MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell on Tuesday said President Donald Trump has a tell that reveals when he has lied. And it happened on camera this week when Trump told reporters that he could have a "very, very good deal" to end the war with Iran in two or three days.
Trump's Contradictory Statements
"You'll be signing a peace agreement in two or three days?" a reporter asked, repeating Trump's own words back to him. "No, no, we have a good chance of doing it," Trump said. "We should be able to do it in one hour, if you want to know the truth."
O'Donnell seized on those last seven words: "if you want to know the truth."
Analysis of the Phrase
"Here's a phrase I've never used: 'If you want to know the truth,'" O'Donnell said, calling it a "weirder version" of the commonly used phrase "to tell the truth." But Trump uses it often without considering its implications. "The implication is the person saying that doesn't always tell the truth," O'Donnell explained. "It's one of Donald Trump's tics: 'If you want to know the truth.' And every single time I have ever heard that man use that phrase, he's said it after a lie."
He noted that Trump's "two or three days" claim contradicts his comments from last week that such agreements "take years" to make.
The Bigger Picture
"And so, yes, we want to know the truth," O'Donnell said. "And we all know it's impossible to get that from Donald Trump about anything." He pointed again to the clip of Trump this week saying he could have a deal in two or three days, only to backtrack when his own words were repeated.
"That's what we're dealing with in the presidency during wartime," he said. "That's the clown on the other side of the negotiations that Iran might or might not be engaging in with the United States."
See more from "The Last Word" on Tuesday night.
