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Famous Lies
Famous Liars
Famous Hoaxes
Who told the most famous (or infamous) lies? Who are the most famous
liars of all time? Who told the biggest whoppers? Donald Trump has been accused
of telling more than 8,000 lies by various fact-checkers, but how does he stack
up against all-time great liars like Adolph Hitler, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton
and P. T. Barnum?
The top ten lies and liars of all time ...
Benedict Arnold's name became synonymous with treason in
1780 when he attempted to sell West Point over to the British for £20,000.
The Titanic was called "unsinkable" but it sank like a stone
on its maiden voyage in 1912.
The Chicago White Sox threw the 1919 World Series and
became known forever as the Black Sox.
The Third Reich was called the "thousand year empire" but it
lasted only twelve bloody years, from 1933 when
Adolph Hitler became chancellor of Germany, to 1945 when he committed suicide.
Nessie, the Loch Ness "monster," was a hoax.
Marmaduke Wetherell had his stepson build the "monster" on top of a toy
submarine for the fake 1934 photograph.
On October 30, 1938 the CBS Radio broadcast of The War
of the Worlds, narrated by Orson Welles, convinced many Americans that
Martians were taking over.
"Paul is dead!" That was the lament of Beatles fans in 1966, but Sir Paul
McCartney is still going strong 50 years later.
P. T. Barnum was the world's most famous con man; he allegedly explained his
success by saying: "There's a sucker born every minute."
Robert Ripley created an empire based on the catchphrase "Believe it or not."
Perhaps not, since Ripley has been called the "Worlds Biggest Liar."
Donald Trump has told more than 8,000 lies as president, according to fact
checkers, making him the indisputable number one liar of all time.
Presidential lies and the lies of their underlings ...
Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) forced Native Americans to
walk the Trail of Tears and was a slave owner and trader. He turned the
Declaration of Independence into a national lie.
When Mexico wouldn't sell California and New Mexico to the US, James K Polk
(1795-1849) lied about a "Mexican invasion" to justify a war and steal the land.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) campaigned on a pro-peace platform then lied
about the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, dragging the US deeper into the Vietnam War.
Richard Nixon (1913-1994) famously insisted: "I am not a crook!" But it turned
out that Tricky Dick Nixon was a crook, after all.
Richard Nixon also schemed to prolong the Vietnam War during the 1968
presidential election because he thought the war would help him defeat Hubert
Humphrey. How many American soldiers died so that Nixon could become president?
George H. W. Bush (1924-2018) said: "Read my lips: no new taxes!" When he
raised taxes, it probably cost him the next election.
Bill Clinton (1946-) insisted: "I did not have sexual relations with that
woman!" But his DNA on Monica Lewisky's blue dress proved Slick Willie was
lying.
George W. Bush (1946-) claimed there was "no doubt" that Iraq had weapons of
mass destruction. That was a very expensive lie, in lives and destruction.
George W. Bush exulted: "Mission accomplished!" He declared the Iraq war won
on May 1, 2003. In the same speech he said "Iraq is free."
George W. Bush also lied about authorizing the use of torture.
Dick Chelied about authorizing the use of torture ney (1941-) vowed: "We will,
in fact, be greeted as liberators [of Iraq]." Yeah, right. Try telling that to
ISIS.
Dick Cheney crowed: "The Iraqi forces are conducting the Mother of all
Retreats!"
Dick Cheney claimed to be wise: "The plan was criticized by some retired
military officers embedded in TV studios. But with every advance by our
coalition forces, the wisdom of that plan becomes more apparent."
Dick Cheney also said: "Deficits don't matter."
Donald Rumsfeld (1932-) promised a quick victory: "I can't tell you if the use
of force in Iraq today will last five days, five weeks or five months, but it
won't last any longer than that."
Donald Rumsfeld said: "I don't do quagmires." But American soldiers and Iraqis
are still living in the quagmire created by Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld.
Barack Obama (1961-) was accused of lying when he said the Affordable Care Act
would allow people to keep their current doctors.
Donald Trump (1946-) sounded like Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld when he
insisted: "There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea." Of course
there is.
Donald Trump vowed that Mexico would pay for a border wall,
over and over and over again for 18 months,
as noted by conservative pundit Ann Coulter and other conservatives. He then
shut down the American government in an attempt to force American taxpayers to
fund the wall.
Donald Trump repeatedly insisted that the border wall would be solid concrete
and thirty feet high, going into the the construction details several times
while campaigning. It was later downgraded to an "artistic" steel slats fence
that can be hacked to pieces with an inexpensive electric saw purchasable at
Home Depot.
Donald Trump now insists the border wall is "already being built" when that is
a bald lie. All 650 miles existed before he became president and he has added,
literally, not a single mile so far.
Donald Trump said: "I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions
of people who voted illegally." But Trump lost the popular vote and there is
absolutely no evidence of "millions" of people voting illegally.
There are more entries about presidents later on this page. But it's safe to say
that no president (or any other public figure) has told as many lies as Trump
since he became president. His 8,000+ lies include the sizes of his inauguration crowd, the
margin of his "victory" in the popular vote, the size of his fingers (and sex organ), etc.
According to one fact checker, Trump lies once every three minutes, 15 seconds.
Another fact checker, Daniel Dale, described what Trump does as "an avalanche of dishonesty."
Donald Trump's top ten lies ...
Trump justified separating children from their mothers by
citing a "horrible law" that requires separation "once they cross the Border
into the U.S." There is no such law.
Trump insisted that 3,000 people "did not die" in two hurricanes that hit
Puerto Rico. He accused Democrats of inflating the official death toll to "make
me look as bad as possible" when the official figure was actually released after
an independent study by George Washington University. Harvard University
researchers later estimated the death toll at 4,600.
Trump said that Democrats want to give illegal immigrants free cars!
And not just any cars, but super-luxurious Rolls
Royces!
Trump claimed repeatedly that he knew nothing
about the $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. We now know better.
Trump tweeted: "The concept of global warming was
created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing
non-competitive." Yes, and all that hot air from Beijing is making ice caps and
glaciers melt!
When a cold snap produced snow in Texas and Louisiana,
Trump tweeted: "Global warming is an expensive hoax!"
Trump claimed Saudi Arabia has placed orders for
$450 billion with the US, producing "over a million jobs."
There are no such orders or jobs.
After imposing $250 billion in tariffs on China
and bragging about the tariffs publicly, Trump told the Wall Street Journal
that "We don't have any tariffs." Why? Apparently because the reporter expressed
reservations about the effect on the American economy!
Trump told Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday
that he ran casinos "very successfully." But all
his casinos went bankrupt.
Trump claimed Californians are rioting against sanctuary
cities. There have been no such riots.
Trump said: "U.S. Steel is building eight or nine plants." U. S. Steel,
however, begs to differ. It is not building any
new plants, but only reopening two shuttered steel mills.
Trump said "nobody knows" if Russia interfered in
the 2016 presidential election.
Trump said: "And yet the murder rate in our
country is the highest it's been in 47 years, right? Did you know that?
Forty-seven years." That is not true.
Trump tweeted: "Terrible! Just found out that
Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing
found. This is McCarthyism!" Also not true.
Trump said: "With the exception of the late, great
Abraham Lincoln, I can be more presidential than any president that's ever held
this office." Ha!
The Republican Party calls itself the "Grand Old Party" but that appears
to be false advertising. Here is a list of just a few of the GOP's not-so-grand
lies, flops and flubs ...
Carpet bombing during the Vietnam War, when Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger knew the
war could not be won and were only trying to "save face."
The Kent State Massacre
Watergate
Ronald Reagan's "trickle down" theory, which his fellow Republican George H.
W. Bush correctly called "voodoo economics."
Reagan commanding the U.S.S. New Jersey to shell
Beirut with the largest guns afloat, in support of Israel's invasion of Lebanon.
Madeline Albright told 60 Minutes' Lesley
Stahl that the deaths of more than half a million Iraqi children were "worth it" even though economic sanctions accomplished nothing and
Saddam Hussein continued to build new palaces while innocent
children starved to death.
George W. Bush brazenly invited terrorists and jihadists to "Bring it
on!" even though he was nowhere to be found on 9-11, having gone into hiding.
The invasion of Iraq on completely false premises, in order to seize
control of its oil fields and "reduce" the price of oil (which of course
immediately skyrocketed).
John McCain said
the United States should be prepared to occupy Iraq for a century.
Bishop Willard Mitt Romney and Pat "Lyin'" Ryan consummated their political nuptials by running down a battleship gangplank,
laughing and waving.
Sarah Palin regurgitates
talking points seemingly at random, never making any sense, while professing
to know the mind and will of God.
Michelle "Crazy Eyes" Bachmann not
only thinks Christians can "pray away the gay" but is married to one of the
self-professed "curers" of homosexuality.
Rick Santorum said in
effect than 99% of American adults are Devil worshipers because they use
contraceptives in defiance of the Vatican's prohibitions.
But they all pale in comparison to Donald Trump aka "The
Trump of Doom."
Other Famous Lies and Liars
Judaism: sacrifice a goat and a vengeful god
is appeased!
Christianity: sacrifice Jesus and a vengeful god is appeased!
Mormonism: we're skeptical about becoming gods, but the magical underwear is
way cool!
Herodotus (484-425 BC) has been called The Father of History, but he has also
been called the Father of Lies.
Henry VIII (1491-1547) kept inventing new "reasons" to behead his wives, to
take over and rob English churches, etc.
Rodrigo de Borja became Pope Alexander VI in 1492. He is believed to have
fathered nine children by various women, four of whom he acknowledged and
legitimized as pope.
In 1782 Ben Franklin used a homemade printing press to publish a "fake news"
newspaper which included a story about the discovery of teenage scalps on the
frontier.
George Washington (1732-1799) was not perfectly honest, since he wrote a love
letter to another woman while engaged to his future wife, Martha.
It is believed that Calamity Jane (1852-1903) fictionalized most of her
biography, including the parts about being Wild Bill Hickok's sidekick.
Rosie Ruiz insisted: "I ran the race. I really did." But she "won" the 1980
Boston Marathon while barely breaking a sweat because she hadnt run the full
course.
Lance Armstrong maintained his innocence, insisting: "I've said it for longer
than seven years. I have never doped!" But of course he did and was tripped of
seven Tour de France titles.
Anna Anderson claimed to be Anastasia, the daughter of Russia's last tsar,
Nicholas II. But a posthumous DNA test revealed that she was unrelated to the
Romanovs and appeared to confirm she was a Polish factory worker named Franziska
Schanzkowska.
Rudolf Wanderone claimed to be the legendary Minnesota Fats, but there never
was a "real" Minnesota Fats because the character was invented in the fictional
novel The Hustler. Jackie Gleason played Minnesota Fats in the movie,
then Wanderone, who had been called New York Fatty and had never lived in
Minnesota, stole the show.
Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) may have become president, according to Alternet,
because his people sabotaged then-President Jimmy Carters negotiations to
release American hostages in Iran.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) had affairs with Marilyn Monroe and other women,
and he also lied when he said he did not intend to invade Cuba.
In 1919 Charles Ponzi built a pyramid scheme around international postal reply
coupons. Today a "Ponzi scheme" is a generic term for such scams.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) had an affair with his wife Eleanor's
secretary. The day he died, his mistress was there, but not his wife.
In 1994 James W. Johnston, the CEO of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, told
Congress via written testimony: "Cigarette smoking is no more 'addictive' than
coffee, tea or Twinkies."
The artist Frida Kahlo was caught telling lies about her date of birth and
ancestry.
Frank Abagnale made a lot of money via lies and deception. Leonardo DiCaprio
portrayed Abagnale in the film Catch Me If You Can.
Related pages:
Famous Beauties,
Famous Historical Beauties,
Famous Courtesans,
Famous Ingιnues,
Famous Hustlers,
Famous Pool Sharks,
Famous Rogues,
Famous Heretics,
Famous Hypocrites,
Famous Forgers and Frauds,
Famous Flops,
Famous Morons,
The Dumbest Things Ever Said,
Famous Last Words,
Famous Insults,
Famous Lies and Liars
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