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editorial

Every day, Donald Trump accuses the media of deliberately publishing “fake news." And yet the biggest lie in the United States as midterm elections approach comes from the President himself: that a horde of invaders, some of whom are “criminals and unknown Middle Easterners," will any minute lay siege to the American border in Mexico and force their way into the country.

“This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!” Mr. Trump tweeted on Monday.

This is complete bunk. What is actually occurring is a sadly common phenomenon in Mexico these days: a group of men, women and children from a beleaguered Central American country, in this case Honduras, walking north as they flee violence and dire living conditions.

As of Monday, the “caravan” of between 3,600 and 7,000 people – it depends on who is counting – was still 1,600 kilometres from the U.S. border and moving at a walking pace. Some are turning back and going home, while thousands are being processed for asylum in Mexico. The rest press on.

Those who reach the border in about two months from now will ask for asylum and, if rejected, will be turned away. There is little more to it than that, and no evidence whatsoever that among them are “Gang Members and some very bad people," as Mr. Trump falsely stated in a tweet on Monday.

And yet the President and his party are playing this as an imminent crisis. What is so disturbing is that it is so obviously a lie. Any reasonable person who examined the facts would quickly realize there is no threat.

Worse yet is the fact that right-wing media outlets repeat Mr. Trump’s lie and add their own conspiracy theories, such as the false claim the caravan is a nefarious plot funded by the Jewish philanthropist George Soros.

It is for moments just like this that the President endlessly repeats his “fake news” mantra and calls the media “the enemy of the people.” Don’t believe your lying eyes, he tells Americans. Only believe me.

When a country ignores evidence and fact in favour of the lies of its leader and the slander of his followers, it can fall into totalitarianism. That is the precipice on which the United States finds itself in 2018.

Editor’s note: (Oct. 30, 2018) An earlier version of this editorial said the caravan began in Guatemala. In fact it started in Honduras.

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