The Toronto Star has catalogued, charted and diagrammed an index of the nearly 500 patently false things that Donald Trump has said on the campaign trail.
Correspondent Daniel Dale has followed the Republican nominee since he announced his campaign in the summer of 2015 and compiled a list of the verifiable falsehoods that Trump regularly spouts in interviews and on the campaign stump.
The statements are broken down into 20 categories, ranging from "Clinton's policies" -- the highest number of lies Trump has told -- to "Trump's record" to "Heath Care" and "Obama's record." Dale has also created an interactive tool in which the lies are available for scrolling through and viewing in detail.
Reporter Tanya Talaga has provided detailed analysis on the 20 categories, examining the elaborate web of falsehoods for patterns. "Some remain hard to explain," the Star said.
Of all the falsehoods that tumble from Trump's mouth, the strangest ones, Talaga said, are the ones that serve no verifiable purpose.
"(T)here seems no benefit to such outlandish statements," she wrote. "Trump just seems unable to not say them."
Among these are claims that his Mar-a-Lago resort is in "the wealthiest community there is in the world.”
"Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club is in Palm Beach," wrote Talaga, "and it is undoubtedly an ornate, exclusive place. But Palm Beach is nowhere near the wealthiest community in the world -- it’s not even the wealthiest in the United States (it’s No. 3)."
She said, "This is easy to dismiss as simple hyperbole, but it fits in an unusual category of Trump falsehoods: Ones that are ridiculous, and ridiculously obvious."
