Trump’s tweet about “hamberders” illustrates just how effortlessly he lies

While not as significant as his lies about the situation at the southern border or his dealings with Russia, an amusing tweet President Donald Trump posted Tuesday morning illustrates just how easily he exaggerates and contradicts himself.

On Monday night, Trump served the national champion Clemson Tiger college football team a fast-food buffet at the White House.

Trump claims to have paid for McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Domino’s because the White House kitchen is closed due to the shutdown he forced when he refused to support a government funding bill that didn’t allocate money for his border wall.

Speaking to reporters just before players showed up, Trump proudly displayed the spread of “great American food,” and said, “we have 300 hamburgers, many, many french fries — all of our favorite foods.”

Three hundred hamburgers is a lot of burgers, even for a football team. But it apparently wasn’t enough for Trump. Within a matter of minutes, the number grew exponentially.

Addressing the players, Trump claimed to have purchased 1,000 hamburgers. As the Washington Post details:

At the outset of his remarks to the team, its coaches, Clemson officials and politicians, including South Carolina Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R) and Tim Scott (R), Trump said he had a “choice” of possibly having “no food” for the players “because of the shutdown.”

“Or do we give you some little quick salads that first lady will make, along with the second lady; they’ll make some salads,” the president continued. “And I said, ‘You guys aren’t into salads.’ … Or do I send out for about 1,000 hamburgers?”

On Tuesday morning, Trump tweeted that the number of burgers he purchased had grown again to “over 1000 hamberders [sic] etc.” (He later reposted the tweet without the typo.)

Twitter screengrab

Photos of the event suggest something along the lines of the lower number is accurate.

This particular exaggeration isn’t a big deal in and of itself, obviously. But it does reflect how effortlessly Trump fibs about everything from steel plants to Democrats’ position on the shutdown to “hamberders.”

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