The White House let Trump speak to reporters for eight and a half minutes, and the result was a portrait of a president who is untethered from reality.
Video:
Transcript provided to PoliticusUSA by The White House:
Q What did you mean when you said you don’t have an Attorney General? What did you mean by that?
THE PRESIDENT: I’m disappointed in the Attorney General for numerous reasons. But we have an Attorney General. I’m disappointed in the Attorney General for many reasons. And you understand that.
Q Are you going to fire Jeff Sessions?
THE PRESIDENT: We are looking at lots of different things. I have a great Cabinet. We have the greatest economy ever in the history of our country. So we’re very happy with the way things are running, generally speaking. I don’t think we’ve ever had an economy like this. Somebody was on just this morning, from Reagan — from the Reagan White House. He said this is one of the great economies in history. So we’re very happy.
Trump said things that were not even close to reality
The AP fact checked Trump‘s claim that his economy is the greatest of all time and found:
As for growth, in the 1990s boom, still the longest on record, the U.S. economy expanded at an average annual pace of 4.3 percent for five years, from 1996 through 2000. In the 1980s, growth averaged 4.6 percent annually from 1983 through 1987. While the economy has picked up from 2016, its best showing since Trump took office was 3.2 percent in last year’s third quarter.
And in the late 1990s, a greater proportion of Americans had jobs than they do now. In May, 79.2 percent of people in their prime working years — aged 25 through 54 — were working. That’s down from a record high of 81.9 percent in April 2000, or about 3.4 million fewer people with jobs. The unemployment rate has fallen as far as it has partly because many Americans have given up looking for work.
Trump also falsely claimed that the FBI couldn’t investigate the sexual assault allegation against Brett Kavanaugh again. (They can. Trump just has to ask.) Trump also claimed that war with North Korea was “inevitable” before he took office. (It wasn’t.)
These weren’t just false statements. Trump isn’t living in reality
It used to be that people would take Trump‘s statements and fact check them based on truthfulness, but with the wave of new reporting that has come out on Trump‘s mental state in the last few months, it is time to look at the words of this president from a different perspective.
Donald Trump believes what he is saying. Trump thinks that what he says is a reflection of reality.
Trump isn’t just lying for political spin or gain. This is what he believes.
The president spoke to reporters for less than ten minutes, and in that time revealed a broken mind that should not be leading this country.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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