Daniel Dale is the Washington Correspondent for The Toronto Star.
He is Live Tweeting the Trump Rally in Great Falls, Montana.
Thought you all might like to hear the lies:
(Threat Reader Ap unrolled)
“Trump is doing a campaign rally in Montana. I'm going to tweet quotes and fact-checks. Please mute this thread if you don't want a lot of rally tweets.
Donald Trump Jr. is speaking first. "Big shooter, big hunter, big fisherman," he says of himself, to cheers. "That's why I also feel ridiculous in this suit." He accuses Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of being a fake hunter.
Donald Trump Jr. on Trump critics he sees on TV: "People in far-off lands who hate our guts. They hate our freedoms. They hate our religion. They hate everything about us. These people are more concerned about their feelings...than the safety and well-being of our kids."
Donald Trump Jr. warns Montana voters to be wary of Jon Tester donors'"New York money."
Trump begins, as he regularly does, by talking about the "thousands" of people he says have been stranded outside the rally. "I said to my people, why didn't you get a larger arena?"
Trump calls up Montana Republican candidate Matt Rosendale, who says, "Do we have an incredible president or what?" He says Trump is fighting for Montana's servicemembers, seniors, veterans, people in the timber industry, farmers, ranchers, miners, coal workers, and "the unborn."
Trump: "A vote for Jon Tester is a vote for Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi" (boos) "and the new leader of the Democrat party, Maxine Waters" (bigger boos).
Trump interrupts his criticism of Tester to criticize John McCain's Obamacare vote, as he has at every recent rally and several other recent events.
Trump is, as always, highly misleading about the estate tax, saying farmers can now happily leave their farms to their children. Per the Tax Policy Center, a mere 80 farms and small businesses were among the 5,460 estates likely to pay the estate tax in 2017, before Trump's law.
Trump: "We're going to protect ICE. We protect ICE. They protect us and we protect them."
Trump attacks the "clown" who climbed the Statue of Liberty to protest his family separation policy, saying he would not have sent rescuers up but would just have set up "nets" for her, presumably to jump.
Trump says Tester tried to take away the 2nd Amendment - "tried to take it away." No idea what he's talking about, and not sure if he does.
Trump's attack on Tester is similar his attack on North Dakota's Heitkamp - saying he says nice things about Trump, and professes to have Montana values, but is really a liberal Democrat.
Trump is attacking Tester for revealing alleged wrongdoing by White House doctor and VA nominee Ronny Jackson: "He actually said I was healthy. You know, he was the one."
Trump says he "sort of" feels guilty for the Ronny Jackson nomination disaster, since Jackson didn't actually want to run the VA but Trump pushed him. Trump adds: "How vicious is the world?"
Trump boasts that he won a state by 44 points "over a Democrat" -- "now it was Crooked Hillary, but still, she's a Democrat." He says she gets "special treatment under the Justice Department." There is a loud Lock Her Up chant.
Trump: "I'll see NATO and I'll tell NATO, you've gotta start paying your bills."
Trump complains that the U.S. is paying "anywhere from 70 to 90 percent to protect Europe." As of this year, U.S. defence spending represents 72% of total NATO defence spending. There's no basis for the "90 percent" estimate.
Trump says he told Angela Merkel, "I don't know how much protection we get by protecting you."
Trump on NATO: "The Secretary General, Stoltenberg, is Trump's biggest fan."
Trump on NATO: "We're the schmucks that are paying for the whole thing."
Trump says it's smart to get along with Russia, then adds without finishing his sentence: "For stupid people or for political people - because they're not stupid - all they are is good at obstruction...but every time it comes up, I will say this, I'm gonna have to ask them..."
For the eighth time, Trump falsley says that the U.S. is "now" exporting energy. The U.S. has exported energy for over a century. It is not yet a net exporter - the Trump administration projects that'll happen in 2022.
Trump, shouting in a mocking voice to do an impression of his critics, say they used to say "HE'S TOO TOUGH" on North Korea "and now they say 'HE'S TOO NICE.'"
"Obama was very close to going to war with North Korea," Trump says again, though there's no evidence for this claim.
Trump is scolding "the fake news, the fake news media," which he calls "crooked," for criticizing his North Korea efforts.
Trump claims that Obama would have loved to meet North Korea's leader but "they wouldn't see him." He says this was one of the first questions he asked (the North Koreans?) when he was "over there," and they confirmed, "they wouldn't see him."
Trump mocks his critics for saying "'President Putin is KGB' and this and that. You know what? Putin's fine." (How Sweet)
"They make the sources up, they don't exist, in many cases." Trump is again falsely accusing newspapers of inventing sources in his administration. Of reporters, he adds: "These are really bad people."
Trump, who has sought to cut legal immigration, calls for more legal immigration: "We need people! We don't have the workers anymore!...We need people that come in under the merit system."
Trump says a vote for Democrats is a vote to "let MS-13 run wild."
Trump with another threat: "Democrats want anarchy. They really do. And they don't know who they're playing with, folks."
Trump says Maxine Waters's IQ is "in the mid-60s."
For the 10th time, Trump falsely says Hillary Clinton earned 223 electoral votes. She got 232. "306 to 223," he repeats.
Trump, falsely, again: "Reagan had his big win: he won every state except one...Wisconsin. I won Wisconsin...first time since Dwight Eisenhower in 1952."
Reagan won Wisconsin. The one state he didn't win in '84 was Minnesota.
Reagan won Wisconsin. The one state he didn't win in '84 was Minnesota.
Trump says the media will "fold" when he leaves office "in seven years." There are cheers. He again says the media will endorse him because they'll fail without him. "They're going to cover Bernie?
They're going to cover Sleepy Joe Biden? They're going to cover Pocahontas?"
Trump says he will apologize to the real Pocahontas, but "to the fake Pocahontas, I won't apologize."
He begins a story: "Let's say I'm debating Pocahontas, right..."
He begins a story: "Let's say I'm debating Pocahontas, right..."
Trump says if he's debating Warren, he is going to buy an ancestry kit, and - "very carefully...because we're the Me Too generation..." - "we will say I will give you a million dollars to your favourite charity...if you take the test."
Trump says he will make sure the ancestry kit doesn't hurt Warren when he whips it out at the debate, since this is the Me Too era, but he wants to make her prove "you're an Indian."
Trump on his crowds: "I have broken more Elton John records...and I don't have a musical instrument: I don't have a guitar or an organ. No organ. Elton has an organ."
Trump on how he draws bigger crowds than famous musicians: "This is the only instrument: the mouth...More important than the mouth is the brain."
Trump falsely claims, I think, that 20,000 people were turned away from one of his recent rallies. Not sure if he was talking about the Fargo one or the Duluth wrong, but false either way.”
