Top 4 Times Donald Trump Promoted “Fake News”

2. Climate Change is A Chinese Hoax

The idea of climate change is very controversial. The arguments surrounding its validity range from whether or not it is real, to the question of the real “man-made” impact on climate effects. What has never really been argued over in terms of climate change is whether or not it was hoax created by the Chinese. Donald Trump tweeted in November of 2012 that he believed just that.

The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2012

In an interview on Fox News, Trump tried to explain that he says this in jest, but then seemed to qualify how it the statement is true:

Well, I think the climate change is just a very, very expensive form of tax. A lot of people are making a lot of money. I know much about climate change. I’d be — received environmental awards. And I often joke that this is done for the benefit of China. Obviously, I joke. But this is done for the benefit of China, because China does not do anything to help climate change. They burn everything you could burn; they couldn’t care less. They have very — you know, their standards are nothing. But they — in the meantime, they can undercut us on price. So it’s very hard on our business.

This story was also rated a “pants on fire” by Politifact.