Trump lies about everything from Ebola to Bernie Sanders in India press conference

Donald Trump’s short trip to India concluded on Tuesday with a news conference during which he spent 45 minutes spewing lies and crafting new conspiracy theories to help in his quest for reelection.

Here are the biggest lies and absurd statements Trump made at the news conference:

On Monday’s the stock market plunge

Trump said Monday’s stock market dive was because investors fear there’s a “real chance” that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will win the presidency.

But the 1,000 point loss in the Dow Jones Industrial Average was not Sanders’ fault at all, according to experts.

MarketWatch attributed the drop to investors concerned about the impact of COVID-19 on the global economy, fearing that the spreading virus could disrupt economic growth.

“Markets were betting that the coronavirus was going to be contained in China, and that we would see some V-shaped recovery. But as headlines on the virus spread have come out, there’s uncertainty how far this will go,” Keith Lerner, chief market strategist for SunTrust Advisory Services, told MarketWatch.

On COVID-19

Trump also lied about how widespread the virus is within the United States.

“We’re really down to probably about 10,” Trump said, referring to the number of cases of the virus in the country.

As of just four days ago, there were at least 34 cases in the United States, according to federal health officials, and doctors fear more cases are coming.

On Ebola

Reporters went on to ask Trump about why he is OK with allowing people with COVID-10 to come back to the United States currently but was not OK in 2014 when Americans with the Ebola virus were allowed to come back to the U.S.

At the time, Trump said former President Barack Obama was “incompetent” for allowing Ebola patients to come to the country, and was asked why he is not similarly incompetent for allowing COVID-19 patients in.

In his answer, Trump lied, saying that everyone who got Ebola died and that’s not the case with the new coronavirus.

“The level of death at the time was a virtual 100%,” Trump said of Ebola patients, adding that, “Nobody had ever even heard of Ebola or conceived of something where essentially people would disintegrate.”

Of course, that’s totally false.

Ebola has been around for more than 40 years.

And only one man died of the illness while in the United States. Thomas Eric Duncan contracted the illness in Libera and later died in Texas. Two nurses who treated him in Texas got the virus but both recovered.

However, Trump and Republicans used fears over Ebola to help win more seats in the 2014 midterm election.

Now, there have been multiple reports saying Trump fears the spread of COVID-19 may hurt his reelection chances.

On India’s treatment of Muslims

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s treatment of Muslims in India has been widely panned, and has led to violent and deadly conflict in the country — including during Trump’s visit.

Modi instituted a citizenship policy within the country that discriminates against people who practice the Islamic faith.

Trump was asked about Modi’s policy, with a BBC reporter asking Trump whether he thinks he’s the right person to discuss the issue with Modi given that Trump discriminated against Muslims with the travel ban.

Trump’s answer was racist, suggesting it’s a problem that India’s Muslim community has grown in recent years.

“As far as Muslims are concerned, I guess they have 200 million Muslims in India and a very short while ago they had 14 million,” Trump said.

It is unclear where Trump got his 14 million number, and when he believed this to have been the case, though people of Islamic faith are believed to account for about 14% of the Indian population currently.

Trump then got defensive over his travel ban.

“We won the travel ban, and we won it in the Supreme Court,” Trump said. “So the travel ban is not a thing against Muslims, it’s a thing against areas where we don’t want people coming into the country that are going to cause problems, cause harm, cause death.”

On Russian interference in the 2020 election 

Multiple reports have surfaced stating intelligence officials briefed members of Congress about Russia’s continued interference in the 2020 election in order to help Trump get reelected.

However, when asked about whether he wants to tell Russia to stop interfering, Trump refused to answer.

Instead, he attacked Democrats like Sanders and House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, who Trump often targets thanks to Schiff’s work on Trump’s impeachment.

“Frankly I think it’s disgraceful and I think it was leaks from the Intelligence Committee, House, the House version. I think they leaked it, I think Schiff leaked it,” Trump said, without providing any evidence.

Trump has gone on to purge members of the intelligence community for challenging his policies and participating in the House impeachment inquiry, and instead appointed a loyalist with no national security experience to oversee the intelligence agencies.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.