The Truth About Trump’s Lies and Authoritarianism

In the First Edition of The Trump Files, published in 2022, I described Donald J. Trump as an authoritarian, dangerous, and solipsistic. But more than that, he lives in a reality of lies, and untruths. In his first term, there were a few cabinet members who challenged Trump. This meant that there were a few adults in the room. Now, in his second, there are no adults, only sycophants. No one in the Trump administration challenges Trump.

I want to bring in the thinking of Dr. Timothy Snyder. He holds the inaugural Chair in Modern European History. This position is at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. Snyder has authored many books. These include On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. They also include The Road to Unfreedom, How Fascism Works, and Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin.

In his book On Tyranny, he provides 20 lessons. These lessons help us survive and resist the turn to authoritarianism. Each lesson gives you a clear path to understand the current authoritarians in the American government. He uses history to instruct. He explains that “history does not repeat, but it does instruct.” This helps us realize that the rise of fascist and autocratic occurred within established democracies.

The one lesson I want to highlight is “Believe in Truth.” He writes, “To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If something is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so,. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.”¹ In this lesson, he explains that you submit to tyranny. This happens when you renounce the difference between what you want to hear and what is actually true. He explains that truth dies in four modes. The first mode is open hostility to verifiable reality. The second is endless repetition of lies. The third is embracing contradiction. The fourth is misplaced faith.

The current president embodies all these. We watch the spectacle of Trump’s lies and the repetition of these lies. He presents bold fantasies. He tells people to have faith in him. Before continuing this post, I want to stop and recommend that you get a copy of Snyder’s book, On Tyranny.

The graph below buts into perspective, the extent of Trump’s lying.

So, I thought I would take a look at some of the president’s untruths. Below is a list of some of his lies. Remember, during his first term in office, he lied more than 30,000 times.

Tiny Sample of Trump’s Lying

1. The Big Lie: Claiming the 2020 election was stolen — again.
   Even after winning in 2024, Trump and his allies continue to promote the narrative. They claim that the 2020 election, which he lost, was rigged. This is despite exhaustive fact-checking, lawsuits, and audits showing no evidence of widespread fraud. Trump is filed suit against Fulton County, Georgia claiming the election was fraudulent. Trump wants to see all the ballots. Fulton County has already turned him down several times.
2. Alleging the 2024 election was or could be “rigged.”
   During the 2024 campaign, he repeatedly claimed mail-in ballots, non-citizen voting, and suspicious voter-registration activity amounted to massive fraud. Fact-checkers found these claims baseless.
3. Falsely asserting the U.S. spends more on public health care than any other country.
   In his 2025 inaugural address, Trump claimed U.S. public-health spending is the highest in the world — a statement that fact-checkers flagged as misleading.
4. Misrepresenting crime and homicide data.
   In August 2025, during a press conference about crime in Washington, D.C., Trump exaggerated crime and homicide rates, using an outdated or misleading chart comparing D.C. to other “capital” cities — some of which aren’t capitals at all.
5. Claiming inflation is solved / prices are falling — while cost-of-living actually remains high.
   In a December 2025 speech in Pennsylvania, Trump said prices were “way down.” He implied inflation was no longer a problem. However, consumer prices and major expenses remained elevated.
6. Saying “100% of new jobs” went to undocumented immigrants.
   In that same speech, he claimed all recent new jobs had gone to migrants. This is a sweeping and unsubstantiated statement. It mischaracterizes employment data.
7. Making false / xenophobic claims about specific immigrant groups.
   During the December 2025 speech, Trump repeated long-debunked rumors about a congresswoman’s background. He made derogatory statements about immigrants from “hellhole” countries. These claims were widely criticized and fact-checked as false or misleading.
8. Misleadingly defending his trade and tariff policies as boosting the economy drastically.
   Trump claimed his tariff and trade policies had significantly strengthened the U.S. economy and improved affordability — despite evidence that inflation and living-cost pressures persisted.
9. Mischaracterizing U.S. involvement or successes in foreign policy / international crises.
   In a 2025 speech to the United Nations General Assembly, many of Trump’s statements about global issues, U.S. diplomacy, and climate or security policy were flagged as false or misleading.
10. Downplaying or dismissing affordability crisis and cost-of-living pressures.
    At public events, Trump has labeled concerns about “affordability” as a “hoax” or a “Democrat con job.” This is despite widespread economic data and consumer reports showing real hardship for many Americans.
11. Repeating misleading claims about mail-in ballots and voting machines being a source of massive fraud.
    As late as August 2025, his administration revived attacks on mail-in voting. They also criticized electronic voting machines as prone to fraud. This persisted despite longstanding evidence of their integrity in jurisdictions across the country.
12. Suggesting non-citizen voting is widespread and decisive in U.S. elections.
    Trump and allies have claimed that non-citizen and illegal immigrant voting has significantly altered election outcomes. These assertions are made without credible evidence. They have been repeatedly debunked.

In the Table 1 summarizes this sampling of false claims. Daniel Dale, CNN organized an analysis of the the lying Trump did in his first 100 days this year. His analysis classifies 100 of Trump’s lies into these categories: inflation, trade, the economy & taxes, Ukraine and Russia, Immigration, foreign affairs, China, Europe, Canada, environment and energy, gender, health, education & media, elections, Trump’s popularity, January 6 attack on the Capitol, Federal government,

Repetition is a key ingredient of the dictators power to persuade. Trump is using the playbook of prior and current autocrats.

Trump Falsehoods (2024–2025) Organized by Thematic Cluster