Schwartz elaborated, “the millions of people who voted for him and believe that he represents their interests will learn what anyone who deals closely with him already knows—that he couldn’t care less about them.”
Trump claimed at an Alabama rally that he watched thousands cheer on 9/11, ostensibly Muslims.
I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down. And I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering.
He later doubled down on his claim when questioned about its validity, citing a 2001 Washington Post story by Serge Kovaleski.
In Jersey City, within hours of two jetliners’ plowing into the World Trade Center, law enforcement authorities detained and questioned a number of people who were allegedly seen celebrating the attacks and holding tailgate-style parties on rooftops while they watched the devastation on the other side of the river.
Serge Kovaleski retorted that his writing of the alleged “number of people” was not the hundreds and thousands Trump claimed, nor would it be possible for Trump to have personally witnessed as much.
At a subsequent rally, Trump launched into an attack on Kovaleski, mocking him so as to seemingly imitate Kovaleski’s disability.
Now, the poor guy, you’ve got to see this guy: “Uhh, I don’t know what I said. Uhh, I don’t remember,” he’s going like “I don’t remember. Maybe that’s what I said.”
Trump repeated the claim about mass celebrations in New Jersey several times, including during an interview with Alex Jones. He also famously bragged about his building being the tallest on 9/11, though his claim was untrue.
The Washington Post – Trump’s outrageous claim that ‘thousands’ of New Jersey Muslims celebrated the 9/11 attacks
The Guardian – Donald Trump: I was ‘100% right’ about Muslims cheering 9/11 attacks
Politifact – Fact-checking Trump’s claim that thousands in New Jersey cheered when World Trade Center tumbled
Among Trump’s claims were that he saw Muslims cheering 9/11, that he had predicted the rise of Osama bin Laden, that he was initially against the Iraq War, and that other countries would respect and like America more with him as President. Trump concluded the interview by praising Jones’ reputation, despite Jones being notorious for his unhinged temperament and rampant propagation of conspiracy theories.
Factba.se – InfoWars: Alex Jones Interviews Donald Trump – December 2, 2015
The Washington Post – How Alex Jones, conspiracy theorist extraordinaire, got Donald Trump’s ear
Wikipedia – Alex Jones
In 2015, Trump said the official unemployment figure of about 5% was “such a phony number.” claiming it to be around 20%.
After winning election, he used the same official metrics he derided as “phony” to boast about his positive impact on the economy.
NPR – Ahead Of Trump’s First Jobs Report, A Look At His Remarks On The Numbers
Politifact – Donald Trump says the unemployment rate may be 42 percent
During his presidential announcement speech, Trump said, “The last quarter, it was just announced, our gross domestic product — a sign of strength, right? But not for us. It was below zero. Who ever heard of this? It’s never below zero.”
While Trump was likely referring to percent change in GDP, that too has been below zero many times in the past.
Business Insider – Donald Trump says GDP is ‘never’ below 0%… except it’s below 0% all the time
Politifact – Donald Trump gets claim about U.S. GDP doubly wrong
During a phone call amid the 2016 campaign, Trump said,
I do whine because I want to win and I’m not happy about not winning and I am a whiner and I keep whining and whining until I win.
Trump has described his temperament as not having changed much since the first grade.
CNN – Donald Trump: ‘I keep whining and whining until I win’
Trump used an acting firm to source attendees for his presidential campaign announcement, and to clap and cheer. He paid $50 per person.
The campaign delayed payment to the acting firm until legal action was threatened.
Corey Lewandowski, campaign manager at the time, denied the claim during Trump’s presidency:
“There is nobody who believes that when Donald Trump goes somewhere he does not generate the biggest, largest, and most rambunctious crowds on the planet.”
After losing the election, Lewandowski admitted that actors had been hired:
“Michael Cohen decided that he was going to go hire one of his buddies and pay his buddy without getting any campaign approval. You know, $50 for every person to come in, to stand in Trump Tower.”
Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer, later implicated the President in felony campaign finance violations related to money paid to silence Stormy Daniels, with whom Trump had an affair.
The Hill – Trump paid actors to cheer his 2016 launch: report
The Washington Post – Even the firm that hired actors to cheer Trump’s campaign launch had to wait to be paid
Business Insider – Trump aide says they paid actors to appear at his 2016 presidential campaign announcement
On July 19, 2016, candidate Donald Trump gave a speech at Sun City’s Magnolia Hall in South Carolina. In trying to criticize Obama’s Iranian nuclear deal, Trump launched into a run-on sentence that became famous across news and social media.
Look, having nuclear—my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart—you know, if you’re a conservative Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I’m one of the smartest people anywhere in the world—it’s true!—but when you’re a conservative Republican they try—oh, do they do a number—that’s why I always start off: Went to Wharton, was a good student, went there, went there, did this, built a fortune—you know I have to give my like credentials all the time, because we’re a little disadvantaged—but you look at the nuclear deal, the thing that really bothers me—it would have been so easy, and it’s not as important as these lives are (nuclear is powerful; my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power and that was 35 years ago; he would explain the power of what’s going to happen and he was right—who would have thought?), but when you look at what’s going on with the four prisoners—now it used to be three, now it’s four—but when it was three and even now, I would have said it’s all in the messenger; fellas, and it is fellas because, you know, they don’t, they haven’t figured that the women are smarter right now than the men, so, you know, it’s gonna take them about another 150 years—but the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians are great negotiators, so, and they, they just killed, they just killed us.
The New Yorker – Donald Trump’s Nuclear Uncle
Snopes – Donald Trump’s ‘Nuclear’ Speech
Trump made the comment during a speech in Iowa two weeks before the state’s primary election. Trump came in second, about 3% behind Texas US Senator Ted Cruz.
NPR – Donald Trump: ‘I Could … Shoot Somebody, And I Wouldn’t Lose Any Voters’
Politico – Trump: I could ‘shoot somebody’ and I wouldn’t lose voters
Wikipedia – 2016 Iowa Republican caucuses
In a 2014 discussion with his biographer Michael D’Antonio, Trump explained,
When I look at myself in the first grade and I look at myself now, I’m basically the same. The temperament is not that different.
However, he has also asserted that he had the best temperament of anyone who has ran for President.
In other discussions with his biographer, Trump noted how as a child he enjoyed fighting, which was one of the reasons he was sent to a military academy.
He has also described himself as a “whiner,” and taken shots at over Twitter at all his “haters,” even on the anniversary of 9/11.
Politico – What I Learned Writing Trump’s Biography
The Washington Post – The scariest thing I found out about Donald Trump yesterday
The Week – Donald Trump tells biographer he’s the same now as he was in first grade
