Expecting a new Trump? Sorry

Anybody that thought that Donald Trump's RNC speech last night - his first since the assassination attempt - might reveal a chastened, circumspect, humble Trump, one all about unity and love for his fellow man, were surely kidding themselves. Some press outlets and political commentators were predicting that, but it never seemed very likely to me.

What we got was vintage Trump, sporting an oversized ear bandage, and engaging in an hour-and-a-half of rambling, incoherent anecdotes, braggadocio, lies and attacks. Did we really expect anything else? The faithful lapped it all up of course, but they are not the ones to worry about (they will vote for Trump no matter what). It still amazes me how many Americans can mistake the ability to work a crowd with  competence, prudence and integrity, to mistake confidence with truth. 

Kudos to CNN, though, for bothering to do their usual fact-check on some of Trump's more lurid claims and outright lies. It must be hard to keep doing this year after year. You can check out the details here (for what it's worth - you won't find Republicans reading or watching CNN), but they include:

• There is record inflation under Joe Biden
• He stopped North Korea's missile launches
• He defeated ISIS in a couple of months
• The Florida federal judge ruled the case against his was unconstitutional
• Immigrants are destroying the Medicare and Social Security systems
• A trade deal with China resulted in them buying $59 billion worth of American products
• Gas prices are up 60%
• The Biden administration recently hired 88,000 IRS agents to audit individuals
• Biden wants to raise taxes fourfold
• Trump's Right to Try law on experimental drugs saved many lives
• Russia still has warships and nuclear submarines operating near Cuba
• The US left $85 billion of military equipment when they left Afghanistan
• The world was at peace during his presidency
• Venezuela's crime is down.72% because they are sending all their criminals to the USA
• Immigrants to the USA are coming from foreign jails and mental institutions
• America's crime rate is going up while everywhere else it is going down
• US immigration is "the greatest invasion in history" and Biden is doing nothing about it
• Grocery prices are up 57% during the Biden administration
• The US was energy independent under Trump and now it's not
• Trump presided over "the biggest tax cuts ever"
• There was no inflation at all during his administration
• He can lower gas prices by more oil drilling
• Biden won't talk about American hostages in Gaza
• The 2020 election was rigged (*sigh*)

Most of these are old one re-hashed, some are new. All are wrong or extremely misleading. Trump's base believes them all, mainly because he recounts them so convincingly.