Trump unleashes a torrent of lies after Michelle Obama's convention speech

Donald Trump angrily responded to Michelle Obama’s widely praised speech Monday at the Democratic National Convention with a series of false tweets.

In her speech, the former first lady warned that America’s children are seeing in Trump’s administration “leaders labeling fellow citizens enemies of the state while emboldening torch-bearing white supremacists,” children “torn from their families and thrown into cages,” and “pepper spray and rubber bullets” being “used on peaceful protesters for a photo-op.”

Obama also pointed to Trump’s “total and utter lack of empathy,” noting, “Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is.”

Rather than address Obama’s searing criticisms, Trump deflected them with a series of false claims on Tuesday morning.

First, Trump scolded her, saying, “Donald J. Trump would not be here, in the beautiful White House, if it weren’t for the job done by your husband, Barack Obama.”

Next, he tweeted, “My Administration and I built the greatest economy in history, of any country, turned it off, saved millions of lives, and now am building an even greater economy than it was before. Jobs are flowing, NASDAQ is already at a record high, the rest to follow. Sit back & watch!”

From there, he minimized his own failure to contain the coronavirus pandemic by criticizing the “response by the ObamaBiden team to the H1N1 Swine Flu,” and incorrectly claimed that polling at the time rated that response “really bad.”

Finally, he said the “ObamaBiden Administration was the most corrupt in history,” accusing his predecessors of “Treason, and more.” He concluded by sarcastically thanking Michelle Obama “for your very kind words.”

Trump did not build the greatest economy in history, according to independent fact-checkers. Despite his promise of “4, 5, and maybe even 6% [growth] ultimately,” the economy had not achieved even 3% growth for any year of Trump’s presidency, even before the meltdown caused by the coronavirus.

Trump did not “turn off” the economy to save lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, he refused to issue any stay-at-home order to close down any part of it, leaving it up to state governors to protect their own citizens.

On April 10, asked about Gov. Ron DeSantis’ refusal to close Florida, Trump said, “I like to allow governors to make decisions without overruling them, because from a constitutional standpoint, that’s the way it should be done.” Days later, he began hectoring states to reopen.

Jobs are not “flowing.” Despite the administration’s claims that it “created” jobs that some Americans have gone back to as states have reopened, unemployment remains at about 10%. Nearly 15.5 million Americans are collecting continuing unemployment benefits. According to a recent New York Times analysis of labor data, less than half of the 22 million jobs lost in the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic have been regained.

Trump has repeatedly made the baseless claim that Barack Obama engaged in “treason,” but has provided no evidence to back up the accusation or even specified what that “treason” consists of.

And with regard to Trump’s attack on Obama using the death toll from the H1N1 virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 12,469 people died in the United States due to the H1N1 virus. More than 169,000 Americans have died already of the coronavirus.

Kristin Urquiza, the daughter of one of those lost to the coronavirus, also spoke Monday at the convention. She blamed Trump’s botched and dishonest response to the pandemic for her father’s death, noting that he had voted for Trump, “listened to him, believed him and his mouthpieces when they said that coronavirus was under control and going to disappear.”

“My dad was a healthy 65-year-old,” she said. “His only preexisting condition was trusting Donald Trump, and for that he paid with his life.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.