FACT CHECK, PLEASE

Trump, 79, Insists George Washington Would’ve Voted for Him

The 47th president claimed the country’s first president would have supported his America First agenda.

President Donald Trump told attendees at the American Cornerstone Institute’s Founders Dinner that George Washington “would have voted” for him.

Addressing the crowd dining at Washington’s own Mount Vernon estate, Trump said, “On the world stage, we are once again putting America first. That is what we do, we help others, but we have to put America first. Exactly as George Washington would have wanted. He would have voted for us.”

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The president went on to reference an unnamed man who ranked him as the third best president in American history, right behind Washington and Abraham Lincoln. “We have a man who rated me the number three president of all time,” Trump claimed. “He said only superseded by George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. And the host of the show said, ‘Are you in trouble! Trump is going to be so angry at you when he hears he‘s number three.’ But we will take that. I don‘t know how many have done that.”

During his speech, Trump also announced that he would be giving his Ben Carson, his former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Carson and his wife Candy established the American Cornerstone Institute, a think tank that aims to promote conservative values, in 2021. The institute was on the advisory board of Project 2025.

It’s not the first time Trump has invoked the name of America’s first president in order to bolster his own. In his address to Congress in March, the president said the first month of his second term was more successful than even George Washington’s.

“It has been stated by many that the first month of our presidency... is the most successful in the history of our nation,” Trump said, without specifying who had stated that. “And what makes it even more impressive is that, do you know who number two is? George Washington. How about that? I don’t know about that list, but we’ll take it.”

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During his first term in office, Trump ranked himself as the second-most presidential president to have ever held the office, placing himself ahead of Washington and telling attendees at an Ohio rally, “With the exception of the late, great Abraham Lincoln, I can be more presidential than any president that’s ever held this office.”

Critics of the president have long suggested that Trump was the exact kind of leader Washington feared when he chose to leave office after just two terms, particularly as Trump continues to fuel speculation that he will attempt to seek a third term in contravention of the 22nd Amendment.

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