“One thing I still haven’t figured out well, and I don’t think anyone really has, is how to capture Trump’s level of rally unhingedness in a regular article. The only good way is to list like 30 things he said.”
Trump wrongly claims nobody would have believed him if he’d promised there’d be 3.3 million jobs added between now and Election Day. Over the previous 18-month period, under Obama, there were 3.9 million jobs added.
Trump falsely claims that wages are “finally going up” for “the first time in many, many years.” Wages have been rising since 2014. The current pace, 2.6% in April, is lower than the pace in Obama’s last full month in office, 2.7%.
“Most importantly; our country is respected again all over the world,” Trump says. “We’re respected again as a country.” “Respect” is subjective, but approval of the U.S. has plummeted almost everywhere in the world outside Russia and Israel, Pew polling shows.
Trump calls Nancy Pelosi “the MS-13 lover.” That’s exceptionally unfair, obviously. “She loves MS-13, can you imagine?” he continues.
Trump claims that he has “already started” the wall. No actual construction of new wall has begun, only a few scattered replacement projects.
Trump is telling his usual lengthy ramble-lie about how “San Diego” came and begged him for The Wall. None of this happened. San Diego’s Republican mayor opposes the wall, and its city council held a formal vote to express disapproval.
“We lose with Mexico over $100 billion a year with this crazy NAFTA deal,” Trump falsely says. The trade deficit with Mexico was $69 billion last year.
“In the end, Mexico’s paying for the wall,” Trump re-promises, though he says he “doesn’t want to cause a problem.”
Trump on Mexico: “They’re going to pay for the wall, and they’re going to enjoy it.”
Trump falsely claims that illegal immigration is “down.” Judging by border apprehensions, Trump’s favourite metric, it has spiked this year – apprehensions are up 4% from the first four months of 2016, up 77% from the first four months of 2017.
For the 15th time in office, Trump lies that countries are intentionally sending their bad apples into the visa lottery. Individuals enter the lottery on their own because they want to immigrate.
“We have borders down 40%,” Trump lies again. Once more, it’s up 77% in the first four months of this year from the first four months of last year.
“You won’t have a Second Amendment” if the Democrats win, Trump says, which is, imagine this, not literally true.
Trump has returned to the subject of MS-13: “They want to cut people up into little pieces.” Scoffing at Pelosi, he says, “They’re not human beings.” “What was the name?” he asks the crowd. “ANIMALLLS,” the crowd shouts as one.
Trump is now telling a version of the usual fictional story in which he, sir, is told no president since Reagan could pass a tax cut, and he realized it was because they all called it “tax reform,” and he, master brander, decided to call it “tax cuts.”
Trump brings up John McCain’s vote against Obamacare repeal. Some boos. Trump: “That cost our country a lot. That was a very, very terrible thing that happened.” He shouts that McCain campaigned on repeal. McCain is, again, home dealing with brain cancer.
For the 14th time, Trump falsely claims the U.S. has spent $7 trillion on Middle East wars. No basis for this claim. Trump is wildly exaggerating a Brown U study that estimates current costs at $4.3 trillion, total including estimated future costs at $5.6 trillion.
Returning to the roots of his presidential announcement speech, Trump complains that America has shoddy airports.
Talking about rebuilding America, Trump…goes out of his way to say he has big hands: “We’ll do it all with these big beautiful hands. Look at these hands.”
For the fourth time, Trump falsely says that the Empire State building was built in less than a year. It was 13 months.
