Donald Trump distinguished himself as a peddler of fake news during his various presidential campaigns. A habit which proves to be a most effective technique for allowing the Republican to achieve his objectives.
Donald Trump is not the last to denounce “fake news” in the comments of his political rivals or even the media. But the new president, re-elected following the uncontested count this Wednesday, is himself a source of “fake news” as several American newspapers have shown, keeping accounts of the lies relayed by the billionaire.
The electoral campaign was a new playground for the Republican billionaire: for example, the man had put forward 33 false information in just 1h30 of debate against Kamala Harris on September 10, according to CNN’s count. But he was even stronger during a press conference in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, in mid-August with more than 160 lies formulated in just one hour according to NPR radio, or three false pieces of information at the minute.
And that’s without counting the numerous meetings during which the Republican candidate asserted and repeated fake news concerning the career of his rival Kamala Harris, but also his own record as former president of the United States and that of the Democratic camp after the mandate of Joe Biden. Even his speech announcing his victory on November 6 was peppered with sweeping assertions, strange and crude observations about the United States.
Nothing surprising, however, since Donald Trump’s propensity to lie and voluntarily disseminate erroneous information is no longer to be proven. This habit, which consists of a real political strategy of the Republican, has been documented for years, well before his first election to the White House in 2016.
However, it was his arrival at the head of the United States that shed light on the phenomenon of “fake news”. During his mandate, from January 2017 to January 2021, Donald Trump made 30,573 false or misleading statements according to the fact checking service of the Washington Postthe leading American daily newspaper. That amounts to more than 20 lies a day for four years. But the tendency in the former tenant of the White House to modify the truth has worsened over the years according to journalist Glenn Keesler in charge of fact checking of the Washington Post : “Trump averaged six false statements per day in his first year as president, 16 statements per day in his second year, 22 statements per day in his third year, and 39 statements per day in his final year “. A world record for a head of state.
A relationship with false information that Donald Trump has maintained since his departure from the White House, notably when announcing his candidacy for the 2024 election. During his speech the Republican “repeated many familiar exaggerations about his own achievements, reiterated misleading attacks against political opponents and made disastrous assessments that contradicted reality” in around twenty statements according to the New York Times Fact Check. It is therefore no surprise that Donald Trump has returned to this habit for the 2024 electoral campaign.
A well-established technique with proven effectiveness
This is a thoughtful strategy through which the republican seeks to impose his truth, which often serves his interests, even if it is in total contradiction with the reality of the facts. And so that his erroneous statements impress on the minds of his supporters, he has his methods: repeating his version of the facts as much as possible even after verifications and denials and repeating already existing theories rather than inventing alternative truths.
Donald Trump does indeed have a tendency to repeat his false statements, whether to show off or to denigrate his opponents. A process that allows him to benefit from the effect of illusory truth among his supporters, that is to say the tendency to believe erroneous information to be true because it is often repeated. A Vanderbilt University study published in Public Opinion Quarterly confirmed a correlation between Donald Trump’s repetition of “fake news” and the public’s erroneous perception of reality.
As for the alternative versions of the facts supported by Donald Trump, they rarely come out of nowhere, as explained by Elisa Chelle, professor of political science at Paris Nanterre University and specialist in American political life, at Figaro : “Very often, Trump does not invent anything. He takes conspiracy theories spread on social networks and amplifies them, to go in the direction of the electorate he is targeting.” This was confirmed after the 2020 presidential election when he refused to know about Joe Biden’s victory and accused the Democratic camp of having stolen the election through fraud. Donald Trump can also rely on very free and erroneous interpretations of various reports, documents or court decisions. He did this during the Covid-19 crisis when he relied on studies to reassure about the imminent end of the epidemic and the control of the situation only a few weeks after the start of the crisis. Same thing in the handling of his legal cases which he described as a “manhunt”.