The early days of the Trump administration have been busy for fact-checkers. They’ve also been hard for copyeditors, who are typically skittish about the word “lie.” Here’s a sampling of the linguistic work-arounds that appeared in the Washington Post over a three-week period shortly after the inauguration.
1. “a false claim”
2. “easily refutable claims”
3. “claimed, without evidence”
4. “the claim is not supported by any verifiable facts”
5. “several factual inaccuracies”
6. “misrepresented the findings”
7. “canard”
8. “contempt for facts”
9. “something clearly untrue”
10. “disregard for the truth”
11. “refusal to tether himself to the facts”
12. “he tends to exaggerate or misstate other things”
13. “the opposite is true”
14. “falsehoods”
15. “false statement”
16. “a rush of falsehoods”
17. “comments rooted in conspiracy theories instead of facts”
This article appears in the March 2017 issue of Washingtonian.
Sydney is an editorial fellow at Washingtonian Magazine, where she writes about history, news, food, and events. A recent graduate of the College of William & Mary, she is interested in writing and videography. You can follow her on Twitter @sydneykmahan
