Donald Trump accused of telling huge lie about ‘one of most disprovable data points’ during first 100 days interview
Donald Trump has been accused of telling a huge fib which can 'easily' be debunked during an interview marking his 100th day in office.
Between bragging about the epic 'comeback' he's facilitating for the US and slagging his predecessor Joe Biden rotten, the President also made a few dubious statements.
Trump recently sat down with ABC News journalist Terry Moran in the Oval Office and made some bold claims about the progress he's made since 20 January this year.
The 78-year-old boasted about how his work has made the US a 'respected country again', amid his hardline approach to immigration, introducing controversial tariffs, and overhauling the federal government.
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According to Trump, his policies have gone down a treat with his international audience - although thousands would disagree.
But he sternly rebuffed Moran's suggestion that he has caused the States severe 'reputational damage' during his second term so far.
The interviewer pointed out that the number of overseas visitors heading to US has slumped dramatically since he returned to the White House.
It comes weeks after the US' National Travel and Tourism Office released preliminary figures earlier this month, which showed a significant decline in tourism in comparison to this time last year.
The number of holidaymakers heading to the country fell 11.6 per cent in March, while there has been a 17.2 per cent decrease in the amount of people visiting the US from western Europe, as per AP News.
Between January to March, 7.1 million people from overseas entered the US, which is 3.3 per cent fewer than the same period last year.
Economists reckon this tourism trend going to hit the US hard financially, while Goldman Sachs warned that the country could lose out on as much as $90 billion if the slump continues.
However, the President insisted that tourism is 'way up' at the moment during his interview with Moran.
"The country's doing great," Trump said. "Prices are down, gasoline is down, energy is down. Tourism is going to be way up - wait until you see the numbers. Tourism is way up."
Moran interjected to suggest that right 'now', it wasn't, but Trump doubled down on his claims about how the industry was flourishing.
"Tourism is doing very well, we're doing very well," he continued. "We're doing very well, wait until you see the real numbers come out.
"In six months from now, wait until you see the numbers, they're going to be very good."
People have accused Trump of fudging the truth about the impact his policies have had on tourism, and most think it's pretty bizarre, considering the points can be quickly disproved.
Spencer Hakimian, the founder of hedge fund Tolou Capital Management, shared the footage of Trump in a post on X alongside the caption: "Why lie about the most easily disprovable data points?"
A host of other social media users jumped on the bandwagon and branded Trump a 'liar', pointing out that the data recently released by his own federal government directly conflicts his claims about tourism.
"In a few weeks, the data will be too overwhelming to lie about," one person commented.
"He literally cannot deal with reality when the reality makes him look bad," another said.
A third suggested: "Believes his own rhetoric it seems!"
Last week, Trump was quizzed about the drop in overseas visitors by a CBS News reporter in the White House on 23 April.
After being asked why he thinks people might be choosing to head elsewhere and whether it was due to tourists being detained at the border, the President said: "No, we treat our tourists great.
"We're the tourism capital of the world, there's no place like this. There may be a little bit of nationalism, but I doubt it, I actually doubt it."
Topics: Donald Trump, Travel, US News, Politics
Olivia Burke