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“Lies, damned lies, and statistics” is a phrase often used to describe the persuasive power of statistics to bolster weak arguments.

In the current environment, it has become extremely difficult to separate fact from fiction. Statistics are being used indiscriminately to bolster Donald Trump’s assertions.

Trump still claims he won the 2020 election. He says the Jan. 6 insurrection was a “day of love” and none of the rioters carried guns. He falsely claims Ukraine started the war, Zelensky is a dictator, Putin is honest and trustworthy.

Trump stated during his campaign he could make a “deal” with Putin and end the war in 24 hours. Most recently, he says the thousands fired from government positions were terminated for poor performance. Unless you live under a rock or in a vacuum you know many or all these statements are exaggerated or false. Whatever the outcome, Trump and his followers omit key facts and use “statistics” to prove a point. When a deal doesn’t end well, Trump is quick to blame the other guy. Trump seldom loses an argument, because for him, the “truth” is “inconvenient.”

We are suddenly in the midst of a trade war like no other. Trump is at war with the world, and he is only beginning. The trouble with trade wars is that once they get started, they quickly escalate and get out of control. With elections looming in Canada, the stakes get higher. Will he apply tariffs to Denmark as he tries to annex Greenland for “security reasons?” How about Panama, the Canal and the Chinese threat? Today Ireland is under Trump’s tariff eye, tomorrow?

While Trump’s tariff war has no boundaries, and includes an endless list of subjects, Canada is a primary target. He promised he would “substantially increase” tariffs on cars April 2, which he said would “essentially, permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada.”

Recently, President Trump went ballistic and said, Canada “must immediately drop” their Anti-American farmer tariff of 250% to 390% on various US dairy products. But Trump fails to mention a critical fact.

Those high tariffs kick in only after the U.S. has hit a specified Trump-negotiated volume of tariff-free dairy sales to Canada each year — and as the US dairy industry acknowledges, the US is not hitting its allowed zero-tariff maximum in any category of dairy product. In many categories, notably including milk, the U.S. is not even at half of the zero-tariff maximum.

Under Trump’s United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), Canada guaranteed it wouldn’t apply any tariffs to specific amounts of US imports per year in 14 dairy categories, such as milk, cream, cheese, ice cream, butter and cream powder, and yogurt and buttermilk. These new US-specific quotas, which Canada agreed to increase over time, gave American farmers and companies more access to the Canadian market.

The tariffs Trump is denouncing were left in place by the USMCA, which Trump negotiated, signed in 2018 and touted as “the best trade deal ever made.” So much for the Trump’s best-selling book, “Art of The Deal.”