President Donald Trump told a story about South Korea on Monday. Every single part of it is false.
Trump has delivered versions of his fictional story before; CNN debunked one telling last year. The president delivered Monday’s version the day after he announced the US would reduce military exercises with South Korea – citing his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and also mentioning that South Korea declined to participate in the US war with Iran.
The latest version of Trump’s tale, which you can watch in full here, went like this:
South Korea “essentially” didn’t pay for the cost of the US military presence in the country before Trump first became president. Trump then got South Korea to unhappily agree to pay “$3 billion” in a year, with further increases the following year and the year after that. But then the 2020 election was “rigged” against him. When Joe Biden became president, South Korea convinced Biden that Trump was “probably a bad person” and they shouldn’t have to pay the money, so Biden “immediately rescinded” Trump’s “order.”
Let’s walk through why all of this is wrong.
There’s a Gish gallop variation in everything he says. The idea is simple and unfortunately effective. Say as many lies as possible one after the other. Look confident and never pause for thought.
Then your opponents have to spend all their time and energy calling out each lie while you move on with your plans uncontested.
It’s ragebaiting and the media make their bread from it, so that’s all you get. It’s disappointing that people haven’t caught on after all these years.
We live in an attention economy — and facts are losing.
His lies worked so well with those naive and desperate 13 year old girls that he switched parties and lied to the right wingers who have a much lower IQ.
President Donald Trump told a story about South Korea on Monday. Every single part of it is false.
Yeah, I mean, if he says it, it’s probably a lie.
This guy, I swear…. He makes George Bush Jr look like a genius.
