CNN的丹尼尔·戴尔在CNN.com上撰文，回顾了过去10年间破解唐纳德·特朗普“惊人的谎言数量”所付出的巨大努力。戴尔承认，他最初接手这项任务时颇为天真，以为这只是个短期工作。“十年前的这个月，在我担任《多伦多星报》驻华盛顿记者的旧工作中，我开始了一个自以为会很快结束的小副业：为当时作为弱势总统候选人的唐纳德·特朗普进行事实核查，他讲了惊人的谎言却鲜少被纠正。和很多人一样，我以为特朗普会在2016年大选中落败，”戴尔写道，并补充道，“我大错特错。而在接下来的十年里，特朗普在令人眼花缭乱的各种议题上持续大错特错。”
CNN's Daniel Dale penned a piece for CNN.com where he recounted the monumental effort it has taken to decode Donald Trump's "remarkable number of lies" over the past 10 years. Dale admitted that he came into the assignment rather naively, thinking it would be a quick stint. "Ten years ago this month, in my old job as Washington correspondent for the Toronto Star, I started what I believed would be a quick little side project: fact-checking underdog presidential candidate Donald Trump, who was telling a remarkable number of lies but was rarely being corrected. Like a lot of people, I thought Trump would lose the 2016 election," Dale wrote, adding, "I was very wrong. And Trump continued to be very wrong, about a dizzying variety of subjects, for the next decade."
戴尔写道，这项任务让他深刻洞察了“撒谎的本质、公众如何接纳谎言以及媒体如何报道谎言”。几点心得：没有华盛顿政客撒谎像特朗普这样华盛顿并非直言不讳的首都。但显而易见，华盛顿没有任何公职人员撒谱像特朗普这样——不是如此频繁，不是如此显而易见，也不是涉及如此多的话题……我们正在见证一位罕见的、极可能是千载难逢的政治骗子。
Dale wrote that his assignment has given him great insight into "the nature of lying, how it is received by the public and how it is covered by the media." Some takeaways: There is no Washington liar like Trump Washington is not the nation’s capital of straight shooting. But it’s abundantly clear that there is no public official in Washington who lies like Trump – not as constantly, not as obviously, not about as many topics...We are witnessing a rare, very possibly once-in-a-lifetime political liar.
危机越大，特朗普撒谎越多当特朗普陷入麻烦时，他会升级不诚实——甚至在不诚实本身制造了部分麻烦的情况下也是如此。最微不足道的谎言最能彰显特朗普特质特朗普撒谎的主题包括：一个根本不存在的来自童子军的电话、他声称多年前获得的一个根本不存在的密歇根“年度最佳男士”奖，以及在座位明显空着的场馆里是否有空座位。
The bigger the crisis, the more Trump lies When Trump gets in trouble, he ramps up the dishonesty – even in the cases where dishonesty created some of the trouble in the first place. The smallest lies are the most distinguishing lies The subjects Trump has lied about include a nonexistent phone call he claimed to have received from the Boy Scouts, a nonexistent Michigan “Man of the Year” award he claimed to have received years ago, and whether there were any empty seats in venues in which seats were visibly empty.
这些事情毫无重要性，但特朗普的大脑却认为有必要为它们编造故事。这是一种特殊的特质。
None of these things are important in the slightest, but Trump’s brain has seen fit to make up a story about them. It’s a special trait.
特朗普的许多谎言从未消失，他反复说同样不真实的话。第一次可能需要花时间调查研究；到第10次或第100次时，我甚至半梦半醒都能背诵辟谣内容——某些谎言确实已经重复了第100次。在列举更多例子后，戴尔在文章结尾写道：“谎言造成了真实的伤害。”“特朗普的一些谎言荒诞或琐碎到让我忍不住发笑，”戴尔写道。“但总体而言，他的谎言对国家造成了深远的危害
Many Trump lies never go away says the same untrue things again and again. The first time, it might take a while to research; by the 10th or 100th time, I can recite the debunking half-asleep – and there actually is a 100th time for some of the lies. After many more examples, Dale ended his piece by writing, "The lies cause real harm." "Some of Trump’s lies are so bizarre or trivial that I can’t help but laugh," Dale wrote. "On the whole, though, his lies have been deeply harmful to the country." Dale gave the examples of the people spurred on to commit the Capitol riot, or those who died after receiving misinformation about Covid. "His lies have worsened innumerable public debates around critical policy issues," Dale added. "And American democracy itself is worse off for all the lying, too." Read Daniel Dale's full article here.