Donald Trump

President Donald Trump holds up H.J. Res. 38 in the Roosevelt Room of the White House today after signing the congressional action that repeals the Stream Protection Rule. Patrick McGinty writes in a "voices from the community" essay that President Trump is trying to make America second-rate.

(Carolyn Kaster, Associated Press)

I am tired of listening to Donald Trump lie. He got Hillary Clinton tagged as "Lyin' Hilliary" and yet PolitiFact has documented that he has out-lied her in all categories. (Mostly False: 65 to 40; False: 115 to 29; Pants on fire 62 to 7. Summed up: 242 to 76.) During the campaign he out-lied her by three times. And he continues to lie. He continues his deliberate intent to mislead. He will double down rather than apologize.

Lie: At the first press conference, his spokesman, Sean Spicer, saying, "Our intention is never to lie to you."

Lie: About the inauguration crowd size.

Lie: That millions of illegal voters cost Trump the popular vote.

And this is just some of the lies since he was elected. These are not included in the 242 pre-inauguration lies. We need to 'tag' each lie, so when it comes up again in a way we can refer to. (i.e., Oh, that is the Jan. 22, 2017 "Inauguration Crowd" Lie.)

A free press is essential to democracy and Trump would like to suppress and control the free press. His attack on reporters and the press is un-American, but no one is calling him out on this with the audacity that is needed and it deserves.

Trump has not been nice to the news media who helped get him elected. The news media has got to start playing hardball. Call a lie a lie and call Trump out on his lies.

He's vindictive and, like the bully that he is, he will try to single out and belittle you and/or your organization. Be ready for that. It's the petty way he operates.

Only 1,355 days until the next presidential election. Only 1,355 more lies. But, who is counting?

Trump is making America second-rate again.

Patrick McGinty, a native Clevelander and West Sider, graduated from St. Ignatius High School and Ohio University, and is a semi-retired architect who still crews and races sailboats in the summer.

About this project: As part of an effort to bring a greater diversity of voices to bear on timely issues, Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer are reaching out to 18 published letter writers every few weeks -- five who appeared from their letters to be conservatives, five liberals, and eight who wrote in apparently neutral ways about issues. For this installment, we asked for brief commentaries either on Trump's words versus his actions or on the $140 million Quicken Loans Arena upgrades in Cleveland. Eleven of the 18 said they would write; all had submitted their essays as of Tuesday morning. We also received a Trump essay mailed in by one person we'd reached out to in the prior round, for 12 essays in all -- two on the arena upgrades, which we posted separately, and 10 on President Trump. Several of the letter writers whom we contacted did not wish to write on either topic and asked us to reach out to them with another set of questions as the project continues, which we will do.

Questions or comments? Contact Elizabeth Sullivan at esullivan@cleveland.com