Based on an analysis of hundreds of his public statements by Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale, Donald Trump enjoys few things more than when other men address him as “sir.” Dale has chronicled dozens of times Trump has claimed that a man has called “sir” on his Twitter account. What’s the significance of the repeated “Sir Alerts” compiled by Dale? Writing an op-ed for the Washington Post last week, Dale, who has fact-checked most of Trump’s speeches and interviews over the past two years, explained that when Trump drops a “sir” into a story, it’s a signal that he may be lying.
“Listen to this president long enough, and you can almost sense when a lie is coming,” he wrote. “If Trump tells a story in which an unnamed person calls him ‘sir,’ it’s probably invented.”
The most recent “Sir Alert” note by Dale on his Twitter account occurred Sunday in an interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News when Trump claimed, “I get it all the time; ‘Sir, we’ll never vote unless you’re on the ballot.’ I get it all the time. People are saying, ‘Sir, I will never vote unless you’re on the ballot.’”
In the above instance, the “people” calling Trump “sir” were of an unspecified gender. But perhaps more typical, as noted in an earlier Inquisitr report about Trump’s fondness for stories about men who cry in his presence in addition to calling him “sir,” was the following quote, cited by Dale , came at a campaign rally in October, when Trump described a “big, strong” steelworker calling him “sir.”
“Steelworkers…Big, strong guys they came up to me. One of them said ‘thank you sir for saving our country,’” Trump claimed. “And he was crying. And I’m tellin’ you, he was crying.”
In addition to the above two “Sir Alerts,” here are eight more instances of Trump telling probably fabricated stories in which someone addresses him as “sir.” In the first instance, members of Congress call him “sir.”
SIR ALERT! Trump says he took his “so brilliant” Veterans Choice idea to Congress, and they said, “Yes sir, we’re been trying to pass this for 45 years.”
The Choice program was passed in 2014 under Obama. Trump’s bill was merely a revision to the program.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) August 31, 2018
Dale found another example of the “big strong guy” “Sir Alert” that sounds nearly identical to the “steelworker” story cited above.
Combo Tears Alert and Sir Alert: Trump says that when he was walking in, “a big strong guy grabbed me, and he was almost crying, and it happens every time, and many times. And he said: ‘Sir, Mr. President, thank you so much for saving our country.'”
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 19, 2018
Sir alert: Trump, with a ridiculous lie, says that he was advised that today is so historic, with Kavanaugh being confirmed, that he should cancel his Kansas rally, but he decided he wouldn’t do that. “They called me, they said, Sir we’re signing the next Supreme Court Justice.”
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 6, 2018
Another example of a man with a stereotypically masculine occupation supposedly calling Trump “sir” came earlier this month from a “Georgia farmer.” As with many of the characters in Trump’s stories, whether or not the Georgia farmer actually exists is impossible to verify.
Sir Alert: Trump says he’ll never forget when a Georgia farmer allegedly told him, pre-hurricane, “Sir, I’ve been growing cotton for 25 years, this is the best crop I’ve ever grown…this is going to take care of all my problems,” but then, hurricane, no more cotton.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 4, 2018
Sir Alert: Trump says that Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue knows more about farming than anybody in the whole world. He said his aides wanted him to appoint people who knew nothing about farming and told him, in the interviews, “Sir, I know nothing, but I can learn.”
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 27, 2018
Dale even found one Trump story in which Trump called someone else “sir,” albeit in mocking fashion.
Rare Double Sir Alert! Trump said an unnamed senator told him, “’Sir, I’ve been in politics for 25 years I’ve been a senator for many years.’ I said, ‘Sir, I’ve been in politics for two and a half years, and I’m the president of the United States.'”
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 22, 2018
Another example of farmers addressing Trump as “sir” follows.”
Sir Alert: Trump says of Wisconsin dairy farmers: “Farmers came up to me: Sir, sir, can you help me…Sir, sir, Canada just put a surcharge on our dairy product.” This story, unlike almost all Sir stories, is actually more or less accurate.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 25, 2018
Finally, a “NATO leader” calls Trump “sir.”
Sir Alert: Trump tells a story about an unnamed NATO leader calling him “sir.” He adds that it’s nice when a president or prime minister calls him “sir,” since it shows respect. He says some more “sir”s.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 7, 2018
The final example had added significance because in telling that story, Trump expressed how much he enjoys it when people call him “sir.” Numerous further examples may be discovered at Scoopnest , which also reveals that while Trump does not always specify the gender of the person who calls him “sir” in his stories, he has rarely if ever specified that the “sir” came from a woman.