We have written extensively throughout this presidential campaign about Donald Trump’s tenuous relationship with the truth.
Trump has been caught lying about unemployment rates, Osama Bin Laden, the cost of his ridiculous border wall, Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers, seeing people rally in support of the Dallas police terrorist, seeing people rally in support of the 9/11 terrorists, and the list goes on and on.
In fact at this point, it’s safe to say that it would be much easier to list all of the things that Trump has said which are true, considering that would be much shorter list.
Is Trump’s incessant lying something new? A tactic that he has adopted just for the presidential campaign perhaps? Or is it symptomatic of a larger problem?
The Washington Post has uncovered a deposition which proves that Trump’s disconnection from reality, or at the very least his blatant disregard for facts, has been an ongoing issue.
In the 2007 deposition, Trump was caught lying thirty times over the course of two days! Thirty!
Not twice, not a few times, but thirty!
According to the story, looking at the 170 page deposition in the rear-view mirror and in the context of a presidential campaign, is as much about showing the irrational nature of Trump’s lies as it is the lies themselves:
“Trump’s falsehoods were unstrategic — needless, highly specific, easy to disprove. When caught, Trump sometimes blamed others for the error or explained that the untrue thing really was true, in his mind, because he saw the situation more positively than others did.”
The piece continues with more examples, such as this exchange between lawyers and Trump regarding an interview Trump did on Larry King Live:
“The lawyer played a clip from Larry King’s talk show, in which King asked Trump how many people worked for him. ‘Twenty-two thousand or so,’ Trump said.
‘Are all those people on your payroll?’ Ceresney asked him.
‘No, not directly,’ Trump said. He said he was counting employees of other companies that acted as suppliers and subcontractors to his businesses.”
In another exchange, Trump was asked point blank about his net worth. Trump’s vapid response was:
“My net worth fluctuates, and it goes up and down with markets and with attitudes and with feelings, even my own feelings. But I try.”
The last time I did my taxes, I don’t recall the IRS ever asking me to list my net feelings. For a man who said at times that his net worth was close to $6 billion, we can guess that his actual tax returns – should we ever see them – will likely put that as lie number 31.
Here’s Trump on Larry King Live saying “I would never lie.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peBa3SU46Qs
