One of the most dangerous problems in America today is that President Trump has convinced many Republicans that what he says is the truth and that what the media says is usually lies.

The first thing that would-be dictators do is to try to convince their citizens to hate the press. Some media-hating leaders have included Mao Zedong (China), Adolph Hitler (Germany), Kim Jong Un (North Korea) and Vladimir Putin (Russia).

The Washington Post is a reputable newspaper and it has kept a tally of the president’s lies and misleading statements since he took office. The number of Trump’s lies is now more than 12,000 and people can prove that each one of those statements is a lie by checking the facts.

The difference between what the president says and what the media says about a particular topic can be clarified by checking the facts online and in newspapers. People can depend on identical information found in multiple reliable sources. Reputable  newspapers and television reporters always check to ensure that the information they present is verifiably true, while the president is noted for saying and tweeting whatever comes into his head, without regard for the truth. He gives no evidence for his claims.

President Trump can rant and rave about the “crooked media” and the “corrupt media” all he wants, but it is foolish and gullible to always believe everything you hear, and especially foolish to believe anything this president says without checking the facts.

Ellen Field, New Gloucester

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