President Donald Trump likes to lie and he lies a lot. Since becoming president, Trump has willfully told an average of 16.5 lies or untruths a day during his second year in office.
In all, Trump has made a total of 8,158 false or misleading statements in only 730 days, according to the fact-checking organization, The Fact Checker run by The Washington Post.
There is no other leader of government anywhere who lies on such a scale -- and who seems to revel in his penchant for twisting the truth to suit the moment. Trump's critics have noted that Trump's relentless stream of lies has become a new form of disinformation without parallel in American history.
The Fact Checker's database analyzes, categorizes and tracks every suspect statement uttered by Trump over the past two years. Trump told more than 6,000 lies or untruths during his second year in office, in step with the growing problems he and his embattled administration face.
Trump is known to resort to lies when unable to give coherent explanations for his actions.
Fact Checker's database shows that the "Liar-in-Chief" averaged nearly 5.9 false or misleading claims a day in his first year in office. He then went on what can best be described as a lying binge after that, telling 16.5 lies a day in his second year, or triple the pace in his first year as president.
Fact Checker reveals that in his first 100 days, Trump told 492 outright lies or unsupported claims. He then went on to exceed that number in only the first three weeks of 2019. In October, he made more than 1,200 false or misleading claims as he stumped in support of Republican Party candidates in the midterm elections.
Unsurprisingly, the biggest single source of Trump's lies is immigration. Trump has told a total of 1,433 lies or misleading claims about immigration. He told over 300 immigration lies or misleading claims in the past three weeks.
Fact Checker gave a recent example of Trump's wholesale lies. In his immigration address on Jan. 19, the Fact Checker counted 12 false or misleading claims. Among these:
* "Heroin alone kills 300 Americans a week, 90 percent of which comes across our southern border."
The 300 deaths is accurate, but while 90 percent of the heroin sold in the United States comes from Mexico, practically all of it enters the U.S. through legal points of entry such as airports and seaports, and not illegally through the southern border.
In 2018, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reported that a small percentage of all heroin seized by Customs and Border Protection along the land border was between Ports of Entry (POEs). This fact means Trump's border wall with Mexico will do little to halt drug trafficking.
* Trump's repeated claim that the wall will stop drug trafficking is baseless and an outright lie.
Fact Checker said Trump's statement a border wall will cut the U.S, crime rate -- and "drug problem" -- in half is laughable. There is utterly no evidence to prove this.
The facts show that most undocumented immigrants do not illegally cross the southern border. It also shows that undocumented immigrants do not commit crimes at a rate higher than U.S. citizens. And, again, drugs flow through the border mostly through legal POEs.
