President Donald Trump suffers an estranged relationship with the truth. You could go so far as to say that Donnie is factually-challenged. He's already told 103 lies in the first ten months of his presidency (compared to President Obama's 18 lies in eight years), and he either told a lie or a falsehood, every day, in the first 40 days of his presidency -- it's unprecedented.
So it comes as no surprise that when speaking at the FBI National Academy graduation in Quantico on Friday, that Trump misrepresented how the visa lottery works for immigrants.
Immigration with egregious misrepresentation.
During the speech, Trump made a few remarks about the U.S. immigration process:
Terrorists have struck in the streets and subways of New York City twice in a few months. One came through chain migration, chain migration, the other visa lottery. They have a lottery. You pick people. You think the country is giving us their best people? No. What kind of a system is that?
And:
They come in by lottery. They give us their worst people. They put ‘em in a bin, but in his hand when he’s picking ‘em is really the worst of the worst.
The problem with Trump's statements is that they are not true.
The visa lottery for immigrants has "strict eligibility requirements."
To qualify for the green card lottery program, you are required to satisfy certain simple, but strict eligibility requirements. The first requirement is that you should have been born a qualifying country, as not all countries qualify. The second requirement is that you should have at least a high school education or its equivalent.
The Department of State's Instructions for the 2019 Diversity Immigrant Visa Program can be read in further detail HERE.
People thought Trump's remarks were awful and hypocritical.
His own wife is one of the chain immigrants he criticized.
Trump also doesn't seem to mind if the mothers of anchor babies are Russian.
Trump's kids also abuse the visa immigration system.
Trump instead demonstrates once again that he has no idea what he is talking about.
Lottery immigrants serve our country in many ways.
To quote a popular Broadway musical, "Immigrants, we get the job done."
Other lottery immigrants have become some of our greatest minds, contributing to advancements in science.
Here's a friendly reminder for our sitting president of what American immigration is supposed to be about.
1,628 false and misleading claims in 298 days.
The Washington Post reports that Trump made 1,628 “false and misleading claims” in his first 298 days as president.
Fact checking Trump remarks on immigration is a full-time job
CNN and "Anderson Cooper 360" recently did some fact checking with Donald Trump's immigration comments.
Teen Vogue also analyzed the many times Trump and his cabinet lied about immigration.
And if you wanted to read more the of blatant lies Trump has told so far, check out the growing list over at the The New York Times.
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h/t: Twitter, The New York Times, Washington Post, Teen Vogue
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