Donald Trump Already Told One Big, Fat Lie

The fifth and last GOP debate of the year promised to be a heated, important affair featuring nine top candidates at The Venetian in Las Vegas. As per usual, the top polling GOP candidate came out swinging. Donald Trump's opening statements were even more passionate than at previous debates. Despite what a majority of his fellow candidates had done, Trump shirked away from discussing issues of foreign policy and ways to combat ISIS and instead played on the strength of his poll numbers and the impressive rise of his campaign. And, well, he told a huge lie about what people think about him. In full, Trump said:

I began this journey six months ago. My total focus was on building up our military, building up our strength, building up our borders, making sure that China, Japan, Mexico, both at the border and in trade, no longer takes advantage of our country.

[I] certainly would never have made that horrible, disgusting, absolutely incompetent deal with Iran where they get $150 billion. They're a terrorist nation. But I began it talking about other things. And those things are things that I'm very good at and maybe that's why I'm center stage. People saw it. People liked it. People respected it.

A month ago things changed. Radical Islamic terrorism came into effect even more so than it has been in the past. People like what I say. People respect what I say. And we've opened up a very big discussion that needed to be opened up.

Thank you very much.

The big(gest) lie issued within Trump's statement is the fact that people respect him. The candidate has faced massive backlash over a proposal to prevent Muslims from entering the United States. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest not only condemned the ban, but stated that the discriminatory move is one that would essentially disqualify Trump from the presidency.

Trump has continued to be combative and wholly disrespectful to those who disagree with him. He's also already made a false claim in his opening statement. Though Trump has repeatedly said that Iran is set to get $150 billion dollars out of the Iran Nuclear Deal, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has said that that is simply not the case, indicating that a majority of the money allocated will be spent elsewhere. Speaking at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast in July, Lew had this to say about Trump's claim:

There is a lot of discussion out there that Iran is going to somehow get $150 billion as soon as sanctions are lifted. That is incorrect. ... I have never argued that a penny can't be put to a malign purpose but this is not going to change the shape of Iran's resources for good or bad purposes.

Trump's perpetuating erroneous Iran Deal numbers and boasting about polling numbers simply lack substance. Once again, the candidate has prove himself to be a candidate who is anything but respectable. Him claiming otherwise is simply a lie.