Donald Trump has lied in debates, misled interviewers, and circulated outrageous personal and political conspiracy theories throughout his presidential campaign. But in his foreign policy speech yesterday he took dishonestly to a new level, unleashing a barrage of untruths and misleading information.
Here are Trumps top 9 lies in his foreign policy Speech yesterday via VOX (read more):
1) Trump: There’s no screening for refugees coming to the US
There is an extensive, onerous screening process for refugees who come to America. You can see so yourself here.
2) Trump criticizes Libya intervention, supported it himself
Trump has repeatedly characterized Libya as a unique failure of President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy. But he actively supported that intervention, even though he’s spent much of his candidacy pretending he didn’t.
3) Trump: Clinton wants to admit “hundreds of thousands” of refugees to the US
Trump is wrong here as well: Clinton has only called for increasing the number of Syrian refugees by 65,000, according to CNN.
4) Trump: The Orlando shooter was “born in Afghan”
Omar Saddiqui Mateen, the killer, was born in New York and raised in Florida.
5) “Large numbers” of Somali refugees joining ISIS
This dramatically misrepresents the number of Somali refugees from the US who have joined ISIS, which a New York Times story pegs at no more than 15.
6) Obama’s “famous apology tour” created ISIS
Trump is just drawing a direct link from Obama “apology tour” to the birth of ISIS, and I’m not aware of any serious attempt to connect the two. Trump certainly doesn’t give any reason to believe they’re related.
Even if you look at the supposed apologies that have to do with Islamic terrorism or the Muslim world, it’s not clear how they could have possibly created ISIS.
7) Hillary Clinton wants to ban guns
Clinton has not called for anything remotely resembling a ban on guns — she wants to ban assault weapons but has otherwise not called for a gun ban. Someone listening to Trump’s speech would have come away with an entirely wrong idea of her policy.
8) Trump’s criticism on pushing for regime change in Syria
As with his initial approval of the Libya invasion, Trump has grossly distorted his record on Syria. He once called for a “big, beautiful safe zone” in the country.
The weirder, specific problem here is the knock on Clinton and Obama for creating ISIS by “pushing for the overthrow of the regime in Syria” when Trump has himself called for ground troops in Syria.
9) Trump suggests Muslims need to do more to help fight terrorism
This line revives a long-running Trump suggestion that Muslims are largely to blame for not really joining us in the fight against terrorism.
“The statistics are clear,” Vox’s Beauchamp wrote in March. “In the US, Muslim communities have been extraordinarily forthcoming with the police in terrorism cases.”
Trump could very well be a pathological liar, and this he is not fit to be President considering all of the above and the seriousness of the subject matter.