Trump's CPAC speech shows there is no limit to the lies he will tell

Bill Gindlesperger
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Is there a limit to the lies Donald Trump can tell? 

Apparently not.  Donald Trump’s keynote speech to CPAC (the Conservative Political Action Conference) is a good example. 

I read every word of the speech and noted the most outrageous of Donald Trump’s comments.  Honestly, it was difficult to find anything he said that was completely true.  It was as though he thought those in the audience were all stupid.  My grandmother wouldn’t have had enough soap to wash out his mouth.   

Not only did Donald Trump spout outright lies, he openly attacked Republicans, the same people who supported him during his reelection attempt.  Here are some of his quotes. 

"We've been doing a lot of winning." 

"Actually, as you know, they just lost the White House." 

"But who knows? Who knows?  I may even decide to beat them for a third time, OK?  For a third time."

Bill Gindlesperger

Actually, Donald Trump can’t win a third without winning a second.  In fact Republicans lost the House majority, the Senate majority and the White House.  Joe Biden handily won the Electoral College with 306 electoral votes.  He also beat Donald Trump by more than 7 million votes.  

"Mr. McLaughlin (Trump's pollster) just gave me numbers that nobody's ever heard of before, more popular than anybody. That's all of us. It's all of us."

"I came here and he was giving me 95%, 97%, 92%." 

There is a reason nobody has heard of these numbers.  In a 2020 Gallup poll… only 25% of Americans identified as Republican (that is a slim minority of only one in four Americans); 31% as Democrat; 41% as independent; and 3% as other.  And of the 25% Republican voters, a number of these are opposed to Donald Trump. 

"Republicans should be the party of honest elections that can give everyone confidence in the future of our country."

More:How the Republican party evolved from accepting all to worshiping Trump

Compare this to the run-up to certify Georgia vote counts, when Donald Trump said in a January call with Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, "So look.  All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state." 

"We had built almost 500 miles of great border wall that helped us with these numbers because once it's up - you know, they used to say, 'A wall doesn't work.'"  

"It's amazing, considering that the Democrats' number one priority was to make sure that the wall would never, ever get built, would never, ever happen, would never get financed. We got it financed."

None of this is true.  The border between the U.S. and Mexico is 1,954 miles long.  A barrier extending along 669 miles was installed before Trump became president.  The Trump Administration then added a total of 15 miles (not 500 miles) of new barrier.  Other than your tax money, not one penny was paid by Mexico or anyone else.  

"COVID-19, or as I call it, the China virus."

Yes, the coronavirus is thought to have originated in northern Italy and in Wuhan, China.  The point that Donald Trump did not address is that COVID-19 has to date killed more than 550,000 Americans (including too many friends of mine), sickened 30 million Americans with about 15 million of these living their lives with permanent damage to their lungs, heart and other organs.  Calling a deadly illness a name based on its origin does nothing to cure the disease, stop the pandemic or lead a nation toward health and economic restoration.  Donald Trump expressed no empathy for the people he had been elected to serve and protect. 

"We have to stand tall as the party for law-abiding Americans, and others, when they are in our country."

"We believe in law and order.  And we believe that the men and women of law enforcement are heroes who truly deserve our absolute support."

More:Marjorie Taylor Greene chose to believe lies. You must choose truth

That is what Donald Trump said to the CPAC audience.  Yet, on January 6, he used similar words to encourage violent rioters to beat and taunt Capitol Police officers, to attack Congress and to overturn our democratic elections.  Donald Trump’s exact words before instigating violence were, "We love you. You are very special." 

"Joe Biden is only implementing the plan that we put in place."..."By the time I left that magnificent house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, almost 20 million Americans had already been vaccinated."

While in office Donald Trump swore his Administration would vaccinate at least 40 million Americans.  But his Administration could not deliver, let alone dispense, even 20 million vaccines. 

"Your Second Amendment is in far bigger trouble than you know. And for four years, I fought like hell to save your Second Amendment, and we saved it 100%." 

Donald Trump lies to radicalize issues that he then promises to champion.  The Second Amendment to The Constitution is not in trouble.  To eliminate the Amendment a proposed change must first be passed by Congress with two-thirds majorities in both the House and the Senate.  Then, three-fourths of the states must ratify the amendment. That’s done either through getting the state legislatures to approve of it or by ratifying conventions. The other option is calling for a Constitutional Convention under Article V of the Constitution.  If two-thirds of the state legislatures call for a new convention, they could convene delegations and begin the process.  You have more of a chance of being hit by lightning while watching tv in your living room than this happening. 

"That's why the party is growing so rapidly and is becoming a different party." 

There is no growth.  Donald Trump has caused thousands of voters to leave the Republican party to become Democrat or Independent.   

"I got more votes - I got more - and which is me - when I say 'I,' I'm talking about we. We - we got more votes than any incumbent, any incumbent president in the history of our country, almost 75 million votes." 

That is the one thing that Donald Trump said that is true.  He received more votes in November 2020 than any other incumbent in American history.  Donald Trump received 74,222,960 votes.  And as many as that is, it’s not more than the 81,283,361 that Joe Biden received. 

Bill Gindlesperger is a central Pennsylvanian, Pennsylvania System Of Higher Education (PASSHE) Governor, Shippensburg University Trustee, and Chairman of eLynxx Solutions that provides Print Buyer’s Software for procuring and managing direct mail, marketing, promo and print.  He is a board member, campaign advisor, successful entrepreneur, published author and commentator.  He can be reached at

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