Written by Robert S. Becker   

PolitiFact Confirms Record-breaking Pants-on-Fire Lies

Stand aside, iconic American phonies, fakes, charlatans, and con artists who never boasted 24/7 cable TV and internet leverage to spread chicanery over gullible marks. Watch out Richard Nixon, George D. Bush or Dick Cheney for Trump is also rewriting the playbook for political perfidy, if not electioneering. All the more impressive since the Donald’s public resume is one big fat zero.

The Trump con pumps out assorted whoppers from his mouthy flame-thrower to fuel his absurd doomsday narrative — that all is practically lost. The result mocks what voters once held holy: minimum standards for credibility and expertise that buttress two old-fashioned ideas: character (read: no visible corruption) and competent governance.

Trump’s art of the con reduces the complex whole to a single swagger: not only is the US. foundering on the rocks, but only one savior, a selfless billionaire putting up his own cash, can deflect shipwreck. It’s either Trump or a permanent, fatal blow to our super-power status. In his words, this country “is a hellhole” that “is going down fast.” America “is in big trouble” and “never has victories anymore.” Once great in that lost golden age, the US is the 90 lb. weakling, the “laughingstock all over the world.” Our military is a “disaster,” our healthcare a “horror show.” “We have no borders. Our vets are being treated horribly. Illegal immigration is beyond belief.”

Well, “beyond belief” certainly fits Trump’s truthiness, with no more finesse than his political resume is empty. What’s far more believable, with abundant evidence, is this fact: DT lies more often and more calculatingly than the prior champion. Yes, that Dick Cheney, who spoke truthfully only 5% of the time per PolitiFact (in Trump’s league). But them compare each politician in terms of Pants-on-Fire deceptions: Cheney, all of 6%, vs. Trump’s 21%. More than three times the percentage of indefensible lies from Trump vs. Cheney. Beyond belief, wow!

That Trump’s flummery has staggered the GOP wing nut field, hardly teeming with truth-tellers, then forged his frontrunner status — that confirms truly championship hustling. What other charlatan with zero elected experience ever got this close? And imagine the bomb President Trump would drop on history, taking America down a road it’s never gone before. No prospect ever claimed the White House as his first elected office (aside from notable military paragons).

Yikes! The Lying Outlier

Though Trump’s bravado outlaws facts and fact-checking, that doesn’t banish reality or reason. PolitiFact independently tracks veracity of public claims, its top two categories being True or Mostly True, then Half-true, Mostly False, False, and finally, for shameless lying: the Pants-on-Fire imprimatur.

True or Mostly True -- Pants on Fire
Trump 6% 21%
Cruz 22% 5%
Sanders 53% 0%
Clinton 51% 1%
Rubio 37% 2%
Bush 47% 3%

Okay, pick the lying outlier. The total Trump report here, a jaw-dropping, truth-avoidance rate of 77% (across 69 public claims):

True 1 (1%)
Mostly True 5 (6%)
Mostly False 13 (16%)
False 33 (40%)
Pants on Fire 17 (21%)

History in the making, measured by prevarication in its own class, if not galaxy. Not only does Trump qualify as Political Liar of the Year, what politician tops him in our lifetime? In the last century? in American history? Get back to me. And fact-checking has to ignore the fistful of mean-spirited, cheap shots beyond true/false verification: “Cruz is nasty, no one likes him” or “Jeb suffers from low energy.”

Worst of all, though predictable for psychopaths, is Trump’s zero learning curve. All other figures, caught in some indefensible lies, deny it, scream misquotation, rush to fudge and change the subject. Not Donald, who doubles down, flame-throwing another lie at challengers large and small. It’s a remarkable con if you can find enough suckers so taken in by his “charm” they abandon asking what any 5th grader would, “is that true”?

Look, pathological liars (Bernie’s term0 don’t think they ever lie, and all corrections are disdained as fables concocted by “enemies.” We all know nasty narcissists (and yes, Trump gives narcissism a bad name) never doubt their brilliance, charisma, and power. Thus, endless delusions of grandeur, if not superiority. Trump the hero will dictate to Congress, the Supreme Court, China, India, and Russia. No blarney is too idiotic when in a zone with utterly plaint marks.

Style Trumps Substance

Reality is thus discarded when showmanship alone makes you convincing and genuine, with just enough truthiness (yes, money impacts politics, terrorists are dangerous) to season a crude bluntness. Donald’s polished playacting (as a practiced reality-show persona) obliterates any need for substance, thus his contempt for policy.

Mass, hypnotic delusion allows Trump to fabricate details because his audience buys the crass terms of his crass storyline: America’s wrecked, all officials are either boobs or craven hypocrites, and only electing the untouchable, incorruptible Trump will “make America great again.” The Democratic speech mantra should follow H. L. Mencken’s “No one went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”

When an amateur-political charlatan, dancing as fast as he can while stomping on truth, thrives in volatile polling, does that not encourage a free-for-all in subterfuge? “Republicans Have Surrendered to Donald Trump.” If every belligerence or sneer gets cheered, not the hook, this soul-sucking con man will just dance faster. Rarely has so much style and so little substance suckered so many gullible folks.

Trump Trumping Reality

It turns to that Trump’s comforting fictions sell better than hard truths when wounded losers seek to “make emotional sense” and offset understandable rage. They are not open to elite chatter about complex causes and complex proposals. Trump’s daunting daily challenge: deceive more convincingly and reductively than wimp establishment figures.

Could Trump’s witches brew of racism, anti-women, anti-immigration, anti-Muslim bigotry get him nominated? Then imagine the boost to his narcissism reading, already off the chart. That way invites the mayhem of erratic behavior that few billionaire buddies will find charming. And if he wins it all, who wouldn’t badmouth the Founders for not listing mastery of the great con as an impeachable offense? We also serve who only wait until the vanity balloon bursts.

And yet ripples from the Trump earthquake still could benefit the entire country — by driving a divisive stake through the GOP’s heart. Only a world-class hustler pulls off that welcome stunt. I fear downsides, but not Bernie Sanders going head to head with a Donald who likely refuses input from party pros he claims to scorn. Look how far he’s come!

A finale from Huffington Post, informing Trump’s PolitiFact's 2015 Lie of the Year: “Trump’s only real ideology is the Worship of the Donald, and he will do and say anything that appeals to the lowest common denominator . . . to attract [voter] support - the nation's id, the near-feral segment that breathes and lives on fear and paranoia and hatred.”

Even better, here’s proof that comedians see through transparent flummery:

“Trump says “he's sick and tired of the rest of the world laughing at the United States. Well, President Trump will certainly put an end to that!”—David Letterman.

“Trump said that he was running for president as a Republican. That's funny, because I thought he was running as a joke.”―Seth Meyers

“This is what I've been waiting for my whole life. A President who's not afraid to tell the truth about being a lying a**hole!”―Lewis Black