Fox News attempted to spin President Donald Trump’s rambling, lie-filled speech to the United Nations on Tuesday, praising the moment as “raw truth” despite the embarrassing display.
At the conclusion of Trump’s speech, Fox anchor Harris Faulkner said, “President Trump has been speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. He unfurled raw truth to countries in attendance there and to the rest of the world.”
But Trump had just completed a tour de force of lying.
The fact-checking website PolitiFact did a live blog as Trump spoke and their entries showed that more often than not, when Trump’s lips were moving he wasn’t telling the truth.
For instance, Trump claimed that his current approval ratings are “the highest poll numbers I’ve ever had.” In reality, Trump’s approval is at 41.9% in aggregate, and the outlet noted, “Trump’s approval ratings across a wide range of polls are both lower than his historical highs and low compared with many other post-World War II presidents.”
Trump alleged that Washington, D.C., was the “crime capital of America” when he took office, but D.C.’s crime rate has been trending down and other cities like Memphis and Kansas City have higher rates.
He lied when claiming 300,000 migrant children were “lost” under the Biden administration. He lied about gas prices “coming way down”—they’re up since he was inaugurated in January. Trump claimed that China has “very few wind farms” but that nation has three times as many the wind farms as the U.S.
Trump also alleged that 300,000 people died due to drug overdoses in the past year, a fake statistic he used to justify his use of the military to bomb boats in the Atlantic. PolitiFact noted that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows that there were 43,000 deaths due to opioids, a tragic figure but far less than Trump’s made-up claim.
Trump also regurgitated his false assertion that he ended “seven unendable wars” since he took office.
Contrary to Fox News’ spin, the speech was a cringe-inducing spectacle. Aside from the lying, Trump used one of the highest-profile international platforms to berate the rest of the world.
“Your countries are going to hell,” he said as scores of world representatives looked on, stone-faced.
He even whined about teleprompter and elevator malfunctions that he had to deal with before delivering his diatribe.
Fox News has acted as Trump’s enabler for the entirety of his time as a political figure, making up wins that are clearly losses while he raids the network for unqualified people to install in his Cabinet.
It’s no surprise that Fox News only saw “truth” where America and the world saw lie after lie.
