Donald Trump apparently lied about two recent phone calls he had, one with the head of the Boy Scouts and another with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. Trump claimed praise was heaped on him in both calls.
Trump claimed that Nieto called him to praise him for work on the U.S. – Mexican border. But that didn't occur, according to Nieto.
As Mr. Trump welcomed his new Chief of Staff John Kelly to the Cabinet table on Monday, Mr. Trump took time to applaud the work Kelly had done during his time leading the Department of Homeland Security.
“At Homeland, what he has done has been nothing short of miraculous,” Mr. Trump said of Kelly.
He went on, saying, “As you know, the border was a tremendous problem and they're close to 80 percent stoppage. And even the president of Mexico called me — they said their southern border, very few people are coming because they know they're not going to get through our border, which is the ultimate compliment.”
But Nieto denies that ever happened.
In a statement released by the Mexican Foreign Ministry, Nieto “has not recently spoken to President Donald Trump over the telephone.”
Trump also claimed that the head of the Boy Scouts called to praise him for “the greatest speech that was ever made to them” following his horrific speech at the Boy Scouts National Jamboree.
But the organization told TIME they are unaware of any call from national leadership placed to the White House.
“The Chief Scout Executive's message to the Scouting community speaks for itself,” the organization said, referring to a July 27 statement from Michael Surbaugh, the Chief Scout Executive for the Boy Scouts of America, who apologized to anyone in the scouting community who could have been offended or alarmed by the political rhetoric in the speech.
“For years, people have called upon us to take a position on political issues, and we have steadfastly remained non-partisan and refused to comment on political matters. We sincerely regret that politics were inserted into the Scouting program,” Surbaugh wrote.
