To the editor: In Darrell Huff’s 1954 book “How to Lie With Statistics,” the author shows how graphs, samples, averages and other data can be used to mislead readers. Business columnist Michael Hiltzik offers plenty of examples of how President Trump treats numbers as “rhetorical objects” (“Here’s how Trump gets away with using dubious numbers,” Dec. 19). The larger the figures, the more they overwhelm people trying to make sense of them.
One claim in Hiltzik’s piece especially stood out: Trump’s statement that he “slashed prices on drugs and pharmaceuticals by as much as 400, 500 and even 600 percent.” Maybe I’m missing something, but if you cut a price by 100%, doesn’t that reduce it to $0? Anything beyond that — 400% or more — isn’t just exaggerated; it’s mathematically impossible.
I once tried a little number play while volunteering with fourth graders. I told them I deserved to have my pay doubled. They laughed — because they understood it would still be $0.
Jerry Lasnik, Thousand Oaks
To the editor: Trump gets away with dubious or vague statements because he often isn’t challenged in real time. That was on display during a presidential debate in 2024. When Kristen Welker of NBC News pressed Trump to describe his healthcare plan, he replied that he had “concepts of plan.” It was hard to take that as anything other than an admission that he didn’t actually have one.
