WATCH: How Many Lies Did Donald Trump Tell at His Iowa Rally?

‘A Venting Session for a Pent-Up President’

President Donald Trump held his fifth campaign-style rally since taking office in January, and just like his actual pre-election campaign rallies Wednesday night’s was a mostly fact-free lie-fest. 

MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” put together some of the top lies (video above) Trump told his Iowa supporters in Cedar Rapids. Among the falsehoods, Trump promised he would put an end to new immigrants coming to America and accessing public safety net programs like welfare. President Bill Clinton did just that, 21 years ago. It’s unclear why the Trump administration – or his re-election campaign – did not stop him from making the promise.

Other lies include one he frequently repeats: “Anybody builds a pipeline in the United States will use American steel and fabricate in America.”

He also claimed he convinced foreign leads to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on American products, and took credit for a brand new coal mine opening – claiming it’s the first in decades to do so. False, and false.

The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman delivered a scathing rebuke of Trump’s rally, calling it “a venting session for a pent-up president who has stewed and brooded from inside the gilded cage of the White House over attacks from investigators, Democrats and the news media, his interview schedule drastically pared down and his aides imploring him to stay off Twitter.”

“Style-heavy and substance-light,” the Times reporter labeled Trump’s speech.

He derided trade deals despite an Iowa economy that relies in part on exports. He denounced the $6 trillion spent and the lives lost in the Middle East over the last 15 years, despite his administration’s decision to reauthorize troops in Afghanistan.

He toggled back and forth between telling farm-rich Iowa that he had fought for forgotten voters and lauding the wealth of Gary D. Cohn, his top economic adviser and a former executive at Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street giant that Mr. Trump derided in commercials in 2016.

The Times noted Trump “plowed ahead … misstating whether the Paris climate agreement, from which he plans to withdraw the United States, is binding.”

“Like hell it’s nonbinding!” thundered Mr. Trump, who in fact called the accord nonbinding in his Rose Garden speech announcing the withdrawal this month.

“We’re not even campaigning, and look at this crowd!” he said at another point. The rally was advertised, sponsored and organized by his campaign committee.

Of course, there were more lies.

He also repeated his frequent, untrue campaign refrain that the United States is one of the world’s highest-taxed nations.

Mr. Trump also condemned Democrats as “obstructionists” — but then added that he wanted to work with them and might be damaging those prospects. “But who cares,” he concluded. He ignored the fact that Republicans hold majorities in Congress.

UPDATE: 11:28 AM EDT –
Via The Toronto Star’s Daniel Dale:

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