Mark Smith, MSW

BREAKING: CNN's fact-checker exposes an AVALANCHE OF LIES from Trump about Canada — and there's a new one almost every day. Donald Trump doesn't just have policy disagreements with Canada. According to CNN's chief fact-checker Daniel Dale, who happens to be Canadian himself, Trump has built his entire trade war narrative on a foundation of demonstrably false claims — and the lies keep coming. Just today, Dale documented, Trump falsely claimed Canada's unemployment rate is "10% and rapidly rising." The actual number: 6.4%, and it's been DECLINING for three straight months. Trump also falsely claimed Canada does "95% of its business with the US." The real figure is 72%. He blamed the entire US-Canada trade deficit on high Canadian agricultural tariffs, despite the fact that roughly 97% of US agricultural exports to Canada are already tariff-free, and the actual deficit stems overwhelmingly from cheap Canadian crude oil imports that benefit American consumers. And that's just today's batch. Dale's running tally over the past 18 months reads like a highlight reel of fabrication. Trump has falsely claimed Canada doesn't buy American agricultural products, when it's actually the world's SECOND-LARGEST buyer of them. He's falsely claimed Canadians support becoming America's 51st state, when polling shows overwhelming opposition. He's falsely claimed Canada is among the world's highest-tariff nations, when World Trade Organization rankings place it near the bottom. He's falsely claimed Canada "essentially doesn't have a military," ignoring that Canadian forces have fought alongside American troops in multiple wars and rank in the upper half of NATO by force size. He's also falsely inflated the US trade deficit with Canada to "$200 billion" (nowhere close), falsely claimed Canada bans American banks (more than a dozen currently operate there), falsely claimed Canada is "constantly surrounded" by Chinese and Russian ships (fiction), and falsely accused former PM Trudeau of using trade tensions to run for reelection — despite Trudeau, quite obviously, not running. This isn't policy disagreement. This is a dispute over the nature of reality! This is a sitting president manufacturing an entire economic conflict with one of America's closest allies using numbers he simply invented, over and over, across nearly two years, with virtually no correction or accountability. When the facts don't support your trade war, apparently the solution is just to make up new facts. Someone needs to tell Trump that the world doesn’t work like that, and it may as well be CNN’s Daniel Dale. Please like and share if you’re sick of Trump’s lies!