Here’s a look at President Trump’s six flip-flops in less than 24 hours. President Trump likes to talk about his ability to negotiate and be flexible. But as a politician, that can lead to flip-flops on policy stances. Of course politicians’ views can evolve over time, especially if new facts emerge or if their constituents form a new opinion. That’s why we reserve the Upside-Down Pinocchio rating, for only when a politician changes positions without acknowledging it. Trump, however, is in his own league. Last month, we declared Trump "king of flip-flops." Then, this week, he changed course on six issues within just 24 hours. We chronicled all his flip-flops and Upside-Down Pinocchios here. He used to call NATO “obsolete, because it doesn’t cover terrorism” (it does), but now says: “It’s no longer obsolete.” Trump finally decided China is not devaluating its currency after all (like we’ve said before in our Four Pinocchio fact check). He no longer finds the Export-Import Bank unnecessary and now likes it. He used to know Vladimir Putin “very well” and had a relationship, but now he doesn’t know Putin. After the GOP health care bill failed, Trump said he’d move on to a tax code overhaul instead. Now, he won’t touch taxes until he succeeds on health care. He previously said he’d most likely replace Federal Reserve Chair Janet L. Yellen because she was keeping interest rates low to help Hillary Clinton. Now, he likes Yellen and a low-interest-rate policy. Dizzy yet?  (giphy.com) Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this e-mail was forwarded to you, sign up here for the weekly newsletter. Hear something fact-checkable? Send it here, we’ll check it out. Four Pinocchios to Susan Rice’s claim on getting chemical weapons out of Syria In the wake of Trump's cruise-missile strike against Syria for apparent use of sarin nerve agent against civilians, many readers asked us to examine a quote by former national security adviser Susan E. Rice. Rice claimed: “We were able to get the Syrian government to voluntarily and verifiably give up its chemical weapons stockpile.” The Obama administration did remove vast quantities of chemical weapons from Syria's soil, and it was indeed an achievement. When Obama contemplated attacking Syria, a major problem with his plan was that most of the chemical weapons would not have been destroyed. |
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