Trump’s Lies Are Toxic
This deserves loud pushback.
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February 10, 2026
Trump’s Lies Are Toxic
To stop exposing them allows them to metastasize.
Peter Dreier
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President Donald Trump gaggles with reporters while aboard Air Force One on February 6, 2026. (Samuel Corum / Getty Images)
By now, most Americans are used to Trump and his administration’s daily blizzard of lies. They aren’t simply exaggerations or mistakes. They are part of a sustained attack on the major pillars of American democracy—the courts, the media, the schools and universities, museums and cultural institutions, even sports—to intimidate people into submission so he can rule without guardrails, constitutional protections, checks and balances—or the truth.
In 2018, Steve Bannon, once Trump’s key political adviser, said that the president’s major adversary is the press and “the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.” When reporters expose his lies, or ask tough questions, Trump calls them “fake news.”
Trump emerged on the public stage in 1973 when he lied about a federal government report documenting that he discriminated against Blacks in his apartment buildings. It was well-known among New York gossip columnists and reporters that Trump lied about his wealth, his sexual affairs, and his business activities. From 2011 to 2016, Trump was a leading proponent of the discredited “birther” conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
He began his first presidential campaign with a lie that undocumented immigrants were responsible for a disproportionate share of violent crime—a claim he’s repeated often. “We looked at homicides, sexual assaults, violent crimes, property crimes, traffic and drug violations,” Michael Light, a University of Wisconsin sociologist, told USA Today. “And what we find across the board is that the undocumented tend to have lower rates of crimes with all of these types of offenses.”
Trump lied about the size of the crowd at his inauguration in 2017, which spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway justified by calling them “alternative facts.” (They weren’t facts, or even a different interpretation of facts. They were lies.) He lied about his 2019 phone call with Volodymr Zelensky, pledging military aid for Ukraine in exchange for coming up with dirt on Joe and Hunter Biden. He lied when he sent federal troops to Chicago, Portland, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Washington, DC, and Minneapolis by claiming they were overwhelmed by rising crime and violence when, in fact, crime in those cities has been declining. He lied that Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating pets in Ohio.
Lying has become so normal within the Trump administration that his top aides lie on …
This deserves loud pushback.
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Trump’s Lies Are Toxic
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Current Issue
February 10, 2026
Trump’s Lies Are Toxic
To stop exposing them allows them to metastasize.
Peter Dreier
Share
Copy Link
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Ad Policy
President Donald Trump gaggles with reporters while aboard Air Force One on February 6, 2026. (Samuel Corum / Getty Images)
By now, most Americans are used to Trump and his administration’s daily blizzard of lies. They aren’t simply exaggerations or mistakes. They are part of a sustained attack on the major pillars of American democracy—the courts, the media, the schools and universities, museums and cultural institutions, even sports—to intimidate people into submission so he can rule without guardrails, constitutional protections, checks and balances—or the truth.
In 2018, Steve Bannon, once Trump’s key political adviser, said that the president’s major adversary is the press and “the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.” When reporters expose his lies, or ask tough questions, Trump calls them “fake news.”
Trump emerged on the public stage in 1973 when he lied about a federal government report documenting that he discriminated against Blacks in his apartment buildings. It was well-known among New York gossip columnists and reporters that Trump lied about his wealth, his sexual affairs, and his business activities. From 2011 to 2016, Trump was a leading proponent of the discredited “birther” conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
He began his first presidential campaign with a lie that undocumented immigrants were responsible for a disproportionate share of violent crime—a claim he’s repeated often. “We looked at homicides, sexual assaults, violent crimes, property crimes, traffic and drug violations,” Michael Light, a University of Wisconsin sociologist, told USA Today. “And what we find across the board is that the undocumented tend to have lower rates of crimes with all of these types of offenses.”
Trump lied about the size of the crowd at his inauguration in 2017, which spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway justified by calling them “alternative facts.” (They weren’t facts, or even a different interpretation of facts. They were lies.) He lied about his 2019 phone call with Volodymr Zelensky, pledging military aid for Ukraine in exchange for coming up with dirt on Joe and Hunter Biden. He lied when he sent federal troops to Chicago, Portland, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Washington, DC, and Minneapolis by claiming they were overwhelmed by rising crime and violence when, in fact, crime in those cities has been declining. He lied that Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating pets in Ohio.
Lying has become so normal within the Trump administration that his top aides lie on …
Trump’s Lies Are Toxic
This deserves loud pushback.
Log In
Email *
Password *
Remember Me
Forgot Your Password?
Log In
New to The Nation? Subscribe
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Trump’s Lies Are Toxic
Magazine
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Search
Subscribe
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Magazine
Latest
Archive
Podcasts
Newsletters
Sections
Politics
World
Economy
Culture
Books & the Arts
The Nation
About
Events
Contact Us
Advertise
Current Issue
February 10, 2026
Trump’s Lies Are Toxic
To stop exposing them allows them to metastasize.
Peter Dreier
Share
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Email
Ad Policy
President Donald Trump gaggles with reporters while aboard Air Force One on February 6, 2026. (Samuel Corum / Getty Images)
By now, most Americans are used to Trump and his administration’s daily blizzard of lies. They aren’t simply exaggerations or mistakes. They are part of a sustained attack on the major pillars of American democracy—the courts, the media, the schools and universities, museums and cultural institutions, even sports—to intimidate people into submission so he can rule without guardrails, constitutional protections, checks and balances—or the truth.
In 2018, Steve Bannon, once Trump’s key political adviser, said that the president’s major adversary is the press and “the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.” When reporters expose his lies, or ask tough questions, Trump calls them “fake news.”
Trump emerged on the public stage in 1973 when he lied about a federal government report documenting that he discriminated against Blacks in his apartment buildings. It was well-known among New York gossip columnists and reporters that Trump lied about his wealth, his sexual affairs, and his business activities. From 2011 to 2016, Trump was a leading proponent of the discredited “birther” conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
He began his first presidential campaign with a lie that undocumented immigrants were responsible for a disproportionate share of violent crime—a claim he’s repeated often. “We looked at homicides, sexual assaults, violent crimes, property crimes, traffic and drug violations,” Michael Light, a University of Wisconsin sociologist, told USA Today. “And what we find across the board is that the undocumented tend to have lower rates of crimes with all of these types of offenses.”
Trump lied about the size of the crowd at his inauguration in 2017, which spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway justified by calling them “alternative facts.” (They weren’t facts, or even a different interpretation of facts. They were lies.) He lied about his 2019 phone call with Volodymr Zelensky, pledging military aid for Ukraine in exchange for coming up with dirt on Joe and Hunter Biden. He lied when he sent federal troops to Chicago, Portland, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Washington, DC, and Minneapolis by claiming they were overwhelmed by rising crime and violence when, in fact, crime in those cities has been declining. He lied that Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating pets in Ohio.
Lying has become so normal within the Trump administration that his top aides lie on …
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