, but it's so amusing that it has to be mentioned. In March of 2017, Trump gave a speech to the National Republican Congressional Committee, and he informed the group that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. Of Lincoln Trump said, "Great president. Most people don't even know he was a Republican, right? Does anyone know? A lot of people don't know that. We have to build that up a little more." To answer Trump's question. Yes, a lot of people know that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, you dunce.
The cover of the 2017 Lincoln Day Dinner program for Republican Party of Palm Beach County tonight at Mar-a-Lago. @WPTV pic.twitter.com/SJPlB8V6qb
— Andrew Lofholm (@AndrewLofholm) March 24, 2017 -
(#14) Donald Trump Thinks Frederick Douglas Is Still Alive, Possibly A Zombie
To mark the beginning of Black History Month in 2017, Trump made some super weird comments about African American leaders of the 19th and 20th centuries. The strangest comment was reserved for Frederick Douglas, whom it seems Trump believes to be a current journalist.
“I am very proud now that we have a museum on the National Mall where people can learn about Reverend King, so many other things, Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice. Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and millions more Black Americans who made America what it is today. Big impact.”
If you, like Trump, aren't sure about Douglas's impact please be aware that people have been exalting him for decades. He was an incredibly prolific writer in the 19th century, and he had a resurgence of popularity in the mid-1970s when Black History Month was established. Since then, he's been name checked by presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.
Even Sean Spicer wasn't sure how to spin this weird statement.
-
(#15) Donald Trump Says Canada Burned Down The White House
President Trump spoke to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over the phone on May 25, 2018. The call concerned new tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, a subject that reportedly led to some heated words between the two. It also apparently led to a truly baffling comment from Trump: "Didn't you guys burn down the White House?"
British troops set the White House on fire during the War of 1812, in response for an American attack on Ontario. It was a British colony at the time.
-
(#16) FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Is All Over The Place With Internet Regulations
In 2017, Ajit Pai, the Chairman of the United States Federal Communications Commission, came out hard against the Obama administration's attempt to regulate the Internet, claiming that it "put the federal government at the center of the Internet.” Like a lot of Trump's cronies, Pai has a selective memory when it comes to the Obama administration. Pai claimed that in 1996 President Clinton and a Republican Congress were able to make the Internet the "greatest free-market success in history" with the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
But Pai is either all mixed up about what the Telecommunications Act of 1996 actually did, or he's being willfully obtuse. Despite claiming that there was a heavy amount of deregulation going on in '96, there were actually more laws placed on what a company could and couldn't do with their phone lines. Then, in George W. Bush's first term, there were more regulations placed on phone and Internet providers. Just because you pretend like the world was the wild west in the '90s doesn't make it so.
-
(#17) Donald And Melania Trump Mix Up Some Facts About Pearl Harbor
National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day - “A day that will live in infamy!” December 7, 1941
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2017On December 7, 2017, President Trump tweeted in recognition of the anniversary of Pearl Harbor: "A day that will live in infamy!" He was citing President Franklin Roosevelt's landmark speech, but he got it slightly wrong – Roosevelt called December 7 "a date which will live in infamy."
As for First Lady Melania Trump, she tweeted, "Today we honor Pearl Harbor Heroes. 11/7/1941 Thank you to all military for your courage and sacrifice!" About half an hour later, the tweet was taken down and replaced with one showing the correct date.
-
(#18) President Trump Allegedly Insinuates That Abraham Lincoln Lost The Civil War
Elaina Plott of The Atlantic tweeted about an odd conversation Red Sox Chairman Tom Werner mentioned to reporters after the President honored the 2018 World Series champions at the White House in May 2019. Werner commented, "Trump 'is a pretty good raconteur of history and he did say that, uh - he was talking about Abraham Lincoln losing the war and said 'Well, I know you guys have lost a game or two, but this was a war.'"
Plott mentioned she reached out to Sarah Sanders for a comment, but in the meantime, Plott and others are wondering, "Does Trump think that Abraham Lincoln lost the Civil War?"
New Random Displays Display All By Ranking
About This Tool
Trump wants Americans to live amidst his lies, and this process lasted for four full years. The most individual, controversial and topical president in American history, Donald Trump, relied on social media and the anger of the public to win the political election. In the past few years, the Trump administration has made lots of directional errors. Donald Trump finally lost in the presidential election in 2021, his resignation is the direct result of his wrong internal and foreign policies.
The random tool looking back at the history and explained 18 things about the Trump administration who officially got completely ignorance and wrong policy decision.
Our data comes from Ranker, If you want to participate in the ranking of items displayed on this page, please click here.