How Old Was Trump When He Started Lying Incessantly?

On CNN yesterday, Jake Tapper reminded CNN viewers that regardless of White House claims to the contrary, Trump doesn't have a "communications problem," he has "a facts problem and the facts are bad for the president, so he seems to be trying to change them by lying." The describes more than just the Ukraine scandal. And it describes more than just his presidency. It describes the man's entire life. He's been lying about everything-- big and small-- since the first time he appeared in the New York Times, October 16, 1973. Trump was 27 years old then and the headline was Major Landlord Accused of Antiblack Bias in City. "The Department of Justice, wrote Metro reporter David Dunlap, "had brought suit in federal court in Brooklyn against Mr. Trump and his father, Fred C. Trump, charging them with violating the Fair Housing Act of 1968 in the operation of 39 buildings. The government contended that Trump Management had refused to rent or negotiate rentals 'because of race and color.' It also charged that the company had required different rental terms and conditions because of race and that it had misrepresented to blacks that apartments were not available.

Donald Trump’s first quoted words in the New York Times expressed his view of the charges:

“They are absolutely ridiculous.”

“We never have discriminated,” he added, “and we never would.”

Two months later, Trump Management, represented by Roy M. Cohn, turned around and sued the United States government for $100 million (roughly $500 million in today’s terms), asserting that the charges were “irresponsible and baseless.”

“Mr. Trump accused the Justice Department of singling out his corporation because it was a large one, and because the government was trying to force it to rent to welfare recipients,” The Times reported.

Decades later, Trump, hero at Palmyra

Under an agreement reached in June 1975, Trump Management was required to furnish the New York Urban League with a list of all apartment vacancies, every week, for two years. It was also to allow the league to present qualified applicants for every fifth vacancy in Trump buildings where fewer than 10 percent of the tenants were black.

Trump Management noted that the agreement did not constitute an admission of guilt.

Mr. Trump himself said he was satisfied that the agreement did not “compel the Trump organization to accept persons on welfare as tenants unless as qualified as any other tenant.”

It was, literally, one lie after another. It was Trump then and it is Trump now. Did anyone think otherwise during the 2016 campaign? Unfortunately, yes. There is no IQ test to exercise the right to vote. I wish more people understood that the "emoluments mess," as Professor Robert Reich calls it, is a bribery case. That's easier for a Trump supporter to understand.