According to legend, the first president of the United States George Washington must have been an infallibly honest person.

Already as a six-year-old he is said to have told his father that he could not lie about having cut down a cherry tree.

However, the whole story is a myth.

In fact, Washington could certainly slip on the truth, a trait he has shared with all American presidents.

This is emphasized by Eric Alterman, professor at Brooklyn College and author of the book "Lying in State".

- Presidents have especially lied about war and peace.

Millions of people have died as a result, Alterman says in this week's episode of SVT's Foreign Office.

- Harry Truman ordered the bombing of Hiroshima.

He lied about who he was bombing and said it was a military base, when it was a city.

Tens of thousands of inaccuracies

But not everyone lies as much or in the same way, and incumbent President Donald Trump stands out, according to Alterman.

Through the quantity, but also through a kind of "shameless" lies where both sender and receiver know that he is lying but no one cares.

For the past four years, several American media outlets have been working to examine the truthfulness of the president's statements.

The Washington Post has collected more than 20,000 statements made until July this year, which according to the newspaper were "incorrect or misleading".

The site Politifact has fact-checked hundreds of statements, of which more than half have been judged to be "incorrect" or completely up the walls.

For Trump supporters, it is still not that interesting, according to Alterman.

- They do not necessarily take the lies seriously, they mostly like that the one who lies is for their "team", against people they do not like.

"Do not look at the rhetoric"

This in turn is supported by Larry Cuffe, Mayor of the City of Virginia in Minnesota.

For him, Trump's policies have meant an important boost for local industries.

An abstract debate on truth, he cares less about, or what Trump says.

- You may say that he is lying - he has been accused of lying but so have many other politicians, says Cuffe.

- As long as the person is effective and moves the country forward, I think we should look at the substance and not the rhetoric.

In this week's Foreign Office, the subject is US President Donald Trump and his mildly debated relationship to the truth.

The whole program they can see here.