Trump

FACT CHECKER

1. “I won the 2020 election! By a lot!”

2. “We had the greatest economy in history.”

3. “We got the largest tax cut in history.”

4. "There is a crime wave at levels nobody has ever seen before."

5. "Immigrants are “coming from prisons, coming from jails, coming from mental institutions and insane asylums…” “We call it migrant crime. They’re killing our citizens at a level that we’ve never seen before.”

6. “Everybody,” including “every legal scholar,” wanted Roe v. Wade overturned."

7. “The European nations together have spent less than us on aid to Ukraine."

8. “Inflation is destroying our country.”

9. “They have some states passing legislation where you can execute the baby after birth. It’s crazy.”

10. “Nancy Pelosi was in charge of security. She turned down 10,000 soldiers. If she didn’t turn down the soldiers, you wouldn’t have had January 6.”

“She’s responsible for January 6.”

11. “Witch hunt!”

“Biden went to the attorney general, and told them, ‘Indict Trump.’”

12. “I’m the one that got insulin down for seniors”

13. “The Presidential Records Act means, “I can do whatever I want.”

Claim: Trump legally took all the documents found by the FBI at Mar-a- Lago.

14. “No one was killed on January 6th”

15. “I built the border wall,” “I completed much more than I said I was going to do…”

16. “Kamala even wants to pass laws to outlaw red meat to stop climate change.”

17. “Kamala Harris “was the border czar. But she never went to the border.”

18. "Kamala Harris allowed 20 million illegal aliens to stampede into our country from all over the world.”

19. “We’re paying for close to 100% of NATO.”

“I looked at the numbers, and I said, wait a minute, the United States is paying for NATO.”

20. “I have a phenomenal health care plan…”

21. “I am much better looking than her. I’m a better-looking person than Kamala.” — August 17th, 2024

22. “I never met that woman [E. Jean Carroll]”

23. “I did not have sex with a porn star.”

24. "Joe Biden “is the worst President in US history”

25. “Nobody’s ever done a better job than I’m doing as president” — Trump, to Bob Woodward, 2018

ABOUT

FACT

Republicans filed 64 court cases claiming fraud in the 2020 election, and in every case failed to provide evidence of election fraud sufficient to change the outcome of the election.

SOURCE: https://lostnotstolen.org/

FACT

Biden/Harris presided over greater job growth and GDP growth than Trump.

According to the US Treasury Department, Trump was the first President since Herbert Hoover to end his term with fewer jobs in the US than when he began.

Even if one discounts the jobs lost during the Covid pandemic, job growth under Trump was lower than it was under Biden/Harris.

SOURCE: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/24/opinion/trump-lies-charts-data.html

FACT

When passed in 2017, Trump’s tax cut was, in inflation- adjusted dollars, the fourth-largest since 1940.

As a percentage of gross domestic product, it ranked seventh in history, according to figures published by the Treasury Dept.

SOURCE: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/24/opinion/trump-lies-charts-data.html

FACT

Crime rates have been lower under Biden / Harris than under Trump. Crime rates today are near a 50-year low.

SOURCE: https://www.politifact.com/…/joe-biden-is-correct-that

SEE ALSO:
https://stevenrattner.com/2024/07/steve-rattners-morning-joe-charts-fact-checking-trumps-lies-from-thursdays-debate/

FACT

Undocumented migrants commit crimes at lower rates than US-born citizens or legal immigrants.

Immigration experts have said that, despite data limitations, there is no evidence to support Trump’s statement.

Immigration officials arrested about 103,700 noncitizens with criminal convictions (whether in the U.S. or abroad) from fiscal years 2021 to 2024. Many people in Latin American countries face barriers to mental health treatment, so they are probably coming from their homes, not psychiatric hospitals.

SOURCE: https://stevenrattner.com/2024/07/steve-rattners-morning-joe-charts-fact-checking-trumps-lies-from-thursdays-debate/

FACT

Most Americans did not want Roe v. Wade overturned.

SOURCE: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/apr/10/donald-trump/donald-trump-said-all-legal-scholars-on-both-sides/

FACT

Among bilateral donors, the U.S. remains the top provider of aid, with a total of 75.1 billion Euro in allocations, driven in large part by its 51.6 billion euros of military aid. Germany, the U.K., Japan, and Canada follow, with 14.7, 13.1, 9.1, and 7.2 billion Euro in total allocations respectively, to complete the ranking of the top 5 bilateral donors.

In terms of total bilateral allocations as a percent of 2021 GDP, Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania top the ranking with 1.8, 1.7, and 1.4 percent.” “As a whole, Europe, which includes the EU institutions and member states as well as the U.K, Norway, Iceland, and Switzerland, has allocated a total of 110.2 billion Euro, of which roughly half (51.5 billion Euro) has been for military aid.

SOURCE: https://www.ifw-kiel.de/topics/war-against-ukraine/ukraine-support-tracker/

FACT

As of July 2024, the annual inflation rate was 2.9% — less than the 50-year average of 3.78%.

SOURCE: https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2024/consumer-prices-up-2-9-percent-from-july-2023-to-july-2024.html

FACT

No state has passed a law — or is passing a law — that allows the execution of a baby after it is born. Killing a person after birth is illegal in every state.

“Every state explicitly criminalizes infanticide” — Mary Ziegler, Professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law.

“There is no basis for this claim” — Kimberly Mutcherson, Professor at Rutgers Law School.

SOURCE: https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/06/politics/fact-check-donald-trump-abortion-babies-executed/ index.html

FACT

Trump’s claims are false.

First, the speaker of the House is not in charge of Capitol security. Capitol security is overseen by the Capitol Police Board, a body that includes the sergeants at arms of the House and the Senate. (The Senate was led at the time by a Republican, Sen. Mitch McConnell.)

Second, there is no evidence for the claim that Pelosi rejected a Trump offer of 10,000 National Guard troops in advance of January 6. Her office has explicitly said she was not even presented with such an offer, telling CNN last year claims to the contrary are “lies.” Pelosi said on MSNBC on Sunday: “The former occupant of the White House has always been about projection. He knows he’s responsible for [the riot], so he projects it onto others.”

Third, even if Pelosi had been told of an offer of National Guard troops, she would not have had the power to turn it down. The speaker of the House has no authority to prevent the deployment of the District of Columbia National Guard, which reports to the president (whose authority is delegated, under a decades-old executive order, to the Secretary of the Army).

Fourth, the House select committee that investigated the attack on the Capitol found “no evidence” Trump gave any actual order for 10,000 Guard troops, and the Biden-era Pentagon told The Washington Post in 2021 it has no record of any such order. Miller testified to the House select committee that investigated the attack on the Capitol that Trump had, in a January 5 phone call, briefly and informally floated the idea of having 10,000 troops present on January 6 but did not issue any directive to that effect. Miller said, “I interpreted it as a bit of President Trump banter that you all are familiar with, and in no way, shape, or form did I interpret that as an order or direction.”

Fifth, at around 3:49 p.m. during the riot, Pelosi was filmed while on the phone with Miller urging him to hurry Guard troops to the Capitol, telling him “just get them there” and to “just pretend for a moment this was the Pentagon or the White House or some other entity that was under siege.”

Trump made no such plea; the House select committee that investigated the attack on the Capitol found that Trump did not call any “high-level Defense official” during the riot, that Trump never ordered a Guard deployment – Miller did so – and that Trump never instructed any law enforcement agency to assist.

Pelosi said: “Chuck Schumer and I begged him to send the troops, again and again.” She added, “These Trumpites were attacking the Capitol, fighting the police, threatening my life and the life of the vice president — we’re turning down the troops?”

SOURCE: https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/17/politics/fact-check-donald-trump/index.html

FACT

Grand juries made up of ordinary citizens – in New York, Georgia, Florida and Washington, DC – approved the indictments in each of Trump’s criminal cases.

The two federal indictments were brought by a special counsel, Jack Smith. Smith was appointed in November 2022 by Garland, a Biden appointee, but that is not proof that Biden was involved in the prosecution effort, much less that Biden directed it.

There is no evidence that Biden has been involved in the decision to criminally investigate or prosecute Trump, let alone any proof that he personally went to Garland and urged him to indict Trump. Biden said in June that he had not spoken to Garland on the subject and was “not going to speak with him.

SOURCE: https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/17/politics/fact-check-donald-trump/index.html

FACT

Trump can claim some credit for lowering insulin costs for seniors, as his administration advanced a voluntary program to do so.

But his claim that Biden had "NOTHING to do with it" is false. The Inflation Reduction Act, which Biden signed into law, imposed a mandatory Medicare insulin price cap that applied across the program, benefiting a significantly larger number of insulin users — including people not enrolled in Medicare.

SOURCE: https://www.news-medical.net/news/20240718/Trump-is-wrong-in-claiming-full-credit-forlowering-insulin-prices.aspx

FACT

The Presidential Records Act states: “Upon the conclusion of a President’s term of office, or if a President serves consecutive terms upon the conclusion of the last term, the Archivist of the United States shall assume responsibility for the custody, control, and preservation of, and access to, the Presidential records of that President.”

“The former President is simply wrong as a matter of law.

“As of noon on January 20, 2021, when President Biden took office, all presidential records of the Trump Administration came into the legal custody of the Archivist of the United States.

“Full stop.

“That means no presidential records ever should have been transferred to Mar-a-Lago, and there was no further talking or negotiating to be had.”

— Jason R. Baron, former director of litigation at the National Archives and Records Administration, March 2023:

SOURCE: https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/08/politics/fact-check-trump-claims-documents-investigation/ index.html

FACT

- Ashley Babbitt was killed by Capitol police while attempting to storm the Capitol
- Rosanne Boyland suffered an amphetamine overdose, then was trampled in a crush of fellow rioters
- Kevin Greeson died of a heart attack
- Benjamin Phillips died of a stroke

One day after the attack, a Capitol Police officer, Brian M. Sicknick, died. Authorities initially said that Officer Sicknick, who had been sprayed with chemical spray while protecting the Capitol, had died “due to injuries sustained while on-duty.”

The medical examiner later found that he had suffered two strokes and had died of natural causes, noting, however, that the stress of being in the riot had still played some role in his death.

At least four Capitol Police officers killed themselves in the weeks that followed Jan. 6.

SOURCE: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/08/us/politics/trump-jan-6-deaths.html

FACT

Under Trump, only 52 miles of new “primary” wall was built where no barriers had previously existed.

Trump repeatedly said in 2016 that “we need” 1,000 miles of wall to protect the southern border, with another 1,000 miles already protected by natural barriers. But not even close to 1,000 miles were built during his presidency; official federal statistics put the total construction at 458 miles.

When Trump left office, there were about 280 miles of the border where wall construction had been planned but not executed.

SOURCE: https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/04/politics/fact-check-trump-time-magazine/index.html

FACT

Harris has never supported laws to outlaw red meat.

At a CNN climate change town hall in 2019, when she was running in the Democratic presidential primary, she expressed support for changing dietary guidelines to try to encourage Americans to reduce their consumption of red meat, but she also said “I love cheeseburgers from time to time” and that she favored using “incentives” and education to encourage healthy eating. 

After mentioning sodas and foods with sugar, Harris said in this same town hall answer that “the balance that we have to strike here, frankly, is about what government can and should do around creating incentives and then banning certain behaviors.”

The phrase “banning certain behaviors” opened the door to claims that she wants to ban red meat. But she immediately proceeded to her comments about how she enjoys cheeseburgers and favors incentives to prod changes in behavior – making clear in context that she was expressing support for incentives rather than bans.

Asked about Trump’s claim about Harris wanting to outlaw red meat, the Trump campaign provided two citations that did not substantiate it: a YouTube video of Harris’ comments that was correctly titled “Kamala Harris Wants The Government To Create ‘Incentives’ For Americans to Eat Less Meat” and an article headlined, “Flashback: Kamala Harris said she would support eating less meat if elected president.”

SOURCE: https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/25/politics/fact-check-trump-false-claims-kamala-harris/index.html

FACT

Trump makes two false claims here.

First, Harris did go to the border as Vice President, in Texas in mid-2021; many Republicans had criticized Harris prior to the visit for not having gone, and some later argued that she didn’t go frequently enough, but the claim that she “never” went has not been true for more than three years.

Second, Harris was never made Biden’s “border czar,” a label the White House has always emphasized is inaccurate. In reality, Biden gave Harris a limited immigration-related assignment in 2021, asking her to lead diplomacy with El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras in an attempt to address the conditions that prompted their citizens to try to migrate to the United States.

Some Republicans have scoffed at assertions that Harris was never the “border czar,” noting on social media that news articles sometimes described Harris as such. But those articles were wrong. Various news outlets, including CNN, reported as early as the first half of 2021 that the White House emphasized that Harris had not been put in charge of border security as a whole, as “border czar” strongly suggests, and had instead been handed a diplomatic task related to Central American countries.

A White House “fact sheet” in July 2021 said: “On February 2, 2021, President Biden signed an Executive Order that called for the development of a Root Causes Strategy. Since March, Vice President Kamala Harris has been leading the Administration’s diplomatic efforts to address the root causes of migration from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.”

Republicans can fairly say that even “root causes” work is a border-related task. But calling her “border czar” goes too far.

SOURCE: https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/25/politics/fact-check-trump-false-claims-kamala-harris/index.html

FACT

The “20 million” figure is false, a major exaggeration.

The total number of “encounters” at the northern and southern border from February 2021 through June 2024, at both legal ports of entry and in between those ports, was about 10 million – and an “encounter” does not mean a person was let into the country; some people encountered are promptly sent away.

Even if you added the estimated number of Biden-era “gotaways” (people who evaded the Border Patrol to enter illegally), which House Republicans said in May was nearly two million, “the totals would still be vastly smaller than 15, 16 or 18 million,” Michelle Mittelstadt, spokesperson for the Migration Policy Institute think tank, said after Trump used those figures.

The “encounters” figures can’t be described as figures on people successfully entering the US. Some encounters involve people who are deemed inadmissible at legal ports and are refused permission to enter.

Also, the same person can be “encountered” multiple times if they keep returning to the border to try again – which is what happened in many cases under Biden when the Title 42 rapid-expulsion authority invoked by Trump during the Covid-19 pandemic was in place into May 2023.

SOURCE: https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/25/politics/fact-check-trump-false-claims-kamala-harris/index.html

FACT

Official NATO figures show that in 2016, the last year before Trump took office, US defense spending made up about 71% of total defense spending by NATO members– a large majority, but not “close to 100%.”

Trump’s claim is even more inaccurate if he was talking about the direct contributions to NATO that cover NATO’s organizational expenses and are set based on each country’s national income; the US was responsible for about 22% of those contributions in 2016.

The US share of total NATO military spending fell to about 65% in 2023. And the US is now responsible for about 16% of direct contributions to NATO, the same as Germany.

Erwan Lagadec, an expert on NATO as a research professor at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs said the US share was reduced from 22% “to placate Trump” and is a “sweetheart deal” given that the US makes up more than half of the alliance’s total GDP.

SOURCE: https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/2024/2/14/fact-check–debunking-five-false-trump-claimsabout-nato.html

FACT

Claim:  Trump is going to introduce a “terrific,” “phenomenal” and “fantastic” new health care plan to replace the Affordable Care Act – in “two weeks.”

Fact: Trump has been promising a new health plan “in two weeks” for nearly eight years. 

Trump tried and failed multiple times to repeal the Affordable Care Act. All of the repeal bills that went through Congress would have caused millions of Americans to lose their health coverage and raised premiums for millions more.

Trump’s repeal efforts would have ended Medicaid as we know it.

During his 2024 campaign Trump has repeatedly reignited his calls to “terminate” the Affordable Care Act, which he claims is a “disaster,” and his MAGA allies in Congress are seeking to dismantle the Inflation Reduction Act and its provisions making prescription drugs and health care premiums more affordable for tens of millions of Americans.

Census data revealed the uninsured rate rose during Trump’s tenure for the first time since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. The rate increased from 7.9 percent in 2017 to 8.5 percent in 2018, or by approximately 2 million people. 

SOURCE: https://www.protectourcare.org/five-lies-youll-hear-from-donald-trump-at-the-debate/

FACT

FACT

Photo of Trump meeting E. Jean Carrol:

On May 9th, 2023, a NY jury found Trump had sexually assaulted E Jean Carroll. In a filing on July 19, 2023, the judge in the sexual assault case, Lewis Kaplan, clarified that what Trump did to Ms. Carroll — forcing his fingers into her vagina (ie, “grab ‘em by the pussy”) — was “rape” as it is commonly understood.

SOURCES (On the sexual assault:) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ E._Jean_Carroll_v._Donald_J._Trump 

(On the assault as rape): https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/19/trump-carroll-judgerape/

FACT

Claim:  Trump paid $130,000 to Stormy Daniels, but did not have sex with her.

Fact: Donald Trump boasted about having sex with adult film star Stormy Daniels at the 2006 golf tournament where the two met, a celebrity athlete who played the tournament has said.

The celebrity athlete, who spoke to The Daily Beast on condition of anonymity, citing fear of retaliation, said he was close to Trump and Daniels while they socialized at the 2006 American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe.”

“It was clear to me and everyone who heard him that he was talking about Stormy,” the athlete said, adding that Trump encouraged other celebs to try to have sex with Daniels, behavior the athlete described as “crass,” “gross,” and “stupid”

“He’d say all these things like, ‘You’ve gotta bang a porn star, it’s incredible,’ and, ‘It added 20 yards to my drive today.”

FACT

Biden was ranked the 14th best president in US history.

The 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey, released in February 2024, collected responses from 154 presidential historians, including current and recent members of the American Political Science Association.

SOURCE: https://presidentialgreatnessproject.com/

FACT

Trump was ranked the worst President in U.S. history by the 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey.

SOURCE: https://presidentialgreatnessproject.com/

FACT

-Trump’s lies are predictable.

-They are designed to create a false narrative.

-Everything is a crisis — crime, inflation, immigration…

- This is what every wannabe dictator tells their cult.

-We can fact check his lies in real time.

-Facts are kryptonite to wannabe-dictator B.S.

-Enjoy Trump B.S. Bingo with your family and friends!