Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Top RNC lawyer resigns after rift grows with Trump

Trump escalates attacks on prosecutors, says Democrats run ‘a Gestapo administration’

Divided Trump campaign weighs joining TikTok, the app he tried to ban

The New York Times, alone in its outrage over access to Biden

The ‘Access Hollywood’ video cemented Trump’s air of invincibility

Stephen A. Smith would like even more of your attention

In photos: The 150th running of the Kentucky Derby

Bodies found in Mexico where 3 tourists went missing

Protesters clash with law enforcement at U-Va.

How Pope Francis opened the Vatican to transgender sex workers

Israel shuts down Al Jazeera’s operations, raids Jerusalem office

Hamas attacks border crossing, killing 3, as Gaza cease-fire talks drag on

Strangers help Sesame Street puppeteer after heirloom necklace was stolen

Teen grabs wheel when driver passes out and school bus veers into traffic

Cat climbed into Amazon return box, found alive 630 miles away

Ask Amy: I live with my boyfriend – and his sister and her family

Carolyn Hax: Working for a celebrity has this employee feeling ‘small’

Carolyn Hax: Longtime friend won’t forgive being last-minute canceled for a guy

Twitch streamers become go-to news source for campus protest coverage

After years of delay, Boeing to try again with Starliner space capsule

A frank look at hot dog prices at MLB ballparks

Sloppy first inning dooms the Nationals in a 6-3 loss to the Blue Jays

In a pinch, the Nationals finally find some offense

The new cure-all for vacation excess: the IV drip 

What’s the best bus to New York? We tested 5 for comfort and value.

You asked: Do I need a passport for my cruise?

There’s still time for Congress to Trump-proof the Insurrection Act 

The Post endorses April McClain Delaney and Tom Royals for Maryland’s 6th District

On Press Freedom Day, little to celebrate for Hong Kong’s journalists

See more coverage in your recommendations

Get the weekly Campaign Moment newsletter

Set alerts for major election developments

Election 2024

The Campaign Moment newsletter

Politics alerts

Meg Kelly

Because of summer vacation schedules, we had fallen a month behind in updating The Fact Checker’s database that analyzes, categorizes and tracks every suspect statement uttered by the president.

It turns out that’s when the president decided to turn on the spigots of false and misleading claims. As of day 558, he’s made 4,229 Trumpian claims — an increase of 978 in just two months.

That’s an overall average of nearly 7.6 claims a day.

When we first started this project for the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims/?tid=a_inl&amp;utm_term=.26f87d3bb8c3" rel="noopener" target="_blank">president’s first 100 days</a>, he averaged 4.9 claims a day. But the average number of claims per day keeps climbing the longer Trump stays in office. In fact, in June and July, the president averaged 16 claims a day.

Put another way: In his first year as president, Trump made 2,140 false or misleading claims. Now, just six months later, he has almost doubled that total.

Our <a href="https://twitter.com/GlennKesslerWP/status/1024012912531255297" rel="noopener" target="_blank">award-winning</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/?noredirect=on&amp;utm_term=.b6c6bd15b8da" rel="noopener" target="_blank">interactive graphic</a>, created with the help of Leslie Shapiro and Kaeti Hinck of The Washington Post’s graphics department, displays a running list of every false or misleading statement made by Trump. We have updated the graphic to allow readers to see the number of claims on a daily or monthly basis.

On July 5, the president reached a new daily high of 79 false and misleading claims. On a monthly basis, June and July rank in first and second place, with 532 and 446 claims, respectively.

Trump has a proclivity to repeat, over and over, many of his false or misleading statements. We’ve counted nearly 150 claims that the president has repeated at least three times, some with breathtaking frequency.

Almost one third of Trump’s claims — 1,293 — relate to economic issues, trade deals or jobs. He frequently takes credit for jobs created before he became president or company decisions with which he had no role. He cites his “incredible success” in terms of job growth, even though annual job growth under his presidency has been slower than the last five years of Barack Obama’s term.

Just on trade, the president has made 432 false or misleading claims. He frequently gets the size of trade deficits wrong or presents the numbers in a misleading fashion.

He also indicates a fundamental misunderstanding of economics. In June and July, more than 20 times the president said some variation of the claim that the United States “lost” money on trade deficits. Just about every economist would give a student an “F” for making such a statement.

A trade deficit simply means people in one country are buying more goods from another country than people in the second country are buying from the first. Trade deficits are also affected by macroeconomic factors, such as the relative strength of currencies, economic growth rates, and savings and investment rates.

Not surprisingly, immigration is the top single source of Trump’s misleading claims, now totaling 538. Thirty times just in the past five months, for instance, the president has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/04/05/president-trump-says-his-beautiful-wall-is-being-built-nope/?utm_term=.c28c6d06d556&amp;tid=a_inl_manual" rel="noopener" target="_blank">falsely claimed</a> his long-promised border wall with Mexico is being built, even though Congress has denied funding for it.

But moving up the list quickly are claims about the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether people in the Trump campaign were in any way connected to it. The president has made 378 statements about the Russia probe, using hyperbolic claims of “worse than Watergate,” “McCarthyism” and, of course, “witch hunt.” He often asserts the Democrats colluded with the Russians, even though the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign were victims of Russian activities, as emails were hacked and then released via WikiLeaks. All told, nearly 160 times the president has made claims suggesting the Russia probe is made up, a hoax or a fraud.

Misleading claims about taxes — now at 336 — are also a common feature of Trump’s speeches. Eighty-eight times, he has made the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/11/01/president-trumps-tax-cut-not-the-biggest-in-u-s-history/?utm_term=.1e1a0bd02795&amp;tid=a_inl_manual" rel="noopener" target="_blank">false assertion</a> that he passed the biggest tax cut in U.S. history.

On foreign policy, the president consistently misstates NATO spending. More than 60 times, he has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/05/31/trump-on-nato-funding-still-misleading-after-months-of-fact-checks/?utm_term=.086fbfd0b46b" rel="noopener" target="_blank">falsely said</a> the United States pays as much as 90 percent of the alliance’s costs and that other NATO members “owe” money. But he is conflating overall defense spending with NATO obligations — and the United States, unlike many NATO allies, has global responsibilities.

We also have catalogued the president’s many flip-flops, since those earn Upside-Down Pinocchios if a politician shifts position on an issue without acknowledging that he or she did so.

Given that the president has been in office more than 18 months, we decided to begin phasing out the listing of his astonishing flip-flop on the accuracy of the unemployment rate. During the campaign, he repeatedly claimed that it <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/03/13/president-trump-the-king-of-flip-flops/?tid=a_inl_manual" rel="noopener" target="_blank">was a phony number</a> and the real unemployment rate was really many times higher. Now, he regularly touts unemployment statistics as proof of his economic agenda’s success, though he does not always get them right. His refusal to acknowledge this shift has been frustrating, but even flip-flops have a statute of limitations.

Send us facts to check by filling out <a href="https://washingtonpost.wufoo.com/forms/fact-check-this/">this form</a>

Keep tabs on Trump’s promises with our <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-promise-tracker/">Trump Promise Tracker</a>

Sign up for The Fact Checker <a href="http://wapo.st/1OGIZWF">weekly newsletter</a>

Sigma Delta Chi award (Society of Professional Journalists), in the category of fact-checking across all platforms, 2022

Honorable Mention, Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting, 2019

Media Literate Media award (for The Fact Checker), National Association for Media Literacy Education, 2015

Premier Award, Aviation/Space Writers Association

Investigative Reporting award, Society of the Silurians

Finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists for national reporting

Finalist, Gerald Loeb awards 

Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth: The President's Falsehoods, Misleading Claims and Flat-Out Lies

The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy 

Brown University, B.A. in history

Columbia University, M.A. in international affairs

Glenn Kessler has reported on domestic and foreign policy for more than four decades. Send him statements to fact check by emailing him or sending a DM on Twitter 

Glenn Kessler

Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth

Emory University, BA, English

Salvador Rizzo covers crime and courts for The Washington Post. He was a reporter for The Fact Checker from 2018 to 2021 and previously covered New Jersey politics.

Salvador Rizzo

Fulbright-Nehru Scholar, 2010

U.S. State Department Critical Language Scholar for Punjabi, 2009

Columbia University, Barnard College, BA, Architecture

Meg Kelly is a video reporter for The Washington Post's Visual Forensics team. 

The Washington Post

About

Fact Checker

prism://prism.query/site,/politics/fact-checker?limit=20

Checking the truth behind the political rhetoric.

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/politics&limit=20

Politics

Post Politics from The Washington Post is the source for political news headlines, in-depth politics coverage and political opinion, plus breaking news on the biden administration and White House, Congress, the Supreme Court, elections and more.

prism://prism.query/site,/politics/the-fix&limit=6