President Donald Trump started his first day in office with a lie– or, should I say, an “alternative fact.” Throughout President Trump’s campaign, he made up facts that were easily debunked. Many hoped that when he became president, he would finally be honest with the American people. But on his first day in office, his press secretary, Sean Spicer, said during a press conference that President Trump’s inauguration was the most attended in history, with around 1.5 million attendees. In reality, only about 250,000 to 500,000 people attended the inauguration, which was about average for a presidential inauguration. When you compare pictures from President Barack Obama’s Inaugurations, the crowd differences are staggering. The claim made by Mr. Spicer was easily disproved and created an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust around Trump’s presidency.

Not only did his press secretary blatantly lie to the press, but the next day, campaign manager Kellyanne Conway claimed that the deception was simply an ‘alternative fact.’ By claiming this, not only did she confirm that President Trump would be lying to Americans for the rest of his presidency, but she also fed into the propaganda surrounding President Trump.

Propaganda is biased information that is fed into the people, and promotes a political idea or person. When Trump claims these things, because they aren’t true and are used to promote him, he is creating a flurry of propaganda. Many Americans don’t fact check claims, and wouldn’t assume that the leader of our nation would lie to us. But we live in a time where fake news runs rampant on social media, and being vigilant is more important than ever. Even the person who is supposed to be the most honest lies to the American people. 
President Trump is putting himself first, instead of the people he is supposed to be protecting. He shows more concern over an SNL skit than the fact that millions of Americans are losing their basic human rights. Lies are the building blocks of his presidency and the line between honesty and dishonesty is getting blurred. ‘Alternative facts’ are lies, no matter how you look at them. Look at every news story with a critical eye, even the ones from the leader of our nation. Be aware in this time of lies.