How can you run the country when your pants are on fire?

I remember telling my young daughters they should always tell the truth. It was one of those father-daughter exchanges where wisdom is passed along from one generation to the next. “One of the worst things you can ever do is lie,” I remember saying, “because once you become known as a liar, no one will ever know if what you’re saying is true.”

Donald Trump passed that threshold more than a year ago. He has told hundreds of lies – possibly thousands – since starting his campaign for president and he continues to lie on an almost daily basis. There appears to be no end to his lies. Therefore, I don’t think I’ll be able to believe anything he says ever again.

Trump says, “We’re building a wall. Mexico will pay for it.”  I’ll believe that when I see it.

“I have a plan to defeat ISIS.” Oh really? Did it come to you in military school? Or maybe while you were defrauding students at your fake university, filing bankruptcy papers for a failed casino or grabbing someone’s pussy?”   

And just today, “Insurance for everybody.” Oh, right. OK. Have you run this past Paul Ryan yet?

It isn’t just the fact that he lies that concerns me. All politicians lie, I believe, or at least spin the truth their way. I worked in public relations for 20 years so I know something about spin. What troubles me is how he can lie about something that is so easily fact-checked and doesn’t seem to care. His campaign has come out against fact checking and even has its own definition of “facts.”   

The classic example was his complaint about the debate schedule last fall:

“I’ll tell you what I don’t like. It’s against two NFL games. I got a letter from the NFL saying, ‘This is ridiculous.’”  All it took was one phone call to the NFL to determine that no such letter was ever sent.

 I could go on and on indefinitely, but here, in no particular order, are some of my favorites:

“Americans don't care at all” about his tax returns.

“In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”

“There was serious voter fraud in [insert name of state here].”

“I won the second debate with Hillary Clinton in a landslide in every poll."

"Our African-American communities are absolutely in the worst shape they've ever been in before. Ever. Ever. Ever."

“Ted Cruz’s father was with Lee Harvey Oswald before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.”

“All the dress shops in DC are sold out” for his inauguration.

“We’ve sent people to Hawaii to check on Obama’s birth certificate and you can’t believe what they’re finding.”

“I don't know anything about David Duke."

“Crime statistics show blacks kill 81 percent of white homicide victims.”

“I watched in Jersey City, N.J., where thousands and thousands of people were cheering" as the World Trade Center collapsed.

“The Mexican government ... they send the bad ones over.”

“The people that went to school with (Barack Obama), they never saw him, they don't know who he is.”

Trump winery is the “largest winery on the East Coast.” 

“Upstate New York I poll higher than anybody ever.”

In addition, Trump keeps taking credit for jobs he didn’t create (multiple lies).

Trump “was not aware” that Intelligence chiefs had briefed him on Russia’s alleged blackmail dossier, even though FBI Director Comey met with him face-to-face.

And finally, John Lewis, an American hero and veteran of more than 50 years of dedication to the cause of civil rights, is all “talk talk talk and no action. Sad.”

Of course, none of those quotes above is true, and there are far too many more to list here. (Just google “Trump’s lies” for numerous lists.) The point is, when Donald Trump is president, he will have daily responsibilities that even he can’t fathom until he actually sits in the Big Boy Chair.

He’ll be in a position where he must talk to the American people about the state of the country, the economy, jobs, taxes, world events, international affairs, wars, climate change, our allies, our enemies, nuclear weapons, Russian spying and myriad other pressing issues facing this nation of ours…

...and I won’t believe a single word he says.