Former president Donald Trump made steady news during his presidency for the sheer and often overhwhelming number of lies he told daily. But a Washington Post analysis shows just how much worse his final year in office was compared to all the others.
According to the Post, Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims during his four years in office, with nearly half of them coming during his final year.
Glenn Kessler, who pens the newspaper’s Fact Checker column, wrote that Trump averaged six false claims a day during his first year in office, 16 a day during his second, 22 a day during his third and 39 a day during his last year.
“Put another way, it took him 27 months to reach 10,000 claims and another 14 months to reach 20,000,” Kessler wrote. “He then exceeded the 30,000 mark less than five months later.”
Some of Trump’s most infamous moments include his declaration last year that the coronavirus would disappear “like a miracle” as well as his lies about the election, culminating in the rally in which the president’s supporters stormed the US Capitol during a deadly insurrection.
The persistent lies have taken a toll, not just on the office but on the public.
“As a result of Trump’s constant lying through the presidential megaphone, more Americans are sceptical of genuine facts than ever before,” presidential historian Michael Beschloss told the newspaper.
CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale wrote on Twitter that the constant lies made it almost impossible to keep a careful count: