Kellyanne Conway says Donald Trump's team has "alternative facts." Which pretty much says it all.
It's a discussion about White House press secretary Sean Spicer, on his first full day in that job, having taken to the podium and made easily disproved claims about the size of Trump's inauguration crowd.
"Why put him out there for the very first time, in front of that podium, to utter a provable falsehood?" Chuck Todd asked Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president. "It's a small thing, but the first time he confronts the public, it's a falsehood?"
After some tense back and forth, Conway offered this:
"Don't be so overly dramatic about it, Chuck. You're saying it's a falsehood, and they're giving - our press secretary, Sean Spicer, gave alternative facts to that. But the point really is -"
At this point, a visibly exasperated Todd cut in. "Wait a minute. Alternative facts? Alternative facts? Four of the five facts he uttered ... were just not true. Alternative
facts are not facts; they're falsehoods."
"Fake news" is so yesterday. "Alternative facts" is where it's at now.
The beauty of "alternative facts" is that they can be shaped into whatever's convenient for you. Alternative facts are easy to use and don't require the fuss and muss of reality.
Enjoy these Alternative Facts -- both the ones that were really said and the ones that are offered tongue-in-cheek.
Sean Spicer releases new photo showing true size of crowd for Trump's inauguration
-- M H T
Donald Trump's second day as President and he's already bringing people together.
-- CK @charley_ck14
We're not taking your healthcare we're just finding an alternative way for you to die.
-- Dems Talk
I'm about to devour this alternative salad.
-- Andrea Chalupa
Guess the number of jelly beans.
Me: 87
Wife: 134
Sean Spicer: 1.5 million
-- Mark Zohar
Alternative Fact: Trump treats women with respect
On his inauguration day President-Elect Bill Clinton shows deference to his wife and daughter at the White House steps before greeting outgoing President George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara.
On his inauguration day President-Elect George W. Bush escorts his wife Laura up the White House steps to greet outgoing President Bill Clinton and wife Hillary.
On his inauguration day President-Elect Barack Obama follows his wife Michelle up the steps at the White House to greet outgoing President George W. Bush and his wife Laura.
On his inaugural day President-Elect Donald Trump abandons his wife Melania back at the SUV and strides alone up the White House steps to greet outgoing President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle.
Source of photos: The Daily Mail 27Jan2017
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4164486/Trump-president-history-not-wait-wife.html
America First Energy Plan
When it comes to climate change and energy policies, the new administration is focused on rolling back the Obama administration's programs to cut greenhouse gas emissions and opening up more oil and gas resources to drilling.
"I cannot tell a lie...but...perhaps I can interest you in an alternative fact?"
-- Alex Rainert
Not only did the Trump Inauguration have more people than Obama's but this actually happened.
-- Paul Lander / Jimmy Fallon
Below are two photos. The photo on the left was taken at on 12:01 pm on January 20, 2017, when Donald Trump was sworn in as president. The photo on the right was taken at 1:27 pm on January 20, 2009, when Barack Obama was sworn in for his first term as president. According to the photos, which inauguration appears to be attended by more people?
The alternative fact answer is: the photo on the left.
Source of photos: The Daily Mail 24Jan2017
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4153090/Trump-tweets-panorama-inauguration-dated-Jan-21.html
The Little Golden Book Of Alternate Facts
-- Old Stuff Magazine
Everyone knows it's butter. Period.
It's a little known fact that Trump's hair is actually grown in a field near Troms, Norway.
-- Alan Mackie
Meeting with reporters on Jan. 28, President Donald
Trump (above) said of his executive order banning
refugees and visitors from seven Muslim countries:
"It's working out very nicely. You see it at the airports.
You see it all over. It's working out very nicely."
*********************
JFK Airport, New York City
***************************
Dulles Airport, Washington, DC
***************************
Alec Baldwin's Saturday Night Live impersonation of Donald Trump must be convincing. On Feb. 12, 2017 the Dominican Republic newspaper El Nacional ran a story about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump but accidentally used Baldwin's photo instead of Trump's.
Source: The Guardian 12Feb2017
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/12/alec-baldwins-donald-trump-impersonation-fools-dominican-newspaper
The inaugural outfit worn below by Kellyanne Conway channeling George Washington is a fashion masterpiece (even though Joan Rivers of "Fashion Police" fame is rolling in her grave).
The previous post was meant to satirize presidential aide Kellyanne Conway, but she may have done a better job of lampooning herself when she offered these comments about the Revolutionary War military outfit she chose to wear at President Trump's inauguration. "Sorry to offend the black-stretch-pants women of America with a little color," she told The Hollywood Reporter. She also blasted "the public cesspool that is Twitter" for criticizing her sartorial taste. (She DOES know that one of the most obsessive users of that "cesspool" is her boss, right?!)
At the Republican congressional retreat 26 Jan. 2017 in Philadelphia,
a protester parodies Conway's inaugural outfit.
Source: The Daily Mail 26Jan2017
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4161300/Kellyanne-Conway-defends-inaugural-patriotic-look.html
On February 19, 2017, there was a Stand Up For Science protest in Copley Square, Boston.
Hairy Alternative Fact
On March 28, 2017, Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly took a snarky swipe at California Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters saying she looked like she was wearing a "James Brown wig."
O'Reilly later apologized for the remark.
But seriously, Bill, if you want to make hair jokes . . .
White House Easter Egg Roll 2017
The Alternative Facts Version
During the National Anthem, President Trump forgot to put his hand over his heart.
First Lady Melania nudged him with her left elbow.
Trump placed his hand over his heart.
In the past entertainers and celebrities appeared at the White
House Easter Egg Roll. This year none appeared. The most famous
celebrity there was the Easter Bunny. Even it seemed sheepish
to be there and tried to hide behind a pair of fake glasses and
a White House column.
Later the Easter Bunny suffered more embarrassment. It had to
assume a hands-up "don't shoot" posture as agents from ICE and
Immigration drew their weapons and stopped it to search
for citizenship documentation.
Melania Trump read to the crowd, which was estimated at 21,000 (although
Trump contended over a million attended). Here she reads,
"Once there was a silly goose who became president. He liked everything around
him to be gold - his chair, his vest, even his writing paper. Even though he chastised
his predecessor for signing too many executive orders, this bird brain signed even
more, as you can see by the pile on his desk. He especially signed
orders against foreigners," said Mrs. Trump in her thick Slovenian accent.
Press Secretary Sean Spicer also read to a little boy from the book How to Catch
the Easter Bunny. Spicer explained that after the bunny was caught, it was put into
a place even worse than a "Holocaust center."
Before beginning the competition, Trump told children to imagine each of the
eggs represented a radical Islamist and they should beat them as hard as they
could with their spoons. In the photo Trump blows his hot air into a whistle to
begin the competition.
As usual Fox News was given preferential treatment at the event over "the fake media." Fox and
Friends host Ainsley Earhart interviews Trump son Eric and his wife. When Count Eric noticed
in the top left of the TV monitor that it was 8:37 a.m., he cut short the interview saying too
much daylight was arriving and he had to get into his coffin for the day. (Seriously! As Seth
Meyers has noted, doesn't Eric look like a vampire?)
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway spoke with
the press about Easter traditions like candy canes,
fireworks, and carving pumpkins. When the media
corrected her that those are not Easter traditions,
Conway's daughter hid her face as Conway launched into
a rant about alternative facts and the dishonest media.
Later Conway recreated the posture she used in February
when she boorishly squatted (in shoes) on an Oval Office
couch to take a photo. She tried to spin the embarrassing
moment to a little girl participating in the egg roll, but the
little girl did what so many people do these days when
Conway speaks: she ignored Conway and kept walking.
Above are the colorful commemorative Easter eggs from this year's roll, including Trump's
favorite color, gold.
And speaking of a variety of colors, here is a photo from the Obama administration egg roll.
And here is a photo from this year's egg roll, which could be entitled "A Whiter Shade of Pale."
On April 19, 2017, the Super Bowl champs, the New England Patriots, were honored by President Trump at the White House.
Afterwards The New York Times Twitter page posted a photo of the 2017 visit to the White House juxtaposed with a photo from when the Pats visited the Obama White House in 2015.
The Patriots, whose owner, Robert Kraft, is a friend and donor to Trump, tweeted back: "These photos lack context. In 2015 over 40 football staff were on the stairs. In 2017, they were
seated on the South Lawn."
The Pats contended that the total delegation from New England was about the same both years, but the Pats did concede that 50 players had appeared at the White House in 2015 compared to 34 in 2017.
Bill Clinton's Alternative Fact
In a tweet on 23 April 2017 former President Bill Clinton took a humorous swipe at President Trump's so-far-unsubstantiated claim that the latter was bugged at Trump Tower during last fall's election.
In the tweet Clinton is pictured standing next to a grasshopper sculpture that is part of a temporary exhibit for Earth Day at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Ark.
The text reads: "BREAKING: We just learned that the @ClintonCenter has been bugged."
Alternative Executive Order
On April 18, 2017, President Trump signed the "Buy American and Hire American" executive order, but his well-known hotel in Washington, DC, doesn't seem to practice what he preaches.
A team from WUSA-TV9 in Washington rented a room for $800 and found phones from Malaysia, a TV from South Korea, a tray from the UK, towels from India, soaps and shampoos from Canada, and a robe from China.
Dishes were from Germany, glasses from Italy, and sheets and comforters were made in Italy.
In all, 21 of 31 products WUSA9 could identify came from outside the U.S.
WUSA9 reached out to the White House Press Office for comment multiple times but did not get a response.
The Trump International Hotel in the Old Post Office Pavilion in Washington, DC
The Bowling Green Massacre
Conway is building a reputation for citing falsehoods, untruths and outright lies as "alternative facts". The latest such example of this is an interview she
did with MSNBC where she spoke about the "Bowling Green massacre" in an effort to defend Trump's controversial travel ban. The trouble is there was no such massacre.
"I bet it's brand new information to people that President Obama had a six-month ban on the Iraqi refugee program after two Iraqis came here to this country, were
radicalised and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre," Conway told host Chris Matthews on MSNBC's Hardball programme.
"Most people don't know that because it didn't get covered," she continued.
Commentators quickly debunked the claim on social media. The 2011 action was a refugee slowdown, not a full travel ban, after two Iraqi citizens were arrested
and indicted over a botched attempt to send money and weapons to al-Qaeda in Iraq.
The two men did live in Bowling Green, Kentucky and are currently serving life in prison on federal terrorism charges.
But there was no massacre on US soil and they were not accused of planning one.
---------------------------------
Here is an excerpt from the story in The Guardian, a British newspaper:
You have two excuses for not remembering this particular event: it didn't happen in 2017, and it also didn't happen. Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway invented the
incident over the course of three separate interviews back in February, while defending the president's Muslim travel ban, referring to two Iraqi nationals as
"the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre".
It's true that back in 2011, two Iraqi men were arrested in Bowling Green, Kentucky, after they attempted to send money and weapons to al-Qaida in Iraq, but they
did not - and had no plan to - carry out an attack in Bowling Green or anywhere else in the US.
After Conway's statements went viral, mock vigils and fundraisers were held for the victims of the "massacre". People sold T-shirts that
said "Bowling Green massacre: never forget". But we did.
The story even made news and was mocked in London
Trump contradicts himself - again
When the Obamas visited Saudi Arabia, Donald Trump tweeted on 29 January 2015:
When President Trump arrived in Saudi Arabia in May 2017, neither his wife, Melania, nor his daughter, Ivanka, donned head scarves to show respect to the host country.
Even the Press Felt Sorry for Sean Spicer
Normally there is no love lost between the press and White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. The press accuses the White House of spreading "alternative facts," and
Spicer often accuses reporters of spreading "fake news." The acrimony was put aside, however, for a few days after President Trump's visit to the Vatican on May 24, 2017.
Dozens of media members went on the record expressing sympathy for Spicer, a devout Catholic, because he was not able to meet the Pope. For unexplained reasons, Spicer was not included
in the entourage President Trump took with him to meet the Pontiff. Trump included his daughter and son-in-law, who are Jewish, but excluded Spicer, who makes no secret of his Irish Catholic roots.
Typical of the sympathetic comments from the press was this tweet by Maggie Haberman of The New York Times: "This seems needlessly harsh - when else is Spicer likely to meet the Pope, and it mattered to him?"
Source: The Washington Post, 25May2017
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/05/25/sean-spicer-didnt-get-to-meet-the-pope-even-reporters-feel-badly-for-him/?hpid=hp_rhp-morning-mix_mm-spicer%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.db5d2cb0b6f8
Alternative News Headline: "Oh, Happy Day!"
Did the photographer forget to tell them to say "cheese"?
US President Donald Trump and UK Prime Minister Theresa May don't appear to be especially happy to see each other again as they pose
with a group of representatives to begin the NATO conference in Brussels on May 25, 2017.
Photo: The Daily Mail, 25May2017
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4541946/Trump-vows-bottom-Manchester-bomb-leak.html
Alternative Diplomacy
On Friday, May 26, 2017, while attending a G7 summit in Sicily, President Trump walked past a group of reporters and said, "Great win in Montana." No question prompted the remark.
Trump apparently was being snarky to reporters about Republican Greg Gianforte winning a special election to the U.S. House of Representatives Thursday even though just 24 hours earlier
the candidate had body slammed a reporter and was charged with misdemeanor assault. (More than half of the votes had been cast by mail before the attack and could not be changed.)
Gianforte spent much of his acceptance speech apologizing for his physical attack on Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs. Trump's remark, on the other hand, suggested a certain delight
in Gianforte's attack on the media, which Trump has trolled since his campaign.
Source: The Daily Mail, 26May2017
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4545292/Great-win-Montana-Trump-trolls-press-Gianforte.html
The scowl on Trump's face, the distance between him and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and a snide remark he made to the press don't exactly suggest the
president came across as "Mr. Diplomacy" at the G7 conference in May 2017.
Alternative fact: Donald Trump is kind and considerate
At the NATO conference in Brussels on May 25, 2017, President Trump pushes aside Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic so Trump can be in the front of a group photo. After all, "America first."
Alternative Fact: Melania loves Trump's hands.
Not Fake News
The McBackpack program in Fort Collins, CO spent $55,994 on food for the entire 2016-17 school year to feed the hungry.
The median household income in the US is $56,516, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The floral Dolce & Gabbana jacket Melania Trump wore while accompanying her husband to the G7 meeting in Sicily in May cost $51,000.
Source: The Independent, 28May2017
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/controversy-melania-trump-jacket-worth-more-than-american-income-a7759461.html
Perhaps, Trump has told too many alternative facts!
Conway — Before and After Working for Trump
Extreme Alternative Facts
News can't get much more fake than this story found on Alex Jones' Info Wars website on 3June2017.
The caption for the photo below reads: "Trump supporters coming to a [sic] impromptu rally organized by the president's campaign outnumber the Paris Accord
activists who likely had more time to prepare their protest."
Clues to the fake news:
1) How can a rally be "impromptu" if it is "organized by the president's campaign"?
2) Why guess that the Paris Accord activists "likely had more time to prepare their protest"? Why not do some real journalism, ask the activists how
long they prepared, and get the facts?
Alternative fact or white lie?
Even in high school Trump's White House Communications Director Hope Hicks showed a propensity towards alternative facts.
The quotation below her senior portrait is not from singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett but from former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
Seriously?! The woman who invented the stupid term "alternative facts" is going to call others stupid?
After hearing of the burning of Notre Dame ...
Alternative Bible verses
A billboard hailing former President Donald Trump as the second coming of Jesus Christ has been taken down.
The advertisement was spotted near the city of Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia.
It featured a picture of Trump looking on alongside a misquoted passage from the Bible which read: "Unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulders."
The billboard incorrectly claimed that the quote came from Romans 8:17.
In actual fact it was paraphrased from another chapter and verse, Isaiah 9:6, which reads: "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will
be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."
San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich, who'd spoken out about the women's march and Trump's inauguration on Saturday, delivered a skewering wisecrack as he spoke to reporters Monday about that most mundane of things, the injury report, before the team's game against Brooklyn.
"Kawhi [Leonard] is out with an injury that's not really an injury, but hopefully it will heal quickly," Popovich said. "That's a figurative statement. It sounds like some of the things that are going on politically in the world. I apologize. I just gave an alternative fact. I shouldn't have done that. But it wasn't a lie, so don't try to pin that on me. I'm tired of you guys pinning that on me."
-- Gregg Popovich
Alternative facts have become the new way for NBA coaches to show their sense of humor. Mike D'Antoni is the latest to follow the pattern.
D'Antoni was asked on Wednesday about his Houston Rockets going 3-5 in their last eight games and offered this quip:
"Actually we won all those games. I'm going with that alternative fact thing."
-- Mike D'Antoni
It's too bad Trump wasn't president when I was in high school. If he were, I would have been a straight-A student because any time I missed a question on a test, I could protest that my answer was just an alternative fact.
First question next press briefing "Will the facts you give today be real or alternative, just so we know?"
-- Dave Barabas
There were 1.5 million people at the inauguration. Just 1.25 million of them had their invisibility cloaks on.
-- Ben Patz
So many people attended wearing empty bleachers costumes.
-- Hend Amry
The Declaration of Independence, according to Kellyanne Conway:
"We hold these #alternativefacts to be self-evident..."
-- Nick Jack Pappas
If you say "period" at the end of a sentence then it's true. Period.
-- Helene Wingens
Officer I am not drunk, I am alternative sober.
-- kyle humble
Hi, SAT Board, I need you to change my test scores. I didn't get the questions wrong. I provided #alternativefacts.
-- Jenni Tilton-Flood
Instead of placing a freeze on federal hiring, Trump should have placed a freeze on hiring comedy writers. For the next four years the material will write itself.
Fact or Alternative Fact?
"[I]n 2016, more Americans were killed by TODDLERS with guns than by terrorists."
- Piers Morgan, The Daily Mail, 29Jan.2017
Not one person from the seven countries included in the executive order signed by President Trump on 27 January 2017 has killed anyone in a terror attack on U.S. soil in the last 40 years.
Nine people have been killed a year, on average, by Muslim extremists in the U.S. since 9/11.
12,843 people are killed a year, on average, by guns in the U.S. (this number does not include suicides by guns, which account for another 20,000 deaths).
37,000 people every year, on average, are killed in traffic accidents in the U.S.
Source: CATO Institute via http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/30/politics/immigration-stats-by-the-numbers-trnd/index.html
Strike up the ban!
When is a ban not a ban?
At a press conference on 31 January White House press secretary Sean Spicer insisted President Trump's executive order prohibiting refugees and others from seven Muslim countries from entering the U.S. "is not a travel ban." The day before (30 January), however, Trump called the order a "ban" in a tweet that read, "If the ban were announced with a one week notice, the "bad" would rush into our country during that week." Spicer contended Trump was "using the words that the media is using' to explain the inconsistency.
Source: The Daily Mail, 31Jan.2017
During the last year of the Obama administration the unemployment rate (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics) was between 4.7% and 5%, but Trump disagreed. "Don't believe these phony numbers. The number is probably 28, 29, as high as 35 [percent]. In fact, I even heard recently 42%," said Trump.
At a meeting with business leaders on Feb. 3, Trump said he was "very happy" with the jobs report.
"I think that' it's going to continue big league. We're bringing back jobs," he added.
While this is the first jobs report released under Trump, the Labor Department conducted the survey in the second week of January, while Obama was still in office.
Donald Trump has an "open mind" about Climate Change
In a Nov. 22, 2016 interview at the New York Times, President-elect Donald Trump said he had an "open mind" about climate change, but he went on to repeat some of the same false and misleading claims that have been used by those who reject mainstream climate science. Trump said "the hottest day ever was in 1890-something, 98." Cherry-picking one day, or one year, isn't evidence of a trend.
In January 2017, several scientific agencies around the world, including NASA and the NOAA in the United States and the Met Office in the United Kingdom, named 2016 the warmest year recorded. This marked the third consecutive year reaching a new record temperature, the first time since the current warming trend began in the 1970s that three years in a row were record highs. 2016's record meant that 16 of the 17 warmest years have occurred since 2000.
Here is a list of the twelve warmest years on record (NOAA) -- three years tied for #10:
1. 2016
2. 2015
3. 2014
4. 2010
5. 2013
6. 2005
7. 2009
8. 1998
9. 2012
10. 2003
10. 2006
10. 2007
Doesn't this appear to be a TREND?
Betsy DeVos will fight for Public Schools
In a letter that I received from Cory Gardner, a Senator from Colorado, he states, "I believe it is important to have someone leading the Department of Education who will fight for public schools.
When I had the opportunity to meet Betsy DeVos personally, she pledged to me that she would be an advocate for public schools, teachers, and educational opportunity for all."
2. None of her children attended public schools (they attend private Christian schools).
3. Mrs. DeVos never taught in the public schools and never was an adminstrator.
4. Mrs. DeVos supports vouchers for charter schools with no oversight.
DeVos and her husband played a role in getting Michigan's charter school law passed in 1993,
and ever since have worked to protect charters from additional regulation.
When Michigan lawmakers in 2016 were considering a measure that would
have added oversight for charter schools in Detroit, members of the DeVos family
poured $1.45 million into legislators' campaign coffers - an average of $25,000 a day
for seven weeks. Oversight was not included in the final legislation.
The DeVos influence is one reason that Michigan's charter sector is among
the least regulated in the country. Roughly 80 percent of charters
in Michigan are run by private companies, far more than in any other state.
5. Betsy DeVos donated $49,800 to Cory Gardner's campaign.
Campaign Finance reform groups have called on senators who received money from DeVos
to recuse themselves from voting on her nomination (of course, none did so).
DeVos is quoted in the newspaper as saying, "I have decided to stop taking offense at the
suggestion that we are buying influence.
Now, I simply concede the point. They are right.
We do expect something in return ... We expect a return on our investment."
At a press conference on Feb. 16, 2017 Trump bragged (again) about his electoral college votes. Trump crowed, "We got 306 because people came out and voted like they've never before, so that's the way it goes.
I guess it was the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan."
Actually, Trump got only 304 electoral votes. That means every president since Reagan except GW Bush got more electoral votes than Trump. See results below.
George HW Bush 426
Clinton 379
Clinton 370
Obama 365
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
'Trump administration seen as more truthful than news media'
(link: http://bit.ly/2k4b0imEmersonPoll) bit.ly/2k4b0imEmerson...
Any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election.
At a White House press appearance on Feb. 15, 2017 with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Trump said, "General Flynn is a wonderful man. I think he had been treated very, very unfairly by the media.
As I call it, 'the fake media,' in many cases."
If Trump thought Flynn was being treated so unfairly, why did he ask for Flynn's resignation two days earlier?!
Not just the press is "dishonest"?
During an address to the public in Melbourne, Fla., on Feb. 18 President Trump used a quotation by Thomas Jefferson to take (yet another) shot at what Trump contends is a "dishonest" media.
What Trump didn't mention is that in a 1787 letter to Edward Carrington, Jefferson wrote:
"And were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them."
Source: The Washington Post, 18Feb2017
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/02/17/trumps-war-with-the-media-isnt-new-thomas-jefferson-railed-about-newspaper-lies-too/?utm_term=.434b06e998ad
President Trump caused confusion during a Saturday rally in Florida when he said: "You look at what's happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this?" Trump then mentioned the French cities of Nice and Paris and the Belgian capital, Brussels. The three European cities were attacked by terrorists over the past two years.
Although Trump did not explicitly say it, his remarks were widely perceived in the United States and abroad as suggesting that an attack had occurred Friday night in Sweden.
When the media pressed him about his comment, Trump blamed it on a story that he heard the night before on Fox News!
Fact or Alternative Fact? These days it's hard to tell.
One of the presentations at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) gathering near Washington, DC, Feb. 22-25, featured the topic "If Heaven Has a Gate, a Wall, and Extreme Vetting, Why Can't America?"
The discussion posited that since there are biblical requirements to enter Heaven, President Trump is justified to build his wall along the Mexican border and for his other immigration policies.
Source: The Guardian, 22Feb.2017
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/22/heaven-extreme-vetting-republicans-legislate-from-the-bible
Guess Who Is Also a Hollywood Elite?
President Trump has often railed against the Hollywood elite, many of whom have criticized him, especially at awards shows. As actor George Clooney points out, though, Trump is part of the Hollywood elite.
Trump has appeared in films, such as "Zoolander" and "Home Alone: 2." He's also appeared in TV shows, such as "Sex and the City," "The Nanny," and "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." He's produced beauty pageants for TV for a decade. And then for 11 years he has earned an estimated $214 million for his work on "The Apprentice" and "The Celebrity Apprentice." As a member of the Screen Actors' Guild (SAG) he also benefits from its pension plan.
Source: The Guardian, 22Feb2017
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/feb/22/george-clooney-donald-trump-steve-bannon-hollywood-elite
After Donald Trump accused Obama of wiretapping his phones in Trump Tower, author Stephen King mocked Donald Trump with a list of possible Obama conspiracy theories.
King speculated that not only did Obama order the wiretapping and personally install it while Michelle stood guard, but Trump's predecessor also stole ice cream and was hiding out in the White House with scissors.
Of course, Trump is the same person who led the "birther" movement, claiming that Obama was not born in the United States. Then eight years later, he finally acknowledges that Obama was born in the U.S., and then Trump
blames the misunderstanding on Hilary Clinton! Talk about Alternative Facts!
Donald Trump's latest attack on Barack Obama over Guantanamo Bay releases turns out to be completely false!
Donald Trump's claim that Barack Obama was responsible for the release of 122 Guantanamo prisoners who then "returned to the battlefield" has been proven false by a US intelligence report.
The President wrote on Twitter: "122 vicious prisoners, released by the Obama Administration from Gitmo, have returned to the battlefield. Just another terrible decision!"
113 of "122 vicious prisoners" mentioned by President were released by the Bush administration.
"Innocent ... exaggeration???"
"I play to people's fantasies," [Trump] wrote in his first book, "The Art of the Deal." "People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. I call it truthful hyperbole.
It's an innocent form of exaggeration - and a very effective form of promotion."
SOURCE: Marc Fisher, "Speaking Trump's Language," The Washington Post, 9Mar2017.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-political-lexicon-of-a-billionaire-populist/2017/03/09/4d4c2686-ff86-11e6-8f41-ea6ed597e4ca_story.html
Buy American / Hire American??!!
Trump Vineyards in Charlottesville, Va., applied in February, 2017 to hire 29 alien workers via the federal H-2 visa program. Previously the vineyard had applied in December 2016 for six farm workers. Trump has a history of using foreign labor via the H-2 program to work on his other properties. Interesting way to put Americans to work!
Source: The Charlottesville Daily Progress, 21Mar2017
President Harry Truman is famous for saying, "The buck stop here."
The Trump alternative fact version is "The buck stops there."
(Does Trump ever take the blame for anything or ever admit he is wrong? It's always someone else's fault.)
Trump's alternative medical facts
"Many of our best and brightest are leaving the medical profession entirely because of Obamacare," Trump told an audience at a rally in Louisville, Kentucky, on March 22, 2017.
In fact, the number of doctors in the U.S. actively caring for patients grew from 799,501 in 2010, when the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, to 860,939 in 2015, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The American College of Physicians, which represents internists, the largest specialty, says its enrollment of new doctors has increased every year since 2012. The American Academy of Family Physicians has seen its membership grow from 94,620 to 124,900 since 2008.
Donald Trump's trips to his luxury Florida resort have already cost the US taxpayer at least $24 million - roughly as much as Barack Obama spent on travel in the first two years of his presidency.
Before Trump's inauguration, he regularly criticised Mr Obama for playing golf while holding office.
Critics have pointed out that if Trump cut back on these visits, he could fund the social and arts programs that he is planning to slash.
On 23 April 2017 in response to polls showing that at the 100-day mark of his presidency Trump has the lowest favorable rating of any president since 1945, Trump tweeted:
"New polls out today are very good considering that much of the media is FAKE and almost always negative. Would still beat Hillary in popular vote."
Uh, Donald, in order to STILL beat Hillary in the popular vote, that means you would have had to have beaten her previously. You didn't. You lost by 2.8 million popular votes on election day.
The Washington Post reports that President Trump made 492 false statements in his first 100 days in office. That is a lot of alternative facts!
Here are the numbers for the president's first 100 days.
492: The number of false or misleading claims made by the president. That's an average of 4.9 claims a day.
10: Number of days without a single false claim. (On six of those days, the president golfed at a Trump property.)
5: Number of days with 20 or more false claims. (Feb. 16, Feb. 28, March 20, April 21 and April 29, his 100th day in office.)
You can view all the false claims in the links below.
While campaigning in Iowa in September, 2016 Donald Trump asked, "If you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?"
Now Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn (who also previously lambasted political opponents for taking the Fifth Amendment) plans to invoke
the privilege in investigations of him regarding Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Further, Trump himself used the Fifth Amendment in his 1990 divorce proceedings from first wife Ivana Trump to avoid answering questions about adultery and extra-marital affairs.
Source: The Washington Post, 23May2017,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/05/23/if-youre-innocent-why-are-you-taking-the-fifth-trump-said-years-after-invoking-it-himself/?tid=hybrid_collaborative_1_na&utm_term=.c1aab23d2230
Forget Fake News. What About Fake Twitter?
President Trump claims to have 31 million Twitter followers, but, according to Twitter Audit Report, as many as half of those accounts may be fake.
Over 15 million of his "followers" have no profile picture or personal information, typical signs that a profile is a "bot" run by a computer instead of by a real person.
By comparison, predecessor Barack Obama has more than 89 million followers, with only 21 per cent thought to be fake.
Source: The Daily Mail, 31May2017
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4559178/Half-Trump-s-Twitter-followers-robots.html#ixzz4igyBjvec
The Coal Hard (Alternative) Facts
On June 8, 2017, President Trump used a video hook-up to congratulate the Corsa Coal Corp. for opening the first new coal mine in 10 years. The mine is projected to bring 70-to-100 full-time jobs
to Somerset County, Pa., 60 miles south of Pittsburgh. Although Trump appeared to take partial credit for the new mine, the project actually was planned months before he was even elected president.
Further, Trump said on the video, "One by one, we're eliminating the regulations that threaten your jobs, and that's one of the big reasons you're opening today: less regulation."
Hopefully the miners are smart enough to deduce that if mine regulations decrease (especially safety regulations), their chances of getting killed or injured on the job increase.
Source: The Daily Mail, 8June2017
Alternative Ratings
In a Father's Day tweet on 18June2017 President Trump boasted:
"The new Rasmussen Poll, one of the most accurate in the 2016 Election, just out with a Trump 50% Approval Rating. That's higher than O's #'s!"
["O's #'s" = Obama's numbers]
Fact checking shows otherwise. Other polls, such as Gallup, YouGov, and Ipsos, have Trump's approval rating at 39 percent. Also, in Obama's last Rasmussen poll
he had a 62 percent approval rating. Finally, at the same point in Obama's presidency (June 2009), Obama's approval rating was 56 percent.
Source: The Daily Mail, 18Jun2017
Another alternative fact from Sean Spicer
There is spin and then there is Sean Spicer, who is denying the objective reality of his media availability.
Witness this exchange Wednesday between the White House press secretary and conservative radio host Laura Ingraham in June 2017:
INGRAHAM: How do you answer the press vipers? That's my word, not yours. They're very upset. They're very, very upset. They want to spend more time - quality time - with you, Sean.
They don't want just, like, a brief drive-by with you, Sean. They want quality time to really have the relationship build on itself. So, what's going on with the fewer briefings?
SPICER: Well, first of all, it's not fewer briefings. And, again, this is part of the problem, I think, for people who don't take the time to listen to your show or others that inform
them entirely, they get this false impression.
To say there are "not fewer briefings" is false, plain and simple. Here are the number of White House Briefings for the past four months:
March 2017 — 21 (for 1000 minutes)
April 2017 — 15 (for 418 minutes)
May 2017 — 13 (for 401 minutes)
June 2017 — 8 (for 225 minutes) — this is through June 21. This would extrapolate to 11 briefings for 321 minutes for the whole month.
Me: How many fingers am I holding up?
@seanspicer: 1.5 million.
3,000,0000 = 0
Trump claims he lost at least three million votes because of fraud, even though no proof has been presented of any widespread voter fraud.
Crowd size is whatever Trump thinks it is. Mathematical head counts are no longer valid.
Donald Trump signed so many executive orders in his first few days in office, this one got lost in the shuffle. Trump declared that henceforth trapezoids will be known at Trumpezoids. Also contained in the measure, at least one of the sides or angles must be designated with a capital T, as opposed to an a, b, or c, or an x, y, or z. Gotta keep that name, initial, and brand in front of the public!
Alternative algebra fact:
Normally the equation x = 2 yields a vertical line, but in alternative facts all lines are skewed.
