Trump’s Lying Disease is Contagious: Several Outbreaks Among His Cabinet

President Donald Trump’s addiction to lying is notorious. He made 30,573 significant public lies during his first administration. Trump 2.0 is maintaining this daily pace. Here are a few of his most recent falsehoods.

Trump’s commitment to reduce the costs of groceries, gasoline, rent, etc. was the biggest political factor in his electoral victory last November. The president promised a new “golden age” for the American economy. Nevertheless, polls that came out as his regime reached its 100-day mark all show that voters are not happy with the lack of progress achieved on reducing inflation. It is appropriate for the president to comment on current economic data. It is wrong to lie about it. Last Thursday, he said gas prices “hit $1.98 yesterday in a couple of states.” That wasn’t true according to information from AAA. No state has an average gas price below $2.70 per gallon. The national average is $3.17 per gallon.
On the campaign trail, Trump had promised he would reduce the price of groceries on “Day One” of his administration. On Thursday he claimed that grocery prices “were down”. That was also a lie. Average grocery prices in March were up about 0.49% from February, according to the federal Consumer Price Index, which was the biggest month-to-month jump since October 2022.
When asked about a possible recession, Trump reluctantly acknowledged that children don’t need thirty dolls for Christmas, maybe just two, and just five pencils, not over a hundred. So, what is it? The best economy ever…or get ready for empty shelves?
Readers are aware of the Kilmar Abrego Garcia story. He is the man in Maryland who, due to an “administrative mistake”, was illegally deported to El Salvador for imprisonment. The Supreme Court intervened and voted (9 to zero!) that Trump must “facilitate” his return to the United States. Trump and his staff responded that it was out of their control. The decision was in the hands of the Salvadoran president, Nayib Bukele. Even the most ardent MAGA supporters knew that Trump was blatantly lying. How could the president of the world’s most powerful country not pressure a friendly small Central American country to return a prisoner, especially given the fact that we are paying El Salvador millions of dollars to house our prisoners? More recently, in an interview with ABC’s Terry Moran, Trump admitted that he could make a phone call to Bukele and get Abrego Garcia immediately returned.

Trump’s addiction to lying seems to be contagious. The tendency to lie is a disease that is spreading throughout his cabinet. Here are some key figures in the Trump regime who have fallen victim to the lying disease.

Pam Bondi is our country’s Attorney General. Last week (on April 30) she claimed that in President Trump’s first 100 days in office, drug enforcement officials had seized millions of pills and thousands of kilos of fentanyl, thereby saving “258 million lives” in the United States. This figure is “incredible” (as in the sense of being “unbelievable”) because it would be equivalent to 75% of our U.S. population.
Elon Musk, Trump’s choice to head up the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE), had claimed on the campaign trail that he would save $2 trillion by cutting wasteful government spending. As recently as March 27, 2025 on Fox News he lowered this estimate to $1 trillion. Then a month ago, at the April 10 cabinet meeting, he affirmed, “I’m excited to announce that we anticipate savings in FY 26 from reduction of waste and fraud by $150 billion.” I guess he thinks changing the “t” in trillion to a “b” in billion is a small change that wouldn’t be noticed by most voters, when in fact, the real savings are a miniscule percentage of what he originally promised.
The GDP report brought the bleak news that Trump’s policies had thrown the economy into reverse, turning the 2.4 percent annualized GDP growth of the last quarter of 2024 into a 0.3 percent contraction in the first quarter of 2025. It ended nearly three years of steady expansion. Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro was gushing in the midst of his lies when he announced that the report was “very, very good and quite encouraging … huge, literally off the charts … good, strong news … all things are good. So we felt really good about that number.” In another three months we will have another GDP report. If it is equally “good”, we will officially be in a recession.

As my wise dad used to say, “figures never lie, but liars do figure.” Therefore, Democrats, be careful what air you breathe. The lie disease is spreading, especially in D.C. Cabinet members, get some courage. Truth and integrity are more important than a fake “loyalty”.

Why Would Anyone Trust Trump on Trade and Tariffs? “BE COOL” is Not an Adequate Answer

Why Would Anyone Trust Trump on Trade and Tariffs? “BE COOL” is Not an Adequate Answer

This has been a chaotic week for the U.S. economy. Late in the afternoon on Wednesday, April 2, President Trump announced sweeping tariff hikes across the board with all of the United States trading partners (except Russia). The president proclaimed this “Liberation Day” in which he would level the economic playing field, by applying reciprocal tariffs on goods imported into the U.S. equal to the percentage that countries impose on our exports. (The conservative Cato Institute sharply criticized the administration for inflating the percentages. For example, Trump claimed that India imposed a 52% tariff on U.S. goods, although the real amount was 12%.) The Dow Jones fell 1679 points, a 4% decline. The NASDAQ fell almost 6% and the Standard and Poor sank 4.8%. On Friday, they continued their decline. Over the weekend, national and international stock exchanges continued to crash. Leading economic advisers predicted that a recession was more likely than not. This past Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted “BE COOL” trying to persuade investors to start buying stocks and not to continue the sell-off. The situation became even more dire. Retirees saw their savings decline by over 10%. By noon, Trump knew he had to do something. He announced a ninety-day pause on almost all of the tariffs. (Some say, “he flinched”, or “he caved”, or “he retreated”. The Dow Jones which had been down a thousand points skyrocketed, and set a record for the largest turnaround in a single day. People hoped that the surge would continue yesterday (Thursday). It did not, because a China – U.S. trade war still looms on the horizon. China has imposed a tariff of 125% on U.S. products whereas Trump has placed a tariff/tax of 145% on Chinese items. The Dow Jones sank another 1000 points.

Trump’s tragic history with businesses – Anyone who knows the history of Donald Trump, the businessman, should not want him to be the CEO of our national economy. Although Trump has never filed for personal bankruptcy, he has filed for chapter eleven corporate bankruptcy on six of his companies:

1991: Trump Taj Mahal
1992: Trump Castle Hotel & Casino
1992: Trump Plaza Casino
1992: Trump Plaza Hotel
2004: Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts
2009: Trump Entertainment Resorts

Apparently, Trump has not learned from these mistakes. In fact, he does not even admit that they were mistakes. He claims these were savvy business practices. He personally did not lose much money…, his stock owning partners had colossal losses. These bankruptcies do not include the now defunct Trump University in which Trump was ordered to pay $25 million to the students who were swindled.

Some Trump supporters like to refer to his first presidential term (2017-2021) as a wonderful economic “success”. Nothing could be further from the truth! During that administration, Trump increase the national debt by $7.8 trillion. This was the largest increase in the national debt ever by a president in a four-year period! (Whether individually or nationally, irresponsible people can be “successful and happy” if they don’t have to pay the bills.)

Where Do We Go From Here?

This economic crisis is not due to a Covid 19 pandemic nor due to a natural disaster. This came about due to the irrational decision by one man, Donald J. Trump… and his “yes men” (like convicted trade adviser Peter Navarro). Elon Musk has repeatedly called Navarro a “moron”. It remains to be seen which man, Musk or Navarro, will win this squabble and which one will have to leave.

Trump is enamored with tariffs and has been for a long time. The overwhelming majority of trained economists disagree with Trump. Tariffs are taxes which are paid by importers, who then pass along these added expenses to the prices for consumers. Tariffs go against the logic of “comparative advantage” of free market capitalism. Tariffs are a form of protectionism which rewards inefficient national industries. This is why conservative economists oppose tariffs. On this issue, liberal economists agree with their conservative counterparts.

The trade war will probably continue until either the U.S. or the Chinese economy approaches the breaking point, because the Chinese and Trump are very stubborn. After pronouncing the beautiful economic benefits of tariffs, it is extremely difficult for Trump to walk back this policy and now to acknowledge it was mistake. But if inflation starts rising dramatically and/or if we enter into a recession, his supporters will demand he reverse his tariff policy. Maybe Trump and the Chinese can reach an agreement on a low reciprocal tariff. Let’s hope so.

I urge my MAGA friends and readers to examine the facts and to evaluate Trump by the consequences of his economic actions.

The Coronavirus and a Bad Week for “Trump’s” Stock Market

Over the past three years, President Trump has been repeatedly warned not to take too much credit for the rise in the stock market. If he claimed that he and his policies were the main reason for its gains, he would also have to ¨own¨ that same market if an unexpected plunge would bring the market down. His unmerited praise in the good times could easily be outweighed by undeserved criticism for bad conditions beyond his control.

The truth of the matter is that Trump inherited a strong economy from the Obama administration. For example, in the last 19 months of Obama’s administration, 3.9 million jobs were created in the U.S., whereas 3.6 million jobs were created in the first 19 months of Trump’s presidency. (In my next blog, I will analyze the tax cut, the national debt and other aspects of our economy, but here I want to concentrate on the Coronavirus and the stock market.)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit an all time high on Wednesday, February 19. It closed that afternoon at 29,348.03 Although there was an awareness of the negative economic effects of the Coronavirus, the White House and many economic pundits believed that the negative impact would largely be limited to China. Small drops in the Dow Jones were expected to occur and that is precisely what happened last week. Nevertheless, the harsh economic reality hit with a vengeance on Monday, February 24, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than a thousand points to a close at 27,960.80 (a decline of more than 3%).

It was widely predicted that the Dow Jones would rebound on Tuesday. That turn around did not materialize and the market continued to fall another 880 points.

The Dow Jones index dropped another 125 points on Wednesday which prompted President Trump to present a special televised message to the nation later that evening. His message was to show to a concerned citizenry and a jittery market that the administration was in control of the Coronavirus situation. In response to the criticism that the administration´s response was in shambles, Trump appointed Vice President Pence to be the ¨Czar¨ of the situation. Trump´s message was not his best. He rambled, repeated himself, and made misleading comments about the Coronavirus being similar to the flu. He claimed that it was not inevitable that the virus would extend widely throughout the U.S., thus contradicting what his own CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) had announced that it was not a question of IF the Coronavirus would spread in the United States, but WHEN it would do so.

Far from calming his public, the Dow Jones dropped another 1190 points on Thursday to close at 25,766.64. This was the largest one-day point drop in the history of the Dow Jones. In a strange twist on the fable about the boy who cried wolf, President Trump has a credibility problem with half of the American public. The more he affirms, ¨Everything is great¨, ¨we have it under control¨, and ¨we are totally prepared¨, the less our citizens believe him. I don’t believe him. More importantly, investors don´t believe him.

On Friday, the nose dive of the Dow Jones continued. It dropped another 357 points to close at 25,409.36. It was the worst one week decline since the economic crisis of 2008. From its high on February 19, it has fallen 15%. Most economic and political pundits believe (hope?) that the bottom has been reached and that the value of the stocks will soon rise again. Nevertheless, here is what we need to keep in mind if we want to move forward:

We must not minimize the personal tragedy. Almost three thousand people have already died from the virus and over 82,000 have been infected worldwide.
Vice President Mike Pence, the new ¨Czar¨ charged with heading the fight against the virus, needs to surround himself with credible medical health experts. When Pence was governor of Indiana, he made several troublesome medical health comments like ¨Cigarettes do not cause cancer¨.
President Trump must be more honest and transparent with the American public. He has muzzled government scientists and health officials to get clearance with Pence´s office before they communicate with the media. This censorship does not inspire confidence.
The coronavirus is not the sole reason for the Dow Jones fall. Most stock market experts agree that the market was overvalued and was in need of a ¨correction¨. Before the virus hit, many countries around the world were sliding into a recession. That is now more likely. The trade war with China had already weakened the economies of that country and the U.S. The relationship between our economic growth and our huge national debt is at a very dangerous level. As a country, our expenses are much higher than our income. We are paying for our lavish lifestyle by borrowing from future generations.
The economy has a huge political impact. Remember Clinton’s political slogan, “It’s the economy, stupid.” Trump’s political fortunes will rise or fall on how his administration handles this crisis. For better or for worse, Trump “owns” this economy.