I went down a rabbit hole yesterday trying to figure out a comment made by @potus at his Cabinet meeting. I concluded it was highly unlikely to be true, a typical mix of fantasy and bravado. Follow along….
Trump claimed that the leader of a “very rich” oil-producing country near Afghanistan at risk of being overrun by the Taliban was charging the US “millions and millions of dollars” a year for overflights. But the leader is now charging nothing because Trump made the demand...
“Nobody ever asked me not to,” the leader supposedly replied. What country? The WH of course would not respond. The best bets were Kazakhstan or Turkmenistan. But neither faces a real challenge from the Taliban though the leader supposed said “we would be overrun” w/o US help…
Turkmenistan does earn fees from US overflights. But there are no records of Trump having a conversation with Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the country’s leader-for-life. But he has met twice with Nursultan Nazarbayev, the president of Kazakhstan, including at the WH…
But here’s the rub: the agreement between the US and Kazakhstan says U.S. military transport aircraft “would not be subject to payment of air navigation fees,” only nonmilitary aircraft. Maybe Trump did not know that and Nazarbayev just restated the existing agreement? …
It’s happened before. Trump has previously claimed he got China’s president to reopen its market to American beef even though the deal had already been reached during the Obama administration….
On several occasions, Trump anonymously quoted heads of state who he claims are unsatisfied with GDP growth of 9 percent. But we checked: Of the 58 heads of state he’d met or spoke with since taking office, not one could claim 9 percent GDP growth….
So caveat emptor when President Trump claims to recount a conversation with an unnamed foreign leader. His track record for accuracy is not good. Full fact check of cabinet meeting here: washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/…
