So, Facts Just Don’t Matter Anymore

In a shocking turn of events, Donald Trump lied during his first joint address to Congress of his second term.

Let’s go through some of the biggest and have a review of a lesson that most 5-year-olds know; don’t lie.

Multiple times during the longest joint address to Congress, Trump falsely claimed that the economy was one of the worst when he came into office. However, the economy grew at a 2.3% annual rate. Wages also increased, and unemployment decreased to 4% which is the lowest it has been in almost 50 years, according to The New York Times.

Trump also claimed to have ended government censorship and brought back free speech. This claim comes as he has banned the Associated Press from the White House for not referring to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America”.

Trump also made a post on Truth Social yesterday saying that he was outlawing “illegal protests” on college and university campuses. However, under the First Amendment, all citizens in the United States have the right to peacefully protest and assemble, making outlawing protests illegal.

When talking about the environment, Trump wrongly claimed that the Biden administration shut down “more than 100 power plants.” In fact, the Biden administration opened up more power plants, having 2,187 more power plants in 2023 than in 2020, according to data from the Energy Information Administration.

He also claimed that his election was a “mandate” from the American people and that he won by “big numbers” . Trump won the popular vote by 1.6% which is one of the smallest margins since 1960.

Trump also wrongly claimed that he ended the “weaponization” of the Justice Department without any evidence that the Biden administration used the Department of Justice in this way.

One of the biggest highlights of the night was Trump making several false claims about “fraud” that the new Department of Government Efficiency – or DOGE – has gotten rid of.

He said that the department found “$20 million going to fund an Arab Sesame Street in the Middle East,” which is an incorrect claim as the program was funded by a grant from the MacArthur Foundation with more funding coming from the LEGO Foundation.

Trump claimed that the government spent “$59 million for illegal alien hotel rooms in New York City” which is not correct. The city was awarded a grant from Congress under the Shelter and Services Program and the city paid for the rooms at a cost of $156 per day.

One of the many lessons you learn as a young child is to tell the truth, to be honest, to not lie. We are raised on the story of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”, warning us about what will happen if we continuously lie. When we are little, we learn the tale about George Washington being honest about chopping down the cherry tree.

But what do we do when the leader of our country addresses the nation, and by extension the world, and virtually the entire speech is filled with lies and exaggerated claims?

The answer: We continue to call it out.

No matter how many times he lies, it is important to continue to call out the lies and to fact-check what our leaders say. We cannot normalize the lies. Instead, we need to normalize the truth.

Truth matters. Facts matter. Little kids can tell you that. Why can’t adults grasp the same thing? Why do so many people blindly follow political leaders without once thinking to check what they are saying?

How can we tell our nation’s children that it is important to be honest and tell the truth when our leaders seem to be unable to do the same thing?

We must continue to speak out against the lies. It is more important than ever to hold leaders accountable and to say that lying is never acceptable. It wasn’t acceptable for Nixon. It wasn’t acceptable for Clinton. There is no reason it should be acceptable now.

Facts still matter and they will always matter.