Letters to the Editor: One of Trump’s recent claims isn’t just dubious. It’s mathematically impossible

To the editor: In the 1954 book “How to Lie With Statistics” by Darrell Huff, the author explains how graphs, samples, averages and other data can be used to mislead readers. Business columnist Michael Hiltzik’s many examples show us how President Trump uses numbers as “rhetorical objects” (“Here’s how Trump gets away with using dubious numbers,” Dec. 19). The bigger the numbers, the more overwhelmed are the people trying to digest them.

One thing in Hiltzik’s piece that drew my attention was Trump’s claim that he “slashed prices on drugs and pharmaceuticals by as much as 400, 500 and even 600 percent.” Perhaps I am missing something, but if you slash a price by only 100%, doesn’t that bring it down to $0? Forget 400% or more. That’s mathematically impossible.

I tried some mathematical trickery while volunteering to help fourth graders with math. I told them I deserved to have my pay doubled. They laughed. They knew it would still be $0.

Jerry Lasnik, Thousand Oaks

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To the editor: Trump gets away with dubious or vague statements because he’s not challenged in real time. This happened during one presidential debate in 2024. When Kristen Welker of NBC News pressed Trump to describe his healthcare plan, he responded he had “concepts of plan.” It’s easy to interpret from that statement that he did not, in fact, have any plan.

Fact-checking after the fact makes little difference. During Trump’s first term, the Washington Post documented more than 30,000 misleading or false statements that he made. Maybe a newspaper with resources should keep a daily catalogue of Trump’s falsehoods.

Domenico Maceri, San Luis Obispo