Bernie Sanders calls out Donald Trump’s ‘lies all the time’ in a fierce critique of the president’s mistruths

Let’s call it what it is: Donald Trump wouldn’t know the truth if it walked up to him in a MAGA hat and called him “sir.”

His relationship with facts has always been tenuous at best, and on April 8, Senator Bernie Sanders decided he’d had enough. In a fiery Senate Finance Committee hearing, Sanders took a verbal sledgehammer to the president’s habit of bending reality into whatever shape suits his narrative. And honestly, it was about time someone did.

Trump’s “alternative facts” have always been part of his political shtick, but Sanders wasn’t in the mood to humor him. He called out Trump’s baseless claims about Canada being some sort of fentanyl superhighway and his assertion that “millions and millions” of undocumented immigrants are pouring across the northern border.

At the Senate Finance Committee hearing, Sanders grilled U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer about Trump’s tariff policies, specifically the 25% emergency tariff imposed on Canada. Trump justified this move by claiming it was necessary to combat an “emergency” involving fentanyl smuggling and undocumented immigrants. The data doesn’t back him up. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, only 43 pounds of fentanyl were seized at the Canadian border last year. That’s 0.2% of the total fentanyl seized nationwide.

Meanwhile, Trump’s “millions and millions” of undocumented immigrants? The actual number was 24,000. That’s a rounding error in Trump’s world, but to the rest of us, it’s a pretty significant exaggeration. Sanders made it clear that using lies to justify sweeping economic policies is not just dishonest; it’s dangerous. And he’s right. When a president uses falsehoods to by Congress and impose tariffs unilaterally, it sets a troubling precedent.

Sanders isn’t exactly a cheerleader for free trade. He’s been critical of trade deals like NAFTA and China’s permanent normal trade relations since before it was politically trendy to do so. His opposition comes from a place of principle — he’s seen the impact of these policies on American workers, from shuttered factories to communities hollowed out by outsourcing. During the hearing, he recounted a visit to Mexico, where he saw workers living in cardboard boxes while American jobs disappeared south of the border.

And if you want to see the real-world impact of Trump’s tariff policies, look no further than the stock market. Since the announcement, global markets have been in freefall. On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped over 300 points, or 0.8%. The S&P 500 fell 1.6%, and the Nasdaq closed down over 2%. 

Tariffs drive up costs for businesses, disrupt supply chains, and invite retaliation from other countries. They’re essentially a tax on trade. Trump may think he’s “winning” the trade war, but the reality is that his policies are creating uncertainty and instability. In the meantime, American consumers brace for higher prices on everything from smartphones to sneakers. All because, as Bernie Sanders so bluntly put it, we have a president who apparently “has to lie all of the time.” I guess there’s one industry Trump’s tariffs won’t hurt: fact-checkers. Business is booming.