Donald Trump tried to enhance his image this week by making his first visit to a combat zone since becoming president. But it wasn’t long before he messed that up.
While in Iraq, Trump delivered a speech directed at American troops where he told “two flagrant lies in a row,” according to ABC News producer and reporter Ali Rogin.
Trump decided to lie to troops about their pay raise.
“He said the US military got its first pay raise in 10 years,” Rogin wrote on Twitter before linking to a May PolitiFact analysis from the first time the president made the claim that found the lie “Pants on Fire” egregious.
“You haven’t gotten [a raise] in more than ten years,” Trump told troops. “More than ten years. And we got you a big one. I got you a big one.”
The ABC News producer noted, however, that “the military has received a pay increase each year except for [1983] and that was a technical glitch.”
Rogin added that Trump also “said he raised the military’s pay by ten percent.” This is in fact another lie as the pay was raised 2.8 percent in 2018 and another 2.6 percent in the August National Defense Authorization Act.
“You had plenty of people that came up and said, you know, we can make it smaller,” Trump said. “I said no. Make it ten percent. Make it more than ten percent. Because it’s been a long time.”
“Both those quotes are lies that the president has been called out on before,” Rogin concluded.
Then 2) He said he raised the military's pay by ten percent. FACT: It was raised 2.8% in 2018 and another 2.6% in the current NDAA.
— Ali Rogin (@AliABCNews) December 26, 2018
And —
"You had plenty of people that came up and said, you know, we can make it smaller. …I said no. Make it ten percent. Make it more than ten percent. Because it’s been a long time."Both those quotes are lies that the president has been called out on before.
— Ali Rogin (@AliABCNews) December 26, 2018
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