This Week: Top 3 Trump Lies
Aug. 25, 2024 - Aug. 31, 2024
Disclaimer: I can’t possibly keep up with all of Donald Trump’s lies. This is merely a compendium of the three most egregious lies of the past week.
Bronze Medal:
The 100% Guaranteed-To-Be-Unkept Campaign Promise
“As part of our efforts to help working families, I’m announcing today in a major statement that under the Trump administration your government will pay or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for all costs associated with IVF treatment. Fertilization for women. IVF treatment. Because we want more babies, to put it very nicely.”
— Donald J. Trump, campaign rally, Potterville, MI, 08.29.2024
A sweaty Donnie reveals his deep knowledge of reproductive medicine to the assembled throngs in the thriving metropolis of Potterville (population 3,082 at last count) by referring to IVF as “fertilization for Women.” Never mind that he has flip-flopped on the issue of IVF over the years. Never mind that he presents no plan as to how the government would pay for all these procedures nor has he described how he would strong-arm the insurance companies to pay for these treatments.
The average cost of IVF in the United States is between $14,000 and $20,000. There are more than 90,000 births attributable to IVF each year. Let’s do some math, using low end of each of those numbers:
90,000 births x $14,000 = $1,260,000,000
So tell us, Donnie, where is that money supposed to come from? Is that part of Obamacare — you know, that wildly popular and successful health care program that you demonized incessantly and promised to “repeal and replace” without doing a single thing about it during your four years in the White House? Doesn’t this vague promise qualify as one of those “unfunded mandates” that your party has railed against for decades?
By the way, shame on the mainstream media for reporting this as a “policy.” It’s nothing more than his most recent brain-fart intended to deceive ill-informed people into voting for Trump.
Silver Medal:
The Imaginary Child Kidnapping and Involuntary Sex Change Surgery
“The transgender thing is incredible. Think of it: your kid goes to school and comes home a few days later with an operation. The school decides what’s going to happen with your child — and you know many of these childs [sic], fifteen years later, say, ‘What the hell happened? Who did this to me?’ It’s incredible.”
— Donald J. Trump, speaking to Moms for Liberty, 08.30.2024
That’s right, Donnie. It is incredible, in the truest meaning of that word — not credible in the least. I defy you, Donnie, to provide evidence of a single child in America who has had this experience.
Gold Medal:
Offending the Military, Gold Star Parents,
This multi-pronged set of lies wins the Gold Medal because of its complexity and degree of difficulty. Let’s break it down.
The Trump campaign arranged for Trump to appear with some Gold Star families whose family members were killed in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2021. Trump turned what was to be a solemn event into a campaign event, going so far as to pose for photos graveside with his overly rehearsed trademark insincere rictus-grin and his ubiquitous thumbs up.
When an Arlington National Cemetery employee informed the Trump campaign that they could not film or shoot photos in that section of the cemetery, an altercation ensued.
Campaign spokesman Stephen Cheung released this statement:
We are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made.
The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump's team during a very solemn ceremony.
Let’s unpack that statement:
The “unnamed individual” was not suffering from a mental health episode. She was performing her duty protecting the sanctity of Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery.
The private photographer was not permitted on the premises. It is a long-standing rule that no photographers are allowed in that area of ANC, out of respect for recently fallen service members and their families.
The family of anyone buried at Arlington does not have any authority to “grant permission” for photographs or videos to be taken.
The campaign has released no such video of the interaction between the Arlington employee and the Trump campaign. You can be sure that if there were exculpatory evidence in a video (that is, video that would prove there was no altercation or that the Arlington employee was “clearly suffering from a mental health episode”), that footage would be widely broadcast by outlets sympathetic to Trump.
If it were such a solemn ceremony, why did Trump pose for multiple campaign photos grinning like a madman? Even worse, why has the Trump campaign flouted federal law and used the video footage that they never should have captured in campaign ads?
The Trump campaign also lied that Harris and Biden were invited to the non-event event that Trump and his team concocted. Both President Biden and Vice President Harris have denied ever receiving any invitation. If there truly were an invitation, it would become a federal record as soon as it was received by the White House, and it would be subject to all those National Archives and Records Administration rules that Trump likes to ignore.
The U.S. Army released a statement of its own, which read, in part:
“Participants in the August 26th ceremony and the subsequent Section 60 visit were made aware of federal laws, Army regulations and DoD policies, which clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds … An A.N.C. employee who attempted to ensure adherence to these rules was abruptly pushed aside. Consistent with the decorum expected at A.N.C., this employee acted with professionalism and avoided further disruption.”
This multi-pronged ongoing web of Trump’s lies definitely deserves this week’s Gold Medal. Knowing his love of all things gold, fake or otherwise, he should welcome this award.
“ Incredible in the truest sense of the word” 💯