Trump’s Lies: 3,000 X 3 X 23 X 2, or 3,000 X 2 X 2.8 million
Let us look at the total effect of Trump’s lies by the end of his term of office, compounded by the best liars in the country that he could find to head the cabinet and deputy cabinet positions. Then we will consider the new rules of the agencies requiring everyone in the federal government to lie.
The news media is satisfied with reporting Trump’s lies to date as President, about a third of the way through his term. Apparently, 3,000 lies to date is not yet considered a High Crime by the Republicans in the House or Senate. Or, it would require a two-thirds vote by both Houses, under the 25th Amendment, that the “President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office”. To start the math off, we consider the projected lies until the end of Trump’s term, by multiplying by 3 to get 9,000. Remember, many of these lies are not trivial, like Trump’s description of countries of the continent of Africa, or of the people of Mexico, or of Muslims.
Trump has chosen the absolute best degraders of the regulations of each federal agency that could be found. Not only do they lie constantly, but Trump has also appointed the next best liars as their deputies. Starting with the Vice President, there are 15 Cabinet heads, and 7 other cabinet rank agency heads, like Scott Pruitt of the EPA, agents of Trump fully licensed to slay the truth. That gives 1+15+7 = 23, a venerable armada of professional, industry driven, liars. Oh, and times 2, for their industry ruled deputies. Departments often have 5 to 10 political appointees, which should also be held in our minds.
So in the minimum count, we have 3,000 X 3 X 23 X 2 = (pause for needing a calculator) = 414,000 lies. Take that, CNN and NBC and NY Times and Washington Post. Note that I didn’t even have to include the White House Press office or Trump’s lawyers or Trump’s army of TV talking heads or the NRA or other conservative Think Tanks, or the Koch brother’s door to door tax cut salesmen.
But WAIT! There’s Now More! The US Department of the Interior’s Principal Deputy Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service (whew), Greg Sheehan, in a memo last month, declared that it’s “not appropriate” for staff to tell developers to obtain a permit when their development may affect habitats of endangered species (paraphrased from and much thanks to Huffington Post’s Mary Papenfuss, May 4, 2018). In another approach, EPA Administrator has banned all confidential medical studies for evidence of the horrendous health effects of air and water pollution. This approach, to be applied throughout the federal government, makes all 2.8 million federal employees complicit in subverting the clear nation’s laws by at least lying by omission.
The new math, soiling the dedication of federal employees in their chosen field of protecting the public and the natural environment, is to replace the 23 X 2 chosen agency destructors, by all 2.8 million federal employees. Since this is only going to affect them through the latter 2/3 of Trump’s term, we include that, to get:
3,000 X 3 X 2/3 X 2.8 million = (calculator time) = 16.8 billion lies by omission. Unfortunately, it is the dedicated federal workers and the American public that have to take this one.
