Trump adviser says Trump 'doesn't make things up' after India calls out Trump lie

On Monday, Trump created his latest in a long list of international incidents when he claimed India’s prime minister had asked him to help resolve the conflict in Kashmir.

“I was with Prime Minister Modi two weeks ago,” Trump stated. “He actually said, ‘Would you like to be a mediator or arbitrator?'”

It didn’t take long for India to say Trump’s claim was untrue.

“No such request has been made by PM @narendramodi to US President,” Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.

On Tuesday, Larry Kudlow, Trump’s top economic adviser, was asked whether Trump simply made his story up — a reasonable question, given that Trump has made more than 10,000 false or misleading claims since taking office, according to the Washington Post.

To Kudlow, it was “rude” to even ask such a question.

“The president doesn’t make anything up,” Kudlow said. “That’s a very rude question in my opinion.”

Trump’s penchant for exaggerating or making up stories is well documented. Reporter Daniel Dale, who says he has fact-checked every word Trump has uttered since his inauguration, recently wrote about Trump’s infamous “sir” stories.

“I can tell you that if this President relays an anecdote in which he has someone referring to him as “sir,” then some major component of the anecdote is very likely to be wrong,” Dale wrote. “A ‘sir’ is a flashing red light that he is speaking from his imagination rather than his memory.”

The subjects about which Trump has been caught lying range from the petty — he often exaggerates the size of his crowds at rallies, and is often fact-checked by local officials on his numbers — to the outright dangerous. Earlier this year, for example, Trump repeatedly claimed in speeches, on social media, and at his rallies that Democrats support infanticide. It wasn’t remotely true, despite the invented graphic details he recited.

But as many have noted, that kind of rhetoric also has the potential to inspire violence against abortion providers, who are already at great risk and under constant threat from anti-abortion activists.

It isn’t difficult to believe that his story this week about India is as made up as the thousands of other stories he has told. But true or not, to insist that he never makes up anything is certainly not a sound defense.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.