As the saying goes, a lie goes halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its pants on. This happened quite literally two times over the weekend. President Donald Trump is currently on a trip to Asia, and over the weekend a few amusing--and completely inaccurate--stories about his antics went viral.
First, a story broke that Trump told a group of Japanese businessmen to build their cars in the United States instead of "shipping them over" from Japan. This was reported by a whole host of sources. Many were laughing at how "ignorant" Trump was at seemingly not knowing that Japanese automakers already make their cars in America.
Trump asked Japan to "try" building cars in the US.
— CNN International (@cnni) November 6, 2017
...It already does. https://t.co/ihupDtqf8H pic.twitter.com/4MbePAgh2T
'President Brain Genius': Twitter Mocks Trump For Asking Japan's Manufactures to Make Cars in US https://t.co/3kwDRAqRp3 pic.twitter.com/c6O4fu7UoQ
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) November 6, 2017
How can the U.S. president be so ignorant that he believes Japanese automakers don't build cars here? https://t.co/I9KITu1vlz
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) November 6, 2017
Trump to Japan: "Try building your cars in the United States instead of shipping them over" https://t.co/vWf9aS5BE0 pic.twitter.com/SYRVP9V5xf
— The Hill (@thehill) November 6, 2017
"Trump tells Japan to build more cars in the US 'instead of shipping them over,' but they already build millions of vehicles in the states" pic.twitter.com/Fpj2IdUPrJ
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) November 6, 2017
Japan's big three automakers all have a major presence in the U.S. already. https://t.co/uX90Faor54
— CNNMoney (@CNNMoney) November 6, 2017
Of course, this wasn't the case at all. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post shared the full context of the quote, which changed the narrative entirely. Prior to asking Japanese automakers to "try building cars in the United States," he thanked the businessmen in the room for creating jobs in the United States. Additionally, he thanked Toyota and Mazda for building a new plant that would create 4,000 jobs.
Stop taking that Trump quote about Japanese cars out of context. He clearly knows they're built here.https://t.co/51VMAJV4PV pic.twitter.com/55fIlQLFrV
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) November 6, 2017
Oh, whoops?
Up next was a more amusing, but fake, story that tried to paint Trump as a bratty child. While visiting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the two leaders fed some koi fish. In a now-deleted tweet, reporter Yashar Ali said that Trump got "impatient" and dumped the entire box of food into the pond rather than spoon it to the fish.
Hilarity ensued as again Trump was mocked for his seemingly inappropriate behavior.
Trump spoon feeds koi fish at Akasaka Palace. He ended up just dumping the whole box of fish food into the pond, per @justinsink at scene. pic.twitter.com/ICAxXMlMsA
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) November 6, 2017
On day 2 of his five-nation Asia tour, Trump shows a faster way of feeding koi fish in #Japan https://t.co/WoIVycJktp pic.twitter.com/n4ZMLhehn6
— ST Foreign Desk (@STForeignDesk) November 6, 2017
Donald Trump was supposed to gently feed koi fish. Then this happened https://t.co/AtriBS8sF0
— The Independent (@Independent) November 6, 2017
— Alex Pfeiffer (@PfeifferDC) November 6, 2017
As before, it turned out that Trump did not break protocol. He followed Abe's lead and dumped out the box of food after the Japanese leader did. (Also, it's koi fish. There are, so to speak, bigger fish to fry out there.)
Here's a clearer view of what happened:
Japanese PM Shinzo Abe emptied his entire container ahead of Trump, but the MSM is reporting that Trump embarrassingly broke protocol. pic.twitter.com/JyZC1ayhK7
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) November 6, 2017
(At least we got a bunch of good "Abe dumped first" jokes out of this.)
Never let the truth get in the way of a good story, right?
While one would hope that these embarrassing misreports would cause the media to take a look in the mirror to see just why they're so quick to embarrass Trump, this probably won't happen. Trust in the mainstream media is eroding, and they have no one to blame but themselves.