Trump prepares preemptive falsehoods about his inauguration [View all]

[CousinIT]

Donald Trump declared weeks ago that he intends to “set the all-time record” for attendance at a presidential inaugural. By all appearances, that’s extremely unlikely to happen.

But the president-elect spoke at a pre-inauguration event last night, where Trump made this interesting claim:

“I also want to tell you, you know, so many people are talking about what’s going on and now they’ve just announced we’re going to have record crowds coming.”

As a rule, whenever Donald Trump uses the word “they,” look out. In this case “they’ve” announced “record crowds” are coming to the Republican’s inauguration, but there’s been no such announcement. “They” don’t appear to exist outside of Trump’s imagination.

But relying on “them” will enable Trump to claim a record without regard for actual attendance data. What we’re witnessing is a preemptive falsehood: the president-elect is laying the groundwork for an untrue claim about his inauguration that Trump seems very likely to make soon after he takes the oath of office.

Indeed, he’s already told related falsehoods, such as, ”All the dress shops are sold out in Washington. It’s hard to find a great dress for this inauguration.” This wasn’t remotely true, but Trump made the claim anyway.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-prepares-preemptive-falsehoods-about-his-inauguration