Photo : Andrew Spear ( Getty Images )

Donald Trump needs to understand that there are levels to lying.



Telling Melania that she doesn’t look like a racist robot in her evening gown isn’t the same as telling the world that your administration will be ending the AIDS epidemic and curing pediatric cancer. Yet, here we are.




During a rally in Cincinnati on Thursday, the president told a group of white people gathered to honor their king, “The things we’re doing in our country today, there’s never been anything like it. We will be ending the AIDS epidemic shortly in America, and curing childhood cancer very shortly.”



What? How did this even become a thing and why is the president rolling this out now? Well, two reasons: First, Trump’s entire presidency has been built on him telling his crowds his version of reality. He’s lied to them about everything, and they don’t care. They are willing to keep breathing whatever it is that Trump is pumping into the air, which smells a lot like bullshit. Secondly, Trump is a liar—and not even a masterful liar; he’s a run-of-the-mill life hyper who basically says whatever he thinks will earn him favor in the moment.




According to USA Today, both of Trump’s dubious claims first surfaced in his February 2019 State of the Union address, in which he said “he would set aside $500 million for research into pediatric cancer over 10 years.” Trump also claimed that he would end AIDS in 10 years during the same SOTU address. Well, it seems that timetable has sped up a bit because to hear Trump tell it, it’s ending shortly.



All of this is funny in a “man, this president is so full of shit” kind of way, considering he’s cut funding to both cancer and AIDS research.



From Business Insider:



In the [SOTU] address, he also committed $50 million to pediatric cancer research, in a budget that would see the National Cancer Institute’s overall budget slashed by $900 million. Congress has previously balked at requests to slash federal cancer research funding. Cincinnati is one of the jurisdictions targeted by the administration’s ambitious AIDS plan. Public health officials met with the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ahead of Trump’s rally to discuss their efforts to combat AIDS. Advocacy groups have criticised Trump’s AIDS policies, under which $1 billion was removed from global AIDS initiatives, protections for patients with the disease rolled back, and health benefits for LGBT Americans ended, according to Politico.


So yeah, Trump’s going to end the AIDS epidemic and cure pediatric cancer, and if you believe this then you are probably one of those people who believe that Trump is the least racist person in the world.

