As the public first started learning the details of the deadly attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day, Donald Trump’s first instinct was sadly predictable: The president-elect appeared eager to tell Americans how right he was — or at least how right he thought he was.
In a Wednesday morning missive published to his social media platform, the Republican thanked local enforcement, but not before he got a few other points off his chest:
When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true. The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before.
The first sentence was wrong on multiple levels. Right off the bat, Trump seemed to be referring to a debate that occurred only in his imagination: There was no grand discussion about whether foreign-born criminals were more dangerous than native-born criminals. He appears to have simply made this up.
What’s more, given the context, the president-elect apparently wanted the public to believe that the suspect in the New Orleans attack was an immigrant. He wasn’t. As NBC News reported, the man accused of killing at least 15 people was a U.S. Army veteran from Texas who was employed by a leading financial services firm.
The second sentence was just as wrong: The idea that the crime rate in the United States “is at a level that nobody has ever seen before” is plainly absurd. Not only has the murder rate sharply improved in recent years, but crime rates in general fell after Trump exited the White House four years ago.
But stepping back, there’s a bigger picture here that’s worth keeping in mind, especially as the Republican prepares to begin his second term, because the president-elect simultaneously flunked three important tests.
First, he flunked a test of accuracy, pushing misinformation within hours of a deadly attack.
Second, he flunked a test of decency, trying to exploit the attack to advance an ugly and misguided agenda.
And third, Trump flunked a test of credibility, reminding everyone anew that when tragedy strikes, Americans just can’t count on the incoming president for reliable and trustworthy information.
The Republican’s supporters might be inclined to argue that he’s not yet president, and he might not yet have access to the latest intelligence briefings, so when he made these claims on Wednesday morning, he probably didn’t have all the facts. He thought he was telling the truth.
But that’s not a credible defense: Trump could’ve waited to issue a statement until he knew what he was talking about. He instead chose — again — to peddle misinformation from a position of ignorance, indifferent to the facts.
Hours later, apparently unembarrassed, the president-elect published another online item, declaring, “TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING!” This came on the heels, of course, of a missive in which he was wrong about everything.
It’s going to be a long four years.
