Trump: To Date Over 18,000 Lies - Add These COVID-19 Whoppers to That List

Trump loves bragging: Now #1 in world history

(Hands down in this category)

The Trump cavalcade of lies continues – his latest from The AP Fact Check Here:

TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS:

TRUMP (May 10 tweet): “We are getting great marks for the handling of the CoronaVirus pandemic, especially the very early BAN of people from China, the infectious source, entering the USA.”

THE FACTS: This is one of Trump’s favorite exaggeration lies. He  asserts travel restrictions that he imposed on China in late January had averted much of the virus' entry into the U.S. Trump didn’t “ban” all the people infected with coronavirus from entering the U.S. from China. There were many gaps in containment and initial delays in testing, leading to the U.S. rising to No. 1 globally in the number of people infected by COVID-19.

He temporarily barred entry by foreign nationals who had traveled in China within the previous 14 days, with exceptions for the immediate family of U.S. citizens, and permanent residents, as well as American citizens.

MORE TRUTH: Dr. Anne Schuchat, the No. 2 official at the CDC told The AP earlier this month that the federal government was slow to understand how much coronavirus was spreading from Europe, which helped drive the acceleration of outbreaks across the U.S. in late February. Then Trump didn't announce travel restrictions for many European countries until mid-March.

She then added: “The extensive travel from Europe, once Europe was having outbreaks, really accelerated our importations and the rapid spread, I think the timing of our travel alerts should have been much earlier.”

My Note: Based on that from her (correcting & disputing Trump), I suspect her days are now numbered for full employment in the CDC.

ANOTHER TRUMP WHOPPER: His usual target: Barack Obama, and now of course, his new target: “Sleepy Joe” Biden (his nasty nickname).

TRUMP (same May 10 Tweet): “Compare that to the Obama/Sleepy Joe disaster known as H1N1 Swine Flu. Poor marks ... didn’t have a clue!”

THE FACTS: Trump’s suggestion that former President Barack Obama and his vice president, Joe Biden, were oblivious and did nothing during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, initially called “swine flu,” is wrong.

Back then, the CDC’s flu prevention surveillance network actually sounded the alarm, spotting two children in California who were the first diagnosed cases of the new flu strain. 

Within two weeks, Obama declared a public health emergency and CDC began releasing anti-flu drugs from the national stockpile to help hospitals get ready.

In contrast to this pandemic, Trump declared a state of emergency in early March, seven weeks after the first U.S. case of COVID-19 was announced.

VIRUS TESTING:

TRUMP (May 4 tweet): “In any event, we have great testing capacity, and have performed 6.5 million tests, which is more than every country in the world, combined!”

THE FACTS: Trump’s claim that “…the U.S. has performed tests more than every country in the world, combined” is not even remotely true when he said it and it’s no closer to the truth now.

The U.S. has tested far fewer than all other countries combined. It also lags dozens of countries in testing its population proportionally.

Just three countries: Russia, Germany, and Italy reported more tests than the U.S. when Trump tweeted his lie. That remains the case.

As of late May 8, the U.S. had reported conducting more than 8.3 million tests since the pandemic began. That compares with more than 18.7 million tests by the other countries in the top 10 of the testing count.

My 2 cents in summary: I like many others have lost count of the number of Trump documented lies – that is lies in his own words and not in anyone else’s (Washington Post as of April 3 records 18,000 lies).

As I’ve said many times, Trump is a pathological liar – skilled at that I give him credit for since his loyalists cling to every word and in many cases repeat verbatim his exact words, which proves the point.

The fact remains, however, he is a serial liar, it is second nature for him, it’s in his DNA, his M.O. and it has been his whole adult life, and yes, he is incorrigible.

Thanks for stopping by.