It has been a favorite past time of late, for President Donald J. Trump to twist the facts to suit his tastes or to make someone believe something is real. Trump has proven to be a born liar, and narcissist, and does not like to lose anywhere. He incessantly attacks news media and seems to take great pleasure in this even to the point of having news organization FOX News as his main mouthpiece to keep those who have followed him in check. A political factfinding website http://www.politifact.org which is a Pulitzer Prize Award Winner does an excellent job of determining what is right and not correct when it comes to President Trump and his forever misleading statements (All False Statements Involving Donald Trump, 2017).
When I write a paper for college, I have to state and argue facts that must be backed up with evidence of my sources from where I referenced the information. I cannot randomly just say certain things and then expect what I have argued in a paper to be what I believe is an accurate assessment of an issue. Trump had been making a large number of inaccurate and false statements, that the Washington Post would by January 27, 2017, have to publish one of the first articles about the president’s hateful comments before January would even end. One of the most significant false statements was made a day barely into his presidency,” I remember hearing [when I was young] from one of my instructors, ‘The United States has never lost a war.’ And then, after that, it’s like we haven’t won anything. We don’t win anymore — Jan. 21, remarks at the CIA (Kessler, 2017).
One would think that we would have elected a president who would be able, to tell the truth, not lie, and be someone to whom a young child who could be influenced by a man of stature look up to. I frankly worry that his influence of wanting to outright lie, hide facts and even conceal his actions while on a working vacation will carry over to young minds. Leave it to Trump’s White House obscure his daily golfing on one of his golf courses in Florida. While he was playing a round of golf at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida photojournalists from CNN, CBS, and ABC News tried to film the president while he golfed. Unfortunately the vast white, unmarked box truck kept the view of the president blocked from the cameras (Kludt, 2017). Once can surmise he did not want the world to see him leaving large divot craters on his golf course, nor that the president’s balls were going to the correct spot.
Trump loved to attack President Barack Obama when he was in office and while he was out golfing, and in what he thought tweets that were “deleted” from Twitter, The Washington Post found more than a few that were outright lies and entirely off the mark. Some even included former President Jimmy Carter “Can you believe that, with all of the problems and difficulties facing the U.S., President Obama spent the day playing golf. Worse than Carter” — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2014 (Bump, 2017).
So, Mr. President, you seemed to have promised not to take so many vacations as President Obama did during his presidency. You did attack President Obama on a regular basis about this, but before entering the White House, Trump was a frequent critic of Obama’s personal time outside the Oval Office. Trump even criticized taking vacations at all, “Don’t take vacations. What’s the point? If you’re not enjoying your work, you’re in the wrong job,” tweeted Trump in 2012 (Difazio, 2017).
But another glaring fact that President Donald J. Trump wants to hide and lie about is all the taxpayer money he is spending on all his travels in 2017. While the cost of individual trips may vary, Business Insider estimated that the six weekends (21 days, in total) Trump has spent at his Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida since becoming president added up to roughly $21.6 million. And if you make the comparison to that of President Obama who spent eight years in office his travel costs were much lower when Business Insider looked into the charges for President Obama. Back in December 2016, conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch found that Obama spent almost $97 million on travel during his two terms as president — about $12 million a year. The analysis included family vacations in Aspen and Martha’s Vineyard alongside work trips for trade negotiations in Cuba and an Earth Day speech in the Florida Everglades (Bondarenko, 2017). So congratulations President Trump, your math, and facts are still rather weak.
Facts are relevant, much like science-based and evidence-based facts are. When backed up by reliable data that is verified and checked no matter how one person like Kelly Ann Conway likes to spin the false points they will still be proven incorrect at a later date, and with today’s data technology you cannot ignore what is there. One has to consider that if we deviate from facts, we will all lose.
Stephen E Sauls
References
All False Statements Involving Donald Trump. (2017, December 29). Retrieved from Politifact: http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/statements/byruling/false/
Bondarenko, V. (2017, April 12). Trump Is On Track To Spend More On Travel This Year Than Obama Did In 8. Retrieved from Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-travel-spending-outspending-obama-millions-taxpayer-dollars-2017-4
Bump, P. (2017, December 29). 2017: The Year That There Was Always A Trump Tweet. Retrieved from Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/12/29/2017-the-year-that-there-was-always-a-trump-tweet/?utm_term=.fc3631f4fedf
Difazio, J. (2017, August 3). Trump’s Taken More Vacation Days to Date Than Obama During Presidency. Retrieved from International Business Times: http://www.ibtimes.com/trumps-taken-more-vacation-days-date-obama-during-presidency-2574250
Kessler, G. (2017, January 27). President Trump’s First Seven Days of False Claims, Inaccurate Statements, and Exaggerations. Retrieved from The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/01/27/president-trumps-first-seven-days-of-false-claims-inaccurate-statements-and-exaggerations/?utm_term=.d8f59af62b93
Kludt, T. (2017, December 27). Truck Blocks Cameras from Filming Trump on Golf Course. Retrieved from CNN Money: http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/27/media/truck-blocks-camera-trump-golf-course/index.html
What You Read is What You Get 