Here Are 5 of Trump's Biggest Lies at His Bizarre and Delusional Illinois Speech
President Donald Trump delivered a speech at a steel plant in Granite City, Illinois Thursday that was supposed to be about trade. But as usual, the speech went off track and delved into many other topics — looking very much like one of his campaign rallies.
And like one of his campaign rallies, it was filled with lies, falsehoods, and misleading facts.
Here are five of the lies Trump told Thursday:
1. Trump claimed that he won a majority of women voters in 2016. He did not.
“But I did win that women’s vote, didn’t I?” Trump said. “Remember: They said, ‘Why would women vote for Trump?’ Well, I don’t know but I got more than she did. That’s pretty good.”
Though Trump likes to make this claim, it's completely false. Polling indicates that 54 percent of women in the 2016 election voted for Hillary Clinton, while only 42 percent voted for Trump.
Trump did win 52 percent of the white women vote — but that doesn't mitigate this egregious lie. It makes it worse and demonstrates Trump's racism. For him, it seems, only the votes of white women matter. His lie erases the electoral power of women of color and diminishes their significance.
2. He claimed it's been nine months since North Korea tested a missile.
As Toronto Star's Daniel Dale points out, it's actually been less than 8 months since the last missile test. This is a relatively small lie, but it demonstrates Trump's complete disregard for the truth. There's no reason to say "nine months" when you could just say "about eight months."
But he has no interest in getting the details right even when it would be easy and cost him nothing. So it's no wonder he has no shame about in telling major lies.
3. Trump says U.S. Steel is opening up seven new plants — but it's not.
One major lie he told was about U.S. Steel opening up seven new plants. He has previously said that it is opening up six new plants, which was also false.
While a blast furnace in Granite City was recently restarted, there are no new plants being opened.
"The president is wrong," said the Washington Post's fact checker. "But apparently U.S. Steel is afraid to say that out loud."
4. Trump lies about the size of the trade deficit with China.
The American trade deficit with China — which Trump is obsessed with — is about $336 billion. But for something he's obsessed with, he seems to know very little about it. He falsely said that it was both $375 billion (which is the trade deficit counting only goods, not services) and $500 billion, which it seems is just a number Trump made up.
5. It's not clear Trump knows what the European Union is.
"We have reached a breakthrough agreement yesterday with the European Union, commonly referred to as 'Europe,'" Trump said.
Of course, the European Union and Europe are different entities. The European Union is commonly referred to as the "EU." Was Trump joking? Does he have any idea that many countries in Europe are not in the European Union? Does he just not care? The video doesn't look like he's joking, but it's hard to say.
