Daniel Wolfram
Trump is trying everything to boost his presidency before the midterms.
The Republican Party is down in the polls all over the country.
Even in usually deep-red states like Texas and Tennessee, there are real possibilities of GOP candidates for the Senate and the House of Representatives losing to Democrats.
So Trump is flying to these battleground states to try to do damage control in order not to lose the majority. On Saturday, he made another speech in which he told a brazen lie.
Trump lies about ‘getting’ Greenland
Trump has previously stated that Republicans should vote as if he were on the ballot in order to mitigate the very real possibility of a very poor election result for the GOP.
That means that Trump has become very visible in the last few weeks leading up to the election, during which he is traveling to different states and speaking every day. That includes lying about acquiring Greenland.
“I got Greenland. I hope you’re happy about that. Remember, they all said, ‘Oh, he’s never going to get it.’ We got Greenland—and for the right price. You know what we paid, right? Zero!”
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The reality: Greenland is still self-governing
There is just one issue with Trump’s statement: It is completely untrue.
It is true that Trump, along with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, did come to a new agreement that is designed to strengthen the Arctic and give the US the possibility of opening new bases in Greenland.
But Trump has not “gotten” anything for “the right price.” Greenland remains under Danish sovereignty while being a self-governing territory. That is explicitly stated in the agreement.
Why is Trump lying?
The Trump and Greenland saga exploded right before summer when Trump started to demand that the US take over Greenland because Denmark was not doing a sufficient job of protecting Greenland.
It even went so far as Trump threatening to annex Greenland, which is a NATO ally since it belongs to Denmark.
So why is Trump lying? Well, the answer is simple: His poll numbers are astronomically low. According to the Pew Research Center, Trump’s approval rating is now down to around 30%.
In short, he needs a massive “win” to show the disgruntled voters how much he has accomplished these last two years.
That is also why he is deeply upset about not getting the Nobel Peace Prize and why GOP candidates are taking a back seat to the Trump show every time he rolls into town to “campaign” for them.
