Donald Trump recently did an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, and as usual the President of the United States decided to lie his way through it.
Still recovering from all the criticism that has stemmed from his presser with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Trump gave Carlson several misguided tidbits about subjects ranging from the economy to immigration. While the president has a tendency to not be informed about facts (likely due to his illiteracy), Trump also told several blatant lies. And as expected, Carlson did nothing to call him out. You can watch the video below, and read on as we point out every Trump fib:
The interview was so long that Fox took limited commercial breaks, so Tucker broke the whole thing into two separate parts. Here’s part two of the interview below:
Here are the 8 insane lies that Trump told Tucker yesterday during their interview:
1. “In World War II, Russia lost 50 million people.”
Trump said this to try and defend his submission to Putin, stating that Russia had fought with the US in World War II, which caused them to lose “50 million people.” That’s absolutely false — they didn’t even lose half that many. The real number is approximately 20 million. Exaggerate much?
2. America funds nearly all of NATO.
Trump has been whining about how much the United States is overpaying for NATO for a while now. He even ruined the NATO summit and offended our allies over this. In the interview, Tump said “I think 90 percent is the right number.” This is so out of proportion, it’s not even an exaggeration. It’s a lie. Someone please tell the president that the USA only funds 22 percent of NATO!
Trump added later, “The United States was paying for anywhere from 70 of 90% of it, depending on the way you calculate.” The “depending on the way you calculate” thing is often what he says when he knows there’s a correct figure he’s not using.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) July 12, 2018
3. NATO countries are “delinquent”
PolitiFact actually fact-checked this. Despite Trump’s claims, NATO countries are neither delinquent nor are they indebted to us. PolitiFact got the facts straight from Christopher Preble, vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute. Preble said:
It most certainly is not true, as the president has suggested repeatedly, that other NATO countries owe us money. The two percent figure refers to what each country spends on its defense, as a share of that country’s GDP. It does not imply owing the U.S. anything.”
4. NATO raised $44 billion last year “because of Trump.”
Trump has taken complete credit for the “$44 billion” NATO raised last year – and it’s completely bogus. First of all, it’s $41 billion. And most importantly, it’s not because of the Tweeter in Chief. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg clarified:
Since President Trump took office, European Allies and Canada have added an additional $41 billion to their defense spending.”
That in no way means it’s solely because of Trump. Those numbers were more about spending increases from the year prior.
5. “We’ve already started the wall”
We have not started the wall – what we’ve actually done is merely put $1.6 billion toward already existing fencing on the border, which is old and needs to be replaced. As this money was only approved as part of Congress’ omnibus spending bill, Republicans actually complained that no funding has gone to Trump’s unpopular border wall. I guess Trump didn’t get the memo.
6. “The Democrats are for open borders”
Yet another one of Trump’s immigration lies. This is a popular one that Trump has been throwing around over the last few weeks, especially as he’s gotten backlash for his inhumane treatment of migrant families at the southern border. The truth is that there haven’t been any prominent lawmakers who have wanted open borders. Democrat Chuck Schumer even has a bipartisan immigration bill that puts $40 billion toward border security.
7. The FBI isn’t looking at “the Pakistani man” who “left with these three servers” from the DNC
Trump is referring to US citizen Imran Awan, who never actually worked at the DNC, and this is a total lie. A “thorough investigation” was done on Awan by the FBI, and he was cleared of the charges. The only thing he was charged with was making a false statement on a loan application.
8. “We don’t have any [immigration] laws”
This one was easy and probably the most hilarious, because Trump actually fact-checked himself. Trump said:
Our laws are so bad. We have the worst laws anywhere in the world. We have the worst immigration laws in the world. We don’t have any law. We have the opposite to law.”
Nearly everything that comes out of Trump’s mouth is a lie, and most Americans have begun to notice. However, when Fox News fails to fact check the president and allow him to get away with this nonsense, how can gullible Trump voters be shown the light?
Featured image via screen capture
