President Trump has made many speeches and tweeted hundreds of times, but his two most important speeches in his first year were his inaugural address and the State of the Union speech. The inaugural address offered his underlying justification for policies highlighted a year later in his State of the Union speech.
In his first speech, he described the America that he inherited from President Obama as the “American carnage,” a country decimated due to poverty, shattered dreams, disloyalty to the country, crime, gangs and drugs in our cities, a “sad depletion of our military,” and an unwillingness to defend our borders. To correct these horrors, Trump called for “total allegiance” to the United States.
His “America First” ideology is meant to counter the alleged carnage that ravaged our country. In his first year in power, Trump declared, “We have made incredible progress and achieved extraordinary success.” In his State of the Union address, Trump listed numerous achievements but, according to The New York Times and other media fact checkers, most were either outright lies or deceptive.
Here are his primary false or misleading claims:
1. “After years of wage stagnation, we are finally seeing rising wages.”
Wages are rising at a slower rate compared to the last year of Obama.
2. “Many car companies are now building and expanding plants in the United States — something we have not seen for decades.”
According to The New York Times, this claim is an exaggeration. Many companies had been planning to expand in the past several years and automotive employment actually has dropped since he’s been president.
3. “We have ended the war on American energy — and we have ended the war on beautiful, clean coal. We are now very proudly an exporter of energy to the world.”
There has been no war on U.S. energy or coal in particular. While the U.S. became a net exporter of natural gas in 2017, it still is a net importer of oil. The U.S. is projected to be a net energy exporter in the next 10 years.
4. “The third pillar (of his immigration plan) ends the visa lottery — a program that randomly hands out green cards without any regard for skill, merit or the safety of our people.”
Actually, people who receive these visas must have a high school education or two years of work experience in the past five. Additionally, these applicants must undergo a medical exam, cannot have a criminal record and must go through a multi-month background check.
5. “We enacted the biggest tax cuts and reform in American history.”
Trump has repeatedly made this false claim. Trump’s tax cut actually is only the fifth largest since the 1960s and 12th largest in American history, as a share of the economy.
6. After his address, Trump tweeted that “45.6 million people watched, the highest number in history.”
Actually, the number of viewers was lower then the previous three presidents for their first State of the Union address.
Three lessons can be drawn from this analysis. First, Trump not only consistently lies, but he can as easily make false claims about major issues, such as carnage in America, the state of our military, border control and a disloyal public, as he can about minor issues, such as the size of his viewing audience.
Second, the problem is not simply of Trump’s ability to freely and consistently lie. The other problem is how society reacts to his unethical behavior. Some of the public already has lowered the ethical bar for Trump.
In the past year, his supporters have justified ignoring his lying personality by claiming, “Words have no meaning, only results.” “Don’t take his tweets so seriously.” Or, “It’s just locker room talk.” Would any organization permit a compulsive liar for pastor, CEO or teacher, much less the president?
Third, the most important consequence from Trump’s facile ability to distort and to lie is his impact on the legitimacy of the office he holds. His actions have denigrated the office of the presidency. The fabric of our political culture is woven into the legitimacy that we hold towards this office but also how the president views the office. His behavior weakens the credibility and the legitimacy of the office of the president.
We must stop lowering our standards and making excuses for the person who resides in the White House. We should and must expect more from the president of the United States and ensure high standards for the office of the presidency.
Howard Lehman | The University of Utah
Howard Lehman is a professor in the department of political science at the University of Utah.