New Delhi: Donald Trump’s claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought his help in mediating the Kashmir issue with Pakistan has prompted a flurry of furious reactions, with many, including US Congress members, labelling the US president ‘a liar’.
That’s the second time in a week that he has been called a ‘liar’, the first being when he falsely accused four Democratic Congresswomen of colour, whom he has dubbed ‘The Squad’, of using anti-Semitic slur ‘evil Jews’. His administration is already busy firefighting a sharply divisive and racist tweet the president posted earlier this month, asking the quartet -- Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rashida Tlaib -- to “go back” to the “countries they came from”.
His latest claims join a long list of false statements that have failed to withstand fact-checks. In April this year, The Washington Post had reported that Trump made over 10,000 false or misleading claims, with an average of nearly 23 a day, since assuming office. These claims ranged from the US midterm elections, the partial government shutdown over his promised border wall and the release of the special counsels’ report on Russian interference in 2016 elections.
According to Post’s fact-check, as of April 27, the tally of Trump’s misleading claims stood at 10,111 claims in 828 days. The president's constant Twitter barrage also adds to his totals. He racked up 171 false or misleading claims in just three days, April 25-27 which was more than he made in any single month in the first five months of his presidency.
Trump's penchant for repeating false claims is demonstrated by the fact that the Fact Checker database has recorded nearly 300 instances when the president has repeated a variation of the same claim at least three times.
Bringing into question Trump’s credibility on his Iran rhetoric, a New York Times analysis authored by Peter Baker had said on June 14: “For 2 1/2 years in office, Trump has spun out so many misleading or untrue statements about himself, his enemies, his policies, his politics, his family, his personal story, his finances and his interactions with staff that even his own former communications director once said ‘he’s a liar’, and many Americans long ago concluded that he cannot be trusted.”
The report also quoted Jen Psaki, White House communications director and top State Department spokeswoman under Barack Obama, as saying that, “Trump’s credibility is about as solid as a snake oil salesman. That may work for selling his particular brand to his political base, but during serious times, it leaves him without a wealth of goodwill and trust from the public that what he is saying is true…”
India has categorically denied Trump’s claim, saying Modi never made any such request to the US leader and reiterated that Kashmir is a bilateral issue.
"I would like to categorically state that no such request has been made by the prime minister to the US President… Any engagement with Pakistan will require an end to cross-border terrorism," External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in Parliament on Tuesday, adding Shimla and Lahore accords signed between India and Pakistan provide the basis for resolution of all issues bilaterally.
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