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Posted: 2020-01-15T17:05:06Z | Updated: 2020-08-14T00:43:02Z

Editors note: At a press briefing on Aug. 13, Dte asked Trump whether he regretted his lying. Watch what happened here .

As our president sat across from Volodymyr Zelensky in New York last autumn, he explained to the newly elected leader that he knew all about his country because, after all, he used to own the Miss Universe pageant, and one year the winner was from Ukraine.

We got to know the country very well in a lot of different ways, Donald Trump said.

It was, unsurprisingly, completely false . A Miss Ukraine had never won the Miss Universe title in the pageants 66-year history, including the 20 that Trump had owned it.

Equally unsurprisingly, the lie went largely unnoticed and uncared about. In the flood of falsehoods that gush from Trumps mouth and Twitter feed most every day, something like this lacked anywhere near the heft to make a splash.

Indeed, on that day during his United Nations General Assembly visit, Trump also claimed: We have created the greatest economy in the history of our country. Of the USMCA trade agreement: Its a great trade deal the greatest weve ever had. NAFTA was a horrible trade deal. It replaces NAFTA. Of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi : A lot of her members now are having second thoughts. Theyre saying theyre in a very bad position. Of his long-promised wall along the Mexican border: And the wall is going up, many miles a week. Of the WTO: World Trade Organization was not one of the greats. Not one of the greats. That was the creation of China, which went like a rocket ship from the day they signed. And of new automotive plants: Many of the great Japanese companies, at my request, are now building their plants in the United States. Big ones going up in South Carolina, Florida.

Not a single one of Trumps assertions was true.

Todays economy is not the greatest economy in the countrys history, and has, in fact, over the past year been slowing down. Trumps United States Mexico Canada Agreement is essentially the North American Free Trade Agreement with some minor tweaks. Pelosi was not losing support among her Democratic members. Not a single mile of new fence had been built someplace where there hadnt already been a barrier. China did not create the WTO, and Toyota and Nissan are not suddenly building new plants here. Not in Florida. Not anywhere.

And on that day, the scandal now threatening Trumps presidency his request of Zelensky for the favor of investigating a political rival was just erupting into full bloom, the day after Pelosi had announced a formal impeachment inquiry.

It was easy for the fake Ukrainian Miss Universe to get lost.

_____________________________

It is exhausting. All of it.

Ive been a journalist for 33 years. Ive covered Congress. NASA and the military space program. City and county halls. The Florida statehouse. Criminal courts, including armed robbers and serial killers. In all of that time, I have never encountered a public official, a candidate for office, a bureaucrat, a defense lawyer or, frankly, an actual criminal who is as regularly and aggressively dishonest as the current president of the United States. And that includes a dozen years covering the Florida legislature.

It is, in fact, the defining feature of this White House: The president will spew falsehoods about nearly everything, morning, noon and night. He lies in one-on-one interviews, in formal news conferences, and standing beside other world leaders. He lies in official government speeches and at campaign rallies.