Endemic Lying from Donald Trump

Donald Trump lies much of the time as analysts have tracked him. His rate of lying is approximately 60%. Some of my readers often respond to stories about politicians lying by saying, "They all do it," as if that is an acceptable alibi. It isn't.

Trump said that he is not a politician, so does that mean his lies are better because he is not?

As a trained analyst and independent journalist, I am thoroughly convinced that Donald Trump will be convicted on his lies, among other things.

What truly hurts government and the citizens are when his lies are propagated and multiplied by this executive appointees. Here is an example from The Washington Post, just in.

"Misleading rhetoric from President Trump and the EPA administrator about the coal industry’s comeback 

Is this the renaissance of the coal industry? President Trump and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt sure make it sound like it is. But the facts tell a different story. This week, we dug into two talking points by Pruitt and Trump on coal jobs and mines reopening. 

Pruitt said in one interview: “We’ve added almost 50,000 jobs in the coal sector. In the month of May alone, almost 7,000 jobs.” The problem: There are only about 50,000 jobs in coal. 

In other interviews, Pruitt more carefully referred to “mining and coal” or “coal jobs, mining jobs.” Notice how Pruitt emphasizes “coal” while trying to slip in a reference to “mining.” 

That’s because Pruitt is actually using mining jobs figures going back to October 2016 — a net gain of 47,000 (and net gain of 6,600 from April to May 2017). Since Inauguration Day, the net gain of mining jobs is nearly 33,000. 

But most of the gain in “mining” jobs has nothing to do with coal. So, rather than the gain of 47,000 jobs touted by Pruitt, the reality is that 1,000 coal jobs have been added since Trump became president. For the month of May, the gain was 400 jobs, not 7,000.
We awarded Pruitt Four Pinocchios." 

The Washington Post, email to me

It is going to be very tight in the cell together.