Why does Trump Lie?

Why Does President Trump Lie?

I heard about this op/ed in the New York Times from an interview a few days ago. I wanted to take a look because for many public lies that the President told were listed with the corresponding actual fact. A very interesting list, not perfect but a wonderful and handy reference.

www.nytimes.com...

They used a ‘conservation’ interpretation of a lie/untruth in compiling their list:

We have set a conservative standard here, leaving out many dubious statements (like the claim that his travel ban is “similar” to Obama administration policy). Some people may still take issue with this standard, arguing that the president wasn't speaking literally. But we believe his long pattern of using untruths to serve his purposes, as a businessman and politician, means that his statements are not simply careless errors.

We are using the word “lie” deliberately. Not every falsehood is deliberate on Trump's part. But it would be the height of naïveté to imagine he is merely making honest mistakes. He is lying.

They even include an infographic in the article showing, as of June 7, 2017, that only 35% of the population believe Trump is honest while 59% believes otherwise.

Personally, I find it hard to believe that any ‘sane’ human being would believe that Trump tells the truth or, even that he makes any attempt to at least speak the truth publicly.



My question is not whether you believe or don’t believe what trump says but WHY he does it? What is the motivation, conscious or unconscious, for this pattern of LIES.

A few from the list (and this list starts the day after he was sworn into office. The corresponding verifiable fact is in parenthesis’s after the LIE.

JAN. 21 “A reporter for Time magazine — and I have been on their cover 14 or 15 times. I think we have the all-time record in the history of Time magazine.” (Trump was on the cover 11 times and Nixon appeared 55 times.)

JAN. 25 “So, look, when President Obama was there two weeks ago making a speech, very nice speech. Two people were shot and killed during his speech. You can't have that.” (There were no gun homicide victims in Chicago that day.)

Regarding his short lived ‘travel ban’:

JAN. 30 “Only 109 people out of 325,000 were detained and held for questioning. Big problems at airports were caused by Delta computer outage.” (At least 746 people were detained and processed, and the Delta outage happened two days later.)F

FEB. 28 “We have begun to drain the swamp of government corruption by imposing a five-year ban on lobbying by executive branch officials.” (They can't lobby their former agency but can still become lobbyists.)

MARCH 3 “It is so pathetic that the Dems have still not approved my full Cabinet.” (Paperwork for the last two candidates was still not submitted to the Senate.)

MARCH 7 “122 vicious prisoners, released by the Obama Administration from Gitmo, have returned to the battlefield. Just another terrible decision!” (113 of them were released by President George W. Bush.)

MARCH 22 “NATO, obsolete, because it doesn’t cover terrorism. They fixed that.” (It has fought terrorism since the 1980s.)

APRIL 12 “The secretary general and I had a productive discussion about what more NATO can do in the fight against terrorism. I complained about that a long time ago and they made a change, and now they do fight terrorism.” (NATO has been engaged in counterterrorism efforts since the 1980s.)

Just a few to whet your whistle. I didn’t include any of the many lies repeated on a recurring basis.

AGAIN – WHY DOES TRUMP LIE?

Because he is a narcissistic bellend.AKA a politician.


Case closed.

a reply to: FyreByrd


Any links to your sources?

He doesn't lie, he shapes truth. Different.

a reply to: FyreByrd

He doesn't lie...you are thinking of the 'press'.

originally posted by: seeker1963
a reply to: FyreByrd


Any links to your sources?

Yes, I edited the OP to include the link. Thank you.

a reply to: FyreByrd

He's not right in the head comes to mind, and or his ego
is the size of Washington...

Personally i like the former .

originally posted by: Metallicus
a reply to: FyreByrd

He doesn't lie...you are thinking of the 'press'.

Now now, don't be silly Met', the 'President' lies because he believes in the new science...his new science, of 'alternative facts' it's not new to him really, he's been doing it for years to some poor joe!

Oh! almost forgot, it ultimately means $$$$$$ $ $.................

Why has EVERY single president we've had lie? Why does the media lie, why does every politician lie, why have you lied? Its like beating a dead horse, Move on...

a reply to: FyreByrd

Lie? To some folks telling the truth is a lie. To others the truth is an insult. Adolf Hitler made the cover of Time Magazine. Why did Time lie? He obviously didn't deserve it. Perspective.

Why does Trump lie?

I know the answer to this one! He caught syphilying from the media room at the Whitehouse!



Edit: Maybe it was Gonnerronneus, I am not a doctor.

I know, I know, I get a prize, right? Yay me!

Are you trying to single him out from the usual suspects? Everyone's most loved and hated president has lied in the past. How is Trump lying any different from the rest?

Examples: 1/2

a reply to: FyreByrd

He lies for the same reason people here say he doesn't lie.

I have to agree with Crazywok. Trump is a politician and ability to deceive people is a prerequisite of the job.

How do you keep a politician from lying? Duct tape over the mouth.

President Trump is a narcist, perhaps racist, definitely a jackass. He is not a liar. If he lied I want to see the quote, date and time when he lied.

originally posted by: crazyewok
Because he is a narcissistic bellend.AKA a politician.


Case closed.

Most politicians pivot, avoid, spin and omit but rarely outright LIE in a public forum. In fact their staff is there to ensure that they don't.

This isn't a single, mistake or exageration, it is a symptom of an ongoing break with reality and decency.

President Clinton was impeached for a single public lie ("I did not have sex with that woman") and acquited. It that case it could be put down to the definition of sex and what exactly constitutes sex. He may not have considered a BJ sex; but most people would.

But that is not the case with President Trump's pattern of lies, both historically and while in the oval office. Nor did President Clinton's LIE infect the entire administration with a culture of flagrant deceit.

In the US, our aggressively competitive motto seems to be "It's only breaking the rules if you get caught" and this pattern of behavior is beyond the "getting caught' clause.

The real question is not why Trump lies but…

Why he lies so much!


Also why people support him despite his blatant lies

He doesn't lie.

He talks in big-city terms and #alternativefacts

Why does Trump Lie?

it must be a slow day around here...