Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Washington Post Fact Checker Had to Come Up With a Whole New Category for All the Lies Donald Trump Has Repeated More Than 20 Times, And Hoo Boy, There Are a Lot

Washington Post Fact Checker Had to Come Up With a Whole New Category for All the Lies Donald Trump Has Repeated More Than 20 Times, And Hoo Boy, There Are a Lot
US President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, November 16, 2018. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

Well, that's appropriate.

It's common knowledge that politicians often misconstrue the truth and occasionally even lie, but it wasn't until the campaign and election of President Donald Trump that outright lies from the head of the executive branch and those serving him became the new normal.

Not only does Trump lie (6,240 times since his inauguration at last count), but he freely repeats the lies as well with the assurance that his base will believe him over the journalists he's spent the last three years vilifying.


So comfortable is the President with repeating long-debunked lies that the Washington Post has created a whole new category for him in their fact-checking department.

The fact-checker has previously rated the level of a statement's falsehood with "Pinocchios" ranging on a scale from one to four, with four Pinocchios being outright false. However, the President has repeated "four Pinocchio" statements so many times, the Washington Post has introduced "Bottomless Pinocchios," reserved for lies ranging from three to four Pinnochios repeated over 20 times.

It's an easier feat for the President than many may realize. For instance, Trump has repeated the false claim that his administration passed the biggest tax cut in history a whopping 123 times. Exaggerating the United States' trade deficits? 117 times. In fact, 14 of the President's statements have qualified for the prestigious distinction of Bottomless Pinocchios.

Sadly, Twitter wasn't surprised.

However, there's still some discontent.

As Trump's lies have grown more and more blatant, Americans have pressured the media to stop replacing the word "lies" with softer ones like "false statements," "misleading claims," or—in this case—"Pinocchios."

For its part, The Washington Post has long been a thorn in Trump's—and a certain other corrupt president's—side. In fact, the same journalist who helped expose the Watergate coverup during the Nixon era, Bob Woodward, also wrote Fear: Trump in the White House, which used hours of recorded interviews and hundreds of documents to cover a President whose administration is a sinking ship. During a normal Presidency, Americans would likely still be talking about the book, which was released in September, and a normal President would have had to heavily strategize to discredit it. After a few scathing tweets from the President, it's now largely forgotten.

That's because, to many, this is not a normal presidency nor is this a normal President, largely thanks to a sheer willingness—perhaps even eagerness—to lie.

The President may never win that elusive Nobel Peace Prize for his talks with North Korea's Kim Jong Un, but thanks to the Washington Post, he is the only figure with the distinction of 14 bottomless Pinocchios—a fitting tribute.

More from People/donald-trump

Melania Trump
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Melania Just Held A Bizarre Press Conference To Debunk 'False Smears' Related To Jeffrey Epstein—And Everyone Had The Same Response

First Lady Melania Trump had everyone thinking the same thing after she held a bizarre press conference on Thursday to deny that she had anything but casual ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the late disgraced financier, pedophile, sexual abuser, and sex trafficker.

Mrs. Trump publicly denied any ties to convicted sex offenders Epstein and his procurer Ghislaine Maxwell, saying claims linking her to Epstein are “lies” meant to damage her reputation. She said she met her husband, President Donald Trump at a New York City party in 1998 and did not meet Epstein until 2000, contradicting a witness statement in the Epstein files that alleges Epstein introduced the couple.

Keep ReadingShow less
Sarah McBride; Nancy Mace
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images; Heather Diehl/Getty Images

Dem Rep. Sarah McBride Perfectly Shames Nancy Mace For Her Transphobic Response To McBride's Condemnation Of Trump

Delaware Democratic Representative Sarah McBride pushed back at South Carolina Republican Representative Nancy Mace after Mace responded with transphobia to McBride's criticism of President Donald Trump's genocidal threat to kill the "whole civilization" of Iran.

Trump has insisted that God supports his war on Iran and declared—before a provisional ceasefire was announced—that "a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again" ahead of a deadline to bomb Iran’s power plants and bridges that legal scholars and world leaders have said would constitute war crimes.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of JD Vance
News Nation

JD Vance Dragged After Making Bizarre 'Skydiving' Analogy About His Wife To Explain Iran Ceasefire Deal

Vice President JD Vance had critics raising their eyebrows after he used a bizarre analogy about his wife–Second Lady Usha Vance—going skydiving while attempting to explain the United States' position on Iran's right to enrich uranium.

Vance addressed reporters on the tarmac at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport as he left Hungary, where he had voiced the Trump administration’s support for Prime Minister Viktor Orbán only days before the country’s elections.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @mikemancusi's Instagram video
@mikemancusi/Instagram

Comedian Explains How Millennials' Midlife Crises Are Different From Past Generations—And He's Spot On

Don't make promises you cannot keep, unless your goal is to hurt someone.

Millennials know that practically better than anyone. They were fed a long and impassioned series of advice, hyper-focused on the importance of getting a college degree in order to find a good job. They were also force-fed traditionalist ideals of getting married, having kids, and buying a nice house with the money they'd be making from that great job, of course.

Keep ReadingShow less