Tag: Trump fact check

Once again, ‘fake news’ decried by Trump turns out to be true

The following article by Glenn Kessler and Meg Kelly was posted on the Washington Post website July 26, 2018:

The Trump administration has a consistent habit of flatly denying media reports that turn out to be correct. (Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)

“I wanted to make sure, unlike most politicians, that what I said was correct. … When I make a statement, I like to be correct. I want the facts. … Before I make a statement, I need the facts.”

— President Trump, Aug. 15, 2017

At the Fact Checker, we have vetted many statements by President Trump — and maintain a running list of every false and misleading claim he has made since he took the oath of office. The president’s factual errors on trade and tax policy are relatively easy to fact-check, as the data undercutting his claims can be easily obtained.

But there have been a number of instances in which the president or his surrogates have flatly denied something — only to have that denial contradicted weeks or months later by new documents or statements. Often, by then the media coverage has moved on to a new controversy.

View the complete post here.

In West Virginia, Trump Talked About Immigration, China, Voting Fraud and More. We Fact-Checked Him. Image

The following article by Linda Qiu was posted on the New York Times website April 5, 2018:

During a discussion on Thursday in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., President Trump raised the issue of rape against immigrants and further confused facts on tax overhaul, the trade deficit with China and voter fraud.CreditDoug Mills/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — At an event on Thursday billed as a round-table discussion on tax overhaul, President Trump aired a litany of familiar — and often inaccurate — grievances on immigration, trade and voter fraud.

He suggested he had been vindicated by reports about the perils of immigration, particularly for women, and referred to a “caravan” of hundreds of Central American migrants traveling through Mexico, some headed toward the United States border.

“Remember my opening remarks at Trump Tower when I opened,” Mr. Trump said at the discussion, in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., referring to comments he made in 2015 during a speech announcing his candidacy for president. “Everybody said, ‘Oh, he was so tough,’ and I used the word ‘rape.’” Continue reading “In West Virginia, Trump Talked About Immigration, China, Voting Fraud and More. We Fact-Checked Him. Image”

Trump’s Objections Require Some Corrections

The following article by Linda Qiu was posted on the New York Times website March 23, 2018:

Army soldiers participating in a live-fire exercise in Oklahoma last month. Military spending has decreased in recent years. Credit Tamir Kalifa for The New York Time

WASHINGTON — As President Trump prepared on Friday to sign a $1.3 trillion spending bill, just hours after threatening to veto it, he offered a few misleading and selectively worded claims to explain why he was reluctantly authorizing the legislation.

“We looked at the veto. I looked very seriously at the veto. I was thinking about doing the veto,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House. “But because of the incredible gains that we’ve been able to make for the military, that overrode any of our — any of our thinking.”

But his explanation did not accurately describe just why those gains were enough to ultimately approve the spending bill. Nor did it correctly demonstrate why the legislation did not include programs that he had prioritized. Here’s a fact-check. Continue reading “Trump’s Objections Require Some Corrections”

President Trump’s claim that drug dealers who kill ‘thousands’ just get 30 days in jail

The following article by Glenn Kessler was posted on the Washington Post website March 23, 2018:

Credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

“Some of these drug dealers will kill thousands of people during their lifetime — thousands of people — and destroy many more lives than that. But they will kill thousands of people during their lifetime, and they’ll get caught and they’ll get 30 days in jail. Or they’ll go away for a year, or they’ll be fined. And yet, if you kill one person, you get the death penalty or you go to jail for life.”
— President Trump, remarks on combating the opioid crisis, March 19

“A drug dealer will kill 2,000, 3,000, 5,000 people, during the course of his or her life. … Thousands of people are killed, or their lives are destroyed, their families are destroyed. So you can kill thousands of people and go to jail for 30 days. They catch a drug dealer, they don’t even put him in jail. … Think of it: You kill 5,000 people with drugs, because you’re smuggling them in and you’re making a lot of money and people are dying, and they don’t even put you in jail, they don’t do anything. But you might get 30 days, 60 days, 90 days.”
— Trump, remarks at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, March 10 Continue reading “President Trump’s claim that drug dealers who kill ‘thousands’ just get 30 days in jail”

How Truthful Was Trump in His First Year? Before His State of the Union, What Our Fact Checks Show

The following article by Linda Qiu was posted on the New York Times website January 30, 2018:

President Trump is expected to tick off accomplishments from his first year in office during his first State of the Union address. Credit Eric Thayer for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — In his first State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Trump is expected to tick off accomplishments from his first year in office and present his policy vision going forward — and The New York Times will fact-check him as he speaks.

There is no guarantee that Mr. Trump will stick to the script. While his impromptu tweets and remarks are more prone to be inaccurate or unfounded, the president’s prepared speeches tend to be more tempered, even if they have taken facts out of context, included overstated or undue self-praise or offered bleak and exaggerated diagnoses.

Here are some lessons and themes drawn from a year of fact-checking Mr. Trump’s public remarks, interviews and social media posts as president. Continue reading “How Truthful Was Trump in His First Year? Before His State of the Union, What Our Fact Checks Show”

President Trump says the tax bill will ‘cost me a fortune.’ That’s false.

The following article by Glenn Kessler was posted on the Washington Post website November 30, 2017:

In short, no. The president would benefit mightily from either version of the GOP tax bill. (Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)

“This is going to cost me a fortune, this thing, believe me. This is not good for me. . . . I think my accountants are going crazy right now.”
— President Trump, remarks on tax plan, St. Charles, Mo., Nov. 29, 2017

There have been many times when we have thrown patently ridiculous claims made by the president into our database of false and misleading claims, only to decide later that we need to do a full fact check because the president keeps repeating the falsehood. Continue reading “President Trump says the tax bill will ‘cost me a fortune.’ That’s false.”

Is the Consumer Bureau ‘Unaccountable’ and Ineffective?

The following article by Linda Qiu was posted on the New York Times website November 28, 2017:

President Trump named his budget chief, Mick Mulvaney, as the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, in a bid to take control of the agency just hours after its departing leader had taken steps to install his own choice for acting chief. Credit Carlos Barria/Reuters

WASHINGTON — Alongside a legal showdown over who will lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency also faces renewed criticism — including from the official overseeing the bureau as the case is being considered.

Confusion has reigned as two acting directors have claimed the title: Mick Mulvaney, who was appointed by President Trump, and Leandra English, designated by the departing director of the bureau, Richard Cordray, as his successor.

Ms. English, the deputy director of the consumer bureau, filed a lawsuit on Sunday seeking to block Mr. Mulvaney, the White House budget chief, from taking control. A federal judge on Tuesday said that Mr. Mulvaney could lead the agency. Continue reading “Is the Consumer Bureau ‘Unaccountable’ and Ineffective?”

Trump’s still-wrong claim that the U.S. is the world’s highest-taxed developed nation

The following article by Glenn Kessler was posted on the Washington Post website October 18, 2017:

The president frequently claims the U.S. has the highest taxes of anywhere in the world. But we don’t. (Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)

“Some people say it differently, and they will say we are the highest developed nation taxed in the world. . . . A lot of people know exactly what I am talking about, and in many cases they think I am right when I say the highest. As far as I am concerned, we are really essentially the highest. But if you’d like to add the ‘developed nation,’ you can say that, too. But a lot of people agree that the way I am saying is exactly correct.”
— President Trump, responding to a question from Mike Sacks of E.W. Scripps Co., Oct. 17, 2017

Mike Sacks, national political correspondent for E.W. Scripps, asked President Trump a question The Fact Checker has been dying to ask: Why does he keep saying that the United States is the world’s highest-taxed nation when that is objectively false? Continue reading “Trump’s still-wrong claim that the U.S. is the world’s highest-taxed developed nation”

FACT CHECK: 4 Claims From Trump’s Tax Speech

The following article by Danielle Kurtzleben was posted on the NPR website August 30, 2017:

President Trump pitches tax overhaul at an event at the Loren Cook Company in Springfield, Mo., on Wednesday.
Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

President Trump pitched a tax overhaul package on Wednesday in a speech that was heavy on politicking and light on the particulars.

Trump’s tax policy ideas are still sketchy — when pitched in April, they amounted to one page of bullet points. In his Wednesday remarks, he didn’t add much more detail beyond the broad strokes, saying he wants lower rates for the middle class, a simpler tax code, lower corporate rates, and for companies to “bring back [their] money” from overseas to the U.S.

In his speech in Springfield, Mo., though, he said a few things that were misleading or could use more context. Here are four fact-checks: Continue reading “FACT CHECK: 4 Claims From Trump’s Tax Speech”

Lowlights of Trump’s 26 hours of misinformation: A super flip-flop + 29 false/misleading claims

The following articleby Michelle Ye Hee Lee  is from the Washington Post’s Fact Checker email update received July 28, 2017:

It’s been a busy year in Washington, but weeks like this one are especially hectic for political fact-checkers.

In a period of less than 26 hours — from 6:31 pm on July 24 to 8:09 PM on July 25 — President Trump made two fired-up speeches, held a news conference and tweeted with abandon, leaving a trail of misinformation in his wake. We found at least 29 false or misleading claims during that period. Here are some lowlights. Continue reading “Lowlights of Trump’s 26 hours of misinformation: A super flip-flop + 29 false/misleading claims”