Donald Trump earned 59 Four-Pinocchio ratings as a presidential candidate. Now that he’s president, he has continued his proclivity for making dubious, misleading or false statements. He also often repeats the same debunked claims even though they have been fact-checked. It’s hard to keep up with all of Trump’s rhetoric, so the Fact Checker is assembling in one place all of his suspect statements from his first 100 days as president. You can sort them by various categories and see how many times he has repeated the same false statement.

Where were the claims made?

The greatest number of false and misleading claims were made in remarks.

Remarks
Interview
Prepared speech
Twitter
News conference
Statement
Facebook

The most frequent topic of these claims was jobs, which came up 94 times. Other frequent topics were immigration (68 claims) and foreign policy (67 claims).

Most repeated claims

Trump repeatedly (25 times) took credit for projects involving Ford, GM, Fiat Chrysler and other companies that were announced or planned long before he took office. Most recent claim

Trump also misleadingly claimed 15 times that he lowered the cost of F-35 airplanes by $700 million... Most recent claim

...and repeated the debunked claim that Obamacare is failing or imploding 17 times. Most recent claim

Few days without a claim

There were a total of 10 days without any recorded false or misleading claims.

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The list of Trump’s claims was updated every Friday through April, with new claims made in the previous week. See any claims made during that period that we’re missing? Fill out this form to send us a tip. Sign up for the Fact Checker newsletter here.

President Trump’s 492 false or misleading claims in his first 100 days:

January
February
March
April

Show claims about made

Fact Checker analysis:

No claims match your selection

Apr. 29, 2017
Trade

“The change began with the termination of the Trans-Pacific Partnership — a 12-nation pact that would have shipped millions more jobs to other countries.”

Source: Statement

Predicting job losses or gains from a trade agreement is fairly difficult and often inaccurate but no credible analyst projected the loss of "millions" of U.S. jobs from the TPP.

“After years of federal contracts going to foreign bidders, we are ensuring that government agencies enforce “Buy American” rules and give preference to American companies — and that American companies hire American workers.”

Repeated on Mar. 6 Mar. 15 Mar. 15 Mar. 18 Mar. 20 Mar. 28 Apr. 18 Apr. 18 Apr. 19 Apr. 29
Source: Statement

Trump now calls for Americans to “buy American, hire American.” But this is misleading. Trump has a long history of outsourcing a variety of his own products. The Fact Checker has counted a total of 12 countries where Trump products were manufactured (China, the Netherlands, Mexico, India, Turkey, Slovenia, Honduras, Germany, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam and South Korea).

Trade

“We are going to pursue a complete renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement: We’ve lost nearly a third of our manufacturing jobs in the 23 years since that terrible deal was approved.”

Repeated on Feb. 24 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Apr. 18 Apr. 20 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Source: Statement

Trump’s attack on NAFTA is over the top. It is often difficult to separate out the impact of trade agreements on jobs, compared to other, broader economic trends. But the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service in 2015 concluded the “net overall effect of NAFTA on the U.S. economy appears to have been relatively modest, primarily because trade with Canada and Mexico accounts for a small percentage of U.S. GDP,” though it noted “there were worker and firm adjustment costs as the three countries adjusted to more open trade and investment among their economies.”

Foreign policy

“Finally, NATO countries are starting to pay billions of dollars more since I have made clear that the United States expects all of its allies to pay their fair share.”

Source: Statement

Long before Trump started complaining about NATO, members had committed to having defense spending account for two percent of each nation's gross domestic product by 2024.

“Thousands of new jobs are being re-shored back to America — including jobs at Ford, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, Sprint, Intel and so many more.”

Repeated on Feb. 9 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 24 Mar. 28 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 2 Apr. 4 Apr. 11 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Statement

Trump takes undue credit for business decisions made prior to his election. Ford’s decision to abandon its plans to open a factory in Mexico and instead expand its Michigan plant has more to do with the company’s long-term goal — particularly its plans to invest in electric vehicles — than with the administration. Fiat Chrysler's plan to invest $1 billion for a factory in Michigan had been in the works for more than a year and had nothing to do with Trump. Japanese company SoftBank announced its $100 billion technology investment fund three weeks before the U.S. elections, when Trump faced a narrow path to victory. Sprint said its hiring plan was a part of a commitment by SoftBank, which owns a controlling stake in Sprint. And Intel announced it would create at least 10,000 jobs at a “new” plant in Arizona. But Intel actually announced a $5 billion investment in this factory in 2011 with then-President Barack Obama.

Immigration

“After decades of unending illegal immigration and mass uncontrolled entry, we’ve turned the tide as never before — illegal border-crossings are down 73 percent.”

Source: Statement

Trump is wrong to refer to "unending illegal immigration and mass uncontrolled entry" as Illegal immigration has been declining in general for years. He refers to the decline in apprehensions from December through March, which was 72 percent. Trump's rhetoric certainly has contributed to a decline in traffic along the border, but it's unclear how long the trend will last.

Miscellaneous

“We really maxed out. We broke the all-time record for this arena.”

Source: Prepared speech

There were empty seats in the stands when Trump spoke at his 100th day rally in Harrisburg, Pa.

Miscellaneous Full story

The "failing" New York Times “had to apologize because they covered us so badly”

Source: Prepared speech

The New York Times did not apologize to its subscribers for its coverage of Trump. The Times has seen spikes in audience and subscribers.

Miscellaneous Full story

“We are keeping one promise after another.”

Source: Prepared speech

The Fact Checker's Trump Promise Tracker shows that of Trump's 100-day promises, he had kept six, broken five and taken no action on more than half of his promises.

Environment

“Compliance with the [Paris] agreement could shrink US GDP by $2.5 trillion over ten-year period.”

Source: Prepared speech

This is an extreme estimate produced by opponents of the agreement.

Trade

“I have been talking about currency manipulation [by China] for a long time but I have to tell you, during the election they stopped.”

Repeated on Apr. 21
Source: Prepared speech

Trump falsely claims China stopped devaluing its currency since he took office. China had not devalued its currency for about two years prior to his election. In fact, as recently as 10 days before his announcement that China was not manipulating its currency, Trump falsely blamed China for being a “world champion” of devaluing the yuan.

Jobs

“In just a few months we have created 99,000 new construction jobs, 49,000 new manufacturing jobs, 27,000 new mining jobs….We have over 600,000 new jobs.”

Repeated on Apr. 11
Source: Prepared speech

Trump again is counting the January jobs report, even though that concerns data for the period of Dec. 12 to Jan. 12, before he became president. So all of these numbers are inflated. Moreover, even if you counting January jobs, that brings the total to 533,000. The correct figure is 317,000. The other corrected jobs numbers are: construction (65,000); manufacturing (37,000) and mining (21,000). Obviously, a new president has little influence over broad economic trends.

Immigration

“We have already achieved an unprecedented 73% reduction in illegal crossings on our southern border.”

Source: Prepared speech

Trump refers to the decline in apprehensions from December through March, which was 72 percent. Trump's rhetoric certainly has contributed to a decline in traffic along the border, but it's unclear how long the trend will last.

Jobs

“We have cleared the way for the construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines. 48,000 new jobs.”

Repeated on Jan. 24 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Mar. 28 Apr. 4 Apr. 29
Source: Prepared speech

Trump appears to be combining two disputed figures — 28,000 jobs for Keystone XL and 12,000 for the Dakota Access Pipeline-- and then hyping it even more. We have looked closely at the Keystone numbers, and the same methodological issues appear to apply to the Dakota estimates. The actual number of Keystone construction jobs, for instance, is just 3,900 on an annualized basis — and other jobs have already been created (such as for building high-strength line pipe.) In the context of the U.S. economy, which just in January added 230,000 jobs, these are not many jobs.

“I have already saved $725 million on a simple order of F-35 airplanes.”

Repeated on Jan. 30 Feb. 6 Feb. 7 Feb. 18 Feb. 22 Feb. 23 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 21 Apr. 6 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Prepared speech

Trump takes credit for the lowered cost, but the Pentagon had announced cost reductions of roughly $600 million on the F-35 before Trump began meeting with Lockheed Martin’s chief executive. Trump over time keeps increasing the money he allegedly saved.

Foreign policy

NATO countries “have begun to increase their contribution by billions of dollars.”

Source: Prepared speech

Long before Trump started complaining about NATO, members had committed to having defense spending account for two percent of each nation's gross domestic product by 2024.

Health care Full story

“Obamacare is dead, it is gone.”

Repeated on Jan. 25 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 27 Mar. 11 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 25 Apr. 23 Apr. 24 Apr. 28 Apr. 29
Source: Prepared speech

The Affordable Care Act is not imploding and is expected to remain stable for the foreseeable future, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Health care

“The great state of Tennessee where half the state already has no insurance carrier”

Repeated on Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Apr. 5 Apr. 28 Apr. 29
Source: Prepared speech

This is false. All eight of the Tennessee's rating areas have at least one insurance carrier and three of them have two carriers.

Economy

“We have the all-time record for the biggest increase in the stock market.”

Source: Prepared speech

The increase in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in Trump's first 100 days is impressive -- a five percent gain. But George H.W. Bush had a 7.7 percent gain in his first 100 days, so Trump does not have the record. Moreover, what counts in the long run is the state of the economy at the end of a term, as Bush (who lost re-election) could tell Trump.

Miscellaneous

“I have issued a five-year ban on federal officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service. Good?”

Source: Prepared speech

Trump actually weakened Obama-era rules that were tougher and reduced transparency.

Immigration

“The last, very weak administration allowed thousands and thousands of gang members to cross our borders and inter our communities where the have wreaked havoc on our citizens. The blood thirsty MS-13 has infiltrated our schools, threatening innocent children.”

Repeated on Apr. 18
Source: Prepared speech

The MS-13 gang far predates Obama, and has been active since the 1980s. According to the Congressional Research Service in 2005 and 2008, the gang had spread across the country since the 1980s. Moreover, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement under Trump has been arresting an increasing number of noncriminals, indicating that it's not just the gang members that are being targeted by his administration.

Foreign policy

“I didn’t realize this, when he went to Russia, it was 2015 and he was on the Obama clearance. When General Flynn came to us, as you now know, he already had the highest clearance you can have.”

Repeated on Apr. 28
Source: Prepared speech

Flynn had received a security clearance under Obama, but Obama also fired Flynn from his post as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Trump named Flynn as his national security adviser, before firing him three weeks after he took office, and the White House has not explained why his lobbying activities had not received greater scrutiny before Trump elevated him to the such a top security position.

Health care

“But when I watch some of the news reports, which are so unfair, and they say we don’t cover pre-existing conditions, we cover it beautifully.”

Source: Prepared speech

The American Health Care Act, the House GOP plan, would have made significant changes in such coverage if a state sought possible waivers from rules for people who had more than a two-month lapse in insurance.

Apr. 28, 2017
Immigration

“She's [Republican Karen Handel] running against someone who's going to raise your taxes to the sky, destroy your healthcare, and he's for open borders.”

Repeated on Apr. 17 Apr. 18
Source: Prepared speech

Jon Ossoff, the Democrat Trump is referring to, supports a comprehensive immigration bill that allows a "path to legal status" for undocumented people (excluding felons) living in the country. But he also said he supports strong border security. As PolitiFact found, this is not the same as "allowing illegal immigration." On taxes, factcheck.org found that Ossoff has proposed to simplify the tax code, and that “in order to lower tax rates, we can eliminate carve-outs and special treatment in the tax code that privilege large organizations at the expense of small businesses.”

Election

“The Republicans have a tremendous disadvantage in the Electoral College, you know that. Tremendous disadvantage.”

Repeated on Apr. 21
Source: Prepared speech

Trump certainly deserves credit for breaching the so-called “blue wall” – the Midwestern states that have backed Democrats in recent years. But Republicans have an advantage because they have an edge in small, rural states, which in the electoral college system requires fewer votes per elector. In Wyoming, for instance, there are 143,000 people for each electoral vote, compared to 500,000 in a state like California. Since Democrats tend to concentrated in large cities, the impact of those votes are dissipated. This is one reason why in two recent elections – 2000 and 2016 -- the Democrat won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College.

Immigration

“But you need that wall to stop the human trafficking, to stop the drugs, to stop the wrong people. You need the wall.”

Repeated on Apr. 25
Source: Prepared speech

There is little evidence that human trafficking takes place over the U.S.-Mexican border. While human trafficking is a problem in some parts of the world, experts say it is relatively limited in the United States, especially for sexual exploitation. But in general data is limited on the extent of human trafficking. As for drugs, that is also dubious. Experts say that drugs are actually shipped through the border on the underside of vehicles that have permits to cross the border in a special lane.

Immigration Full story

“Hundreds of individuals from other countries have been charged with terrorism-related offenses in the United States.”

Repeated on Mar. 15
Source: Prepared speech

Of about 400 individuals charged with or credibly involved in jihad-inspired activity in the U.S. since 9/11, just under half (197) were U.S.-born citizens, according to research by the nonpartisan think tank New America Foundation. An additional 82 were naturalized citizens, and 44 were permanent residents.

Biographical record Full story

“It's a false standard, 100 days, but I have to tell you, I don’t think anybody has done what we did over the 100 days.”

Repeated on Apr. 18 Apr. 28
Source: Remarks

By just about any standard, Trump's start of the presidency falls short of Franklin D. Roosevelt's famous first "100 days," as well as other presidents. Political scientists note that Trump has not signed into law any major piece of legislation.

Health care

“ObamaCare is exploding. ObamaCare is dead -- essentially, ObamaCare is dead, it's not going to make it.”

Repeated on Jan. 25 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 27 Mar. 11 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 25 Apr. 23 Apr. 24 Apr. 28 Apr. 29
Source: Interview

The Affordable Care Act is not imploding and is expected to remain stable for the foreseeable future, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Biographical record

“I don't think anybody has ever done this much in a hundred days.”

Repeated on Apr. 18 Apr. 28
Source: Interview

By just about any standard, Trump's start of the presidency falls short of Franklin D. Roosevelt's famous first "100 days," as well as other presidents. Political scientists note that Trump has not signed into law any major piece of legislation.

Economy

“I predict I will probably pay more [under my tax plan] than I’m paying right now.”

Source: Interview

This is almost certainly a false statement, though because Trump failed to disclose his tax returns that's difficult to verify. But just the elimination of the alternative minimum tax -- which cost Trump $31 million in 2005 -- would be a huge savings for Trump. The New York Times estimated the proposed tax plan would have saved Trump about $50 million in 2005.

Foreign policy

“There's never been any kind of a relationship that we've had with China. Look at what China's doing. They're turning back the coal ships from North Korea, they're putting a lot of pressure on North Korea.”

Source: Interview

In 2016, China barred a North Korean freighter and blacklisted 31 vessels covered by United Nations Security Council sanctions, according to Reuters.

Trade

“The trade deficit with Mexico is close to $70 billion. Even with Canada, it's $17 billion -- a trade deficit with Canada.”

Source: Interview

Trump is citing figures for trades in goods, but not including services. The United States had a trade surplus of $12 billion with Canada and trade deficit of $55 billion when services are included.

Trade

“We never, ever seem to have a surplus with countries. Every country takes advantage of the United States, and it's not going to happen anymore.”

Source: Interview

Not true. There’s barely a trade deficit in goods with the United Kingdom, according to the International Trade Commission, and the United States has a trade surplus with Hong Kong ($30 billion), Netherlands ($24 billion), United Arab Emirates ($21 billion), Belgium ($15 billion), Australia ($14 billion), Singapore ($10 billion) and Brazil ($4 billion), among others.

Health care

“You have states -- I went to Tennessee two weeks ago, half of the state doesn't have any insurance companies.”

Repeated on Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Apr. 5 Apr. 28 Apr. 29
Source: Interview

This is false. All eight of the Tennessee's rating areas have at least one insurance carrier and three of them have two carriers.

Health care

“They ended up giving Nebraska -- the Nebraska deal was where, frankly, that senator, who wasn't even that popular, made one of the best deals, what they did for the state of Nebraska.”

Source: Interview

Actually, the so-called "cornhusker kickback" -- which would have provided additional Medicaid funding to Nebraska -- was removed from the Affordable Care Act before it was passed into law.

Foreign policy

“Russia story was made up because they were embarrassed by their loss. They had this tremendous loss, a loss like nobody's ever seen before.”

Repeated on Feb. 26
Source: Interview

Trump is falsely labeling nonpartisan investigations as made up by Democrats. The CIA concluded in 2016 that Russia intervened in the U.S. presidential election to help elect Trump, an assessment backed up by FBI Director James B. Comey and then-Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. On Jan. 6, the intelligence community released a declassified report expressing "high confidence" in this judgement. Senate and House committees led by Republicans have begun their own investigations, and at least one Republican lawmaker has called for the appointment of a special prosecutor.

Foreign policy

“Just remember, he [Michael Flynn] was approved by the Obama administration at the highest level. And when they say we didn't vet, well, Obama, I guess, didn't vet, because he was approved at the highest level of security by the Obama administration.”

Repeated on Apr. 29
Source: Interview

Flynn had received a security clearance under Obama, but Obama also fired Flynn from his post as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Trump named Flynn as his national security adviser, before firing him three weeks after he took office, and the White House has not explained why his lobbying activities had not received greater scrutiny before Trump elevated him to the such a top security position.

Economy

“We're the highest taxed nation in the world.”

Source: Interview

Trump is simply wrong when he says the United States is the highest taxed nation in the world. The Pew Research Center, using 2014 data, found that the tax bill for Americans, under various scenarios, is below average for developed countries. In 2014, according to comparative tables of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), revenue as a percentage of the gross domestic product — the broadest measure of the economy — was 26 percent for the United States. Out of 34 countries, that put the United States in the bottom third — and well below the OECD average of 34.4 percent.

Miscellaneous

“We had a case where I got involved the last few days in Atlanta -- in fact, I'm going there today -- for Karen [Handel]. He [Democrat Jon Ossoff] looked like he was going to win. He had about 56 percent of the vote. If he gets 50, he wins, we have now a Democratic congressman. I did a robocall. I did some tweets. I did some interviews. He didn't get the number, and I believe she's going win, and she might win very easily.”

Source: Interview

There was never any polling indicating that Democrat Jon Ossoff was going to get 56 percent of the vote in an open primary in Georgia's strongly Republican 6th Congressional District. There was a possibility he would get just over 50 percent, which would have eliminated a run-off election and been an embarrassing loss for the GOP. Trump took credit for the Ossoff getting 48 percent, even though Republicans in the race distanced themselves from Trump as the election got closer.

Apr. 27, 2017
Health care

“Democrats jeopardizing the safety of our troops to bail out their donors from insurance companies.”

Source: Twitter

Trump suggests insurance companies are major backers of Democrats, but opensecrets.org says that 68 percent of insurance company contributions go to Republicans.

Health care

“This is a website that works. This is not the $5 billion Obamacare website. Do we remember that? Nobody remembers that. Does anybody remember the $5 billion website? No, I don't think so.”

Source: Remarks

The Obamacare website did not cost $5 billion. The Department of Health and Human Services offered an estimate that topped $800 million. A study by Bloomberg News, with a more expansive definition of federal spending, came up with an estimate of $2.1 billion. Moreover, while the website had trouble in its early months, those were quickly fixed and it now works.

Apr. 26, 2017
Immigration

“First the Ninth Circuit rules against the ban & now it hits again on sanctuary cities-both ridiculous rulings. See you in the Supreme Court!”

Source: Twitter

The ruling blocking Trump's executive order on santuary cities was issued by a U.S. district court judge in San Francisco. It had not yet been taken up by an appeals court.

Economy

“The U.S. recorded its slowest economic growth in five years (2016). GDP up only 1.6%. Trade deficits hurt the economy very badly.”

Source: Twitter

A trade deficit can reduce the gross domestic product, as the balance of trade is part of the GDP formula. But Trump greatly overstates the impact on economic growth. The United States has been running trade deficits for three decades, both when GDP growth was high and when it was low.

Immigration Full story

“Out of our very big country, with many choices, does everyone notice that both the 'ban' case and now the 'sanctuary' case is brought in the Ninth Circuit, which has a terrible record of being overturned (close to 80%). They used to call this 'judge shopping!' Messy system.”

Repeated on Apr. 26
Fact Checker rating: Source: Twitter

San Francisco and Santa Clara County, the governments that sued over Trump's sanctuary order, are in California. So that's where they would need to file a lawsuit. They also did not get to choose the judge that ruled against Trump. We have earlier explored the claim about the Ninth Circuit being overturned 80 percent. The Ninth Circuit is not the most overturned court by the annual reversal rate. It does have a high raw number of reversals or number of cases on the Supreme Court docket. But it also reviews more cases than other circuits, is larger than other circuits and terminates far more cases than other circuits.

Immigration Full story

“You see judge shopping, or what's gone on with these people, they immediately run to the Ninth Circuit. It's got close to an 80 percent reversal period, and what's going on in the Ninth Circuit is a shame.”

Repeated on Apr. 23
Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

San Francisco and Santa Clara County, the governments that sued over Trump's sanctuary order, are in California. So that's where they would need to file a lawsuit. They also did not get to choose the judge that ruled against Trump. We have earlier explored the claim about the Ninth Circuit being overturned 80 percent. The Ninth Circuit is not the most overturned court by the annual reversal rate. It does have a high raw number of reversals or number of cases on the Supreme Court docket. But it also reviews more cases than other circuits, is larger than other circuits and terminates far more cases than other circuits.

Immigration Full story

“Sanctuary cities have been very, very dangerous, very, very bad.”

Repeated on Feb. 5 Feb. 16
Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

There is limited research on the impact of sanctuary policies and crime. And the research that does exist challenges Trump’s claim. There’s no official definition of “sanctuary,” but it generally refers to rules restricting state and local governments from alerting federal authorities about people who may be in the country illegally. A handful of studies looked at whether there is a causation between sanctuary cities and crime. They either found no statistically significant impact of sanctuary policies on crime, or a reduction in crime due to immigrant-friendly policing strategies.

Apr. 25, 2017
Immigration Full story

“Don't let the fake media tell you that I have changed my position on the WALL. It will get built and help stop drugs, human trafficking etc.”

Repeated on Apr. 25 Apr. 28
Source: Twitter

There is little evidence that human trafficking takes place over the U.S.-Mexican border. While human trafficking is a problem in some parts of the world, experts say it is relatively limited in the United States, especially for sexual exploitation. But in general data is limited on the extent of human trafficking.

Immigration Full story

“The wall is going to get built, and the wall is going to stop drugs, and it’s going to stop a lot of people from coming in that shouldn’t be here, and it’s going to have a huge effect on human trafficking, which is a tremendous problem in this world -- a problem that nobody talks about -- but it’s a problem that’s probably worse than any time in the history of this world.”

Repeated on Apr. 28
Source: Remarks

There is little evidence that human trafficking takes place over the U.S.-Mexican border. While human trafficking is a problem in some parts of the world, experts say it is relatively limited in the United States, especially for sexual exploitation. But in general data is limited on the extent of human trafficking.

Apr. 24, 2017
Health care

“If our healthcare plan is approved, you will see real healthcare and premiums will start tumbling down. ObamaCare is in a death spiral!”

Repeated on Jan. 25 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 27 Mar. 11 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 25 Apr. 23 Apr. 24 Apr. 28 Apr. 29
Source: Twitter

The Affordable Care Act is not imploding and is expected to remain stable for the foreseeable future, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Apr. 23, 2017
Election

“The two fake news polls released yesterday, ABC & NBC, while containing some very positive info, were totally wrong in General E. Watch!”

Repeated on Apr. 23
Source: Twitter

Trump is wrong about how he characterizes these polls. Both the final Post-ABC poll (47-43) and NBC/WSJ poll (44-40) had Clinton ahead by four points; both outlets emphasized the four-way result, but also tested preferences excluding third-party candidates that showed +3 for Post-ABC and +5 for NBC/WSJ. Clinton won the national popular vote by 2.1 points. This level of error is quite good for national pre-election polls in the United States.

Election

“New polls out today are very good considering that much of the media is FAKE and almost always negative. Would still beat Hillary in ........popular vote. ABC News/Washington Post Poll (wrong big on election) said almost all stand by their vote on me & 53% said strong leader.”

Repeated on Apr. 23
Source: Twitter

The final Post-ABC pre-election poll showed Clinton winning the popular vote by three percentage points in a head-to-head match-up. She won by 2.1 percentage points. Trump also falsely suggests he won the popular vote when in fact he lost it.

Health care

“ObamaCare is in serious trouble. The Dems need big money to keep it going - otherwise it dies far sooner than anyone would have thought.”

Repeated on Jan. 25 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 27 Mar. 11 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 25 Apr. 23 Apr. 24 Apr. 28 Apr. 29
Source: Twitter

The Affordable Care Act is not imploding and is expected to remain stable for the foreseeable future, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Immigration

“The Democrats don't want money from budget going to border wall despite the fact that it will stop drugs and very bad MS 13 gang members.”

Repeated on Apr. 21 Apr. 23
Source: Twitter

Trump’s claim that the wall would halt the flow of drugs is dubious. Experts say that drugs are actually shipped through the border on the underside of vehicles that have permits to cross the border in a special lane.

Immigration

“The Wall is a very important tool in stopping drugs from pouring into our country and poisoning our youth (and many others)! If the wall is not built, which it will be, the drug situation will NEVER be fixed the way it should be!”

Repeated on Apr. 21 Apr. 23
Source: Twitter

Trump’s claim that the wall would halt the flow of drugs is dubious. Experts say that drugs are actually shipped through the border on the underside of vehicles that have permits to cross the border in a special lane.

Apr. 22, 2017

No claims

Apr. 21, 2017

“I saved $725 million on the 90 planes. Just 90. Now there are 3,000 planes that are going to be ordered. On 90 planes I saved $725 million. It's actually a little bit more than that, but it's $725 million.”

Repeated on Jan. 30 Feb. 6 Feb. 7 Feb. 18 Feb. 22 Feb. 23 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 21 Apr. 6 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Source: Interview

Trump keeps claiming he saved hundreds of millions of dollars on the cost of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter planes by intervening in negotiations with Lockheed Martin. But Lockheed already had planned cost reductions, and Trump overstates his role.

Miscellaneous Full story

“Because the hundred days is just an artificial barrier. The press keeps talking about the hundred days.”

Source: Interview

In a speech on Oct. 22, Trump issued an unusually detailed 100-day-plan of action, which he called the “Contract with the American Voter.” The Fact Checker has used the plan as a template for tracking in campaign promises.

Foreign policy Full story

“President Xi [of China], from the time I took office, they have not been currency manipulators.”

Repeated on Apr. 29
Source: Interview

Trump falsely claims China stopped devaluing its currency since he took office. China had not devalued its currency for about two years prior to his election.

Foreign policy Full story

On NATO: "It's not fair that we're paying close to 4 percent and other countries that are more directly affected are paying 1 percent when they're supposed to be paying 2 percent. And I'm very strong on it and I'm going to be very strong on it when I go there in a month.”

Source: Interview

The United States spends about 3.6 percent of gross domestic product on defense spending , far more that NATO’s guideline of 2 percent. The median spending level for the 28 NATO countries is 1.53 percent of GDP, though NATO members are not expected to reach the 2 percent level until 2024. Meanwhile, the United States has defense responsibilities around the world, especially in Asia, which accounts for why U.S. spending is higher. In fact, U.S. bases in Europe are often used to redeploy forces in other theaters, such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa.

“You live by the sword, you die by the sword, to a certain extent. But we create a lot of jobs, 500,000 jobs as of two months ago, and plenty created since. Five hundred thousand. ... As an example, Ford, General Motors. I've had cases where the gentleman from China, Ma, Jack Ma (chairman of Alibaba Group), he comes up, he says, “Only because of you am I making this massive investment.” Intel, only because of you. ... The press never writes that.

Repeated on Feb. 9 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 24 Mar. 28 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 2 Apr. 4 Apr. 11 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Source: Interview

Trump exaggerates the number of jobs created since he became president; the number of net new jobs since January 2017 is 317,000. Trump also continues to claim undue credit for corporate decisions that were made before he was elected president. Ford’s decision to expand in Michigan rather than in Mexico had more to do with the company’s long-term goals than with the administration. General Motors announced jobs plans in January and March 2017, but the company did not credit Trump or his election. Intel announced it would create at least 10,000 jobs at a “new” plant in Arizona but the investment was announced in 2011. Chinese e-company Alibaba's founder Jack Ma has been pitching his company as a U.S. job creator since as early as 2015.

Immigration Full story

“So we are moving criminals out of our country and we are getting them out in record numbers and those are the people we are after. We are not after the dreamers, we are after the criminals.”

Source: Interview

Immigration advocates and lawyers say a “dreamer” (beneficiary of Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program) has been deported under Trump’s broadened enforcement guidelines. The government disputes that the dreamer was deported. In any case, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement under Trump is arresting an increasing number of people with no criminal records, indicating that it’s not just the criminals who are being targeted by his administration. According to The Washington Post’s analysis, the biggest spike in arrests of undocumented immigrants from Jan. 20 to March 13 was of immigrants with no criminal records.

Miscellaneous Full story

“When Wikileaks came out ... never heard of Wikileaks, never heard of it. When Wikileaks came out, all I was just saying is, 'Well, look at all this information here, this is pretty good stuff.'”

Source: Interview

Trump falsely claims he had not heard of WikiLeaks prior to the 2016 campaign. As CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski found, Trump denounced WikiLeaks as early as 2010.

Foreign policy Full story

“You know, back when they did NATO there was no such thing as terrorism.”

Source: Interview

When NATO was founded in 1949, terrorism long existed in Europe, often by separatist groups (such as Irish Republicans) or anarchists. A bombing in 1867 in London by the Irish Republican Brotherhood killed 12 people and injured 120.

Election Full story

“The electoral college is so skewed in favor of a Democrat that it's very, very hard.”

Repeated on Apr. 28
Source: Interview

Trump certainly deserves credit for breaching the so-called “blue wall” – the Midwestern states that have backed Democrats in recent years. But Republicans have an advantage because they have an edge in small, rural states, which in the electoral college system requires fewer votes per elector. In Wyoming, for instance, there are 143,000 people for each electoral vote, compared to 500,000 in a state like California. Since Democrats tend to concentrated in large cities, the impact of those votes are dissipated. This is one reason why in two recent elections – 2000 and 2016 -- the Democrat won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College.

Biographical record Full story

“No matter how much I accomplish during the ridiculous standard of the first 100 days, & it has been a lot (including S.C.), media will kill!”

Source: Twitter

Trump calls the 100-day mark a ridiculous standard but before the election he grandly announced a 100-day he titled the "Contract with the American Voter." Few of the promises made in that documents have been kept in Trump's first 100 days.

Miscellaneous Full story

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) “said you will be the greatest president. He said you will be, in front of five, six people, he said you will be the greatest president in the history of this country.”

Repeated on Apr. 5
Source: Interview

Cummings has disputed this account. Cummings told CNN that he said Trump he could become a good president “if . . . IF . . . he took steps to truly represent ALL Americans rather than continuing on the divisive and harmful path he is currently on.”

Economy Full story

“I am very upset with NAFTA. I think NAFTA has been a catastrophic trade deal for the United States, trading agreement for the United States. It hurts us with Canada, and it hurts us with Mexico. Most people don't even think of NAFTA in terms of Canada. You saw what happened yesterday in my statements, because if you look at the dairy farmers in Wisconsin and upstate New York, they are getting killed by NAFTA.”

Repeated on Feb. 24 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Apr. 18 Apr. 20 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Source: Interview

Trump’s attack on NAFTA is over the top. It is often difficult to separate out the impact of trade agreements on jobs, compared to other, broader economic trends. But the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service in 2015 concluded the “net overall effect of NAFTA on the U.S. economy appears to have been relatively modest, primarily because trade with Canada and Mexico accounts for a small percentage of U.S. GDP,” though it noted “there were worker and firm adjustment costs as the three countries adjusted to more open trade and investment among their economies.” Meanwhile, Canadian dairy is exempted from NAFTA.

Biographical record Full story

“Somebody, yeah, somebody put out the concept of a hundred-day plan. But yeah. Well, I’m mostly there on most items.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

Who was that “somebody” who put out the plan? It was somebody named Donald Trump. In a campaign speech on Oct. 22 delivered in Gettysburg, Pa., Trump outlined at substantive length each law he pledged to pass in his first 100 days.There were 60 promises embedded in the plan. According to our tally as of April 24, Trump has failed to meet most of his objectives.

Biographical record

“I have, seem to get very high ratings. I definitely. You know Chris Wallace had 9.2 million people, it's the highest in the history of the show. I have all the ratings for all those morning shows.”

Source: Interview

Trump is way off. Chris Wallace's exclusive December 2016 interview with Trump nabbed the show's second-highest rated broadcast ever, at 2.3 million total viewers.

Foreign policy

“These massive coal ships are coming where they get a lot of their income. They're coming into China and they're being turned away. That's never happened before.”

Source: Interview

In 2016, China barred a North Korean freighter and blacklisted 31 vessels covered by United Nations Security Council sanctions, according to Reuters.

Election

On Hillary Clinton: "So she had this massive advantage, she spent hundreds of millions of dollars more money than I spent. Hundreds of millions. ... Yeah. Or more, actually because we were $375 she was at $2.2 billion. But whatever.

Source: Interview

Trump exaggerates Clinton's spending. As of Dec. 9, 2016, Clinton's campaign committee had $565 million in total expenses and Trump's campaign committee had $322 million in expenses.

Miscellaneous

On Neil Gorsuch: ”I mean, here's a judge who is No. 1 at Columbia, No. 1 at Harvard and an Oxford scholar. And he got three votes."

Source: Interview

As Daniel Dale at the Toronto Star noted, Gorsuch graduated "cum laude" from Harvard Law School, receiving high honors but not as impressive as "summa cum laude" or "magna cum laude."

Jobs

“If you looked at optimism indexes that are just coming out, manufacturing in particular, where it's up to the highest point it's ever been -- 93 percent -- it was a 27 percent increase over the past, over the last one.”

Repeated on Apr. 7 Apr. 11
Source: Remarks

Trump is citing a survey by the National Association of Manufacturers but that is not necessarily representative of all manufacturers. NAM declined to say whether NAM members are randomly surveyed -- and NAM members make up just six percent of manufacturing firms. This is a very low level of coverage for a survey of any population attempting to represent all industries.

Immigration

“Oh, I’m seeing numbers — $24 billion [for a border wall], I think I’ll do it for $10 billion or less. That’s not a lot of money relative to what we’re talking about. If we stop 1 percent of the drugs from coming in — and we’ll stop all of it.”

Repeated on Apr. 23 Apr. 23
Source: Interview

During the presidential campaign, Trump used to claim that he could build a 1,000-mile-long wall, made of precast concrete slabs 40 feet high, for $8 billion. The Fact Checker checked with construction experts and instead received estimates as high as $25 billion. A report issued by Senate Democrats in April came up with an even higher estimate: nearly $70 billion, before paying for land acquisition. The report said that maintenance costs would run about $150 million a year. Trump’s claim that the wall would halt the flow of drugs is dubious. Experts say that drugs are actually shipped through the border on the underside of vehicles that have permits to cross the border in a special lane.

Biographical record

“On any, on air, [CBS ‘Face the Nation’ host John] Dickerson had 5.2 million people. It’s the highest for ‘Face the Nation’ or as I call it, ‘Deface the Nation.’ It’s the highest for ‘Deface the Nation’ since the World Trade Center. Since the World Trade Center came down. It’s a tremendous advantage.”

Source: Interview

Trump is slightly off on the numbers. Then-presidential candidate Trump’s Jan. 3, 2016, interview with host John Dickerson on CBS’s “Face the Nation” had an audience of 4.6 million. Of the total audience, about 1 million were adults aged 25 to 54, the coveted demographic among advertisers. The overall audience was the largest since Sept. 16, 2001, and the rating among adults 25 to 54 years old was the best since Nov. 17, 2013, according to CBS News.

Apr. 20, 2017
Economy

“NAFTA, believe me, was a disaster and continues to be a disaster for our country.”

Repeated on Feb. 24 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Apr. 18 Apr. 20 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Source: Remarks

Trump’s attack on NAFTA is over the top. It is often difficult to separate out the impact of trade agreements on jobs, compared to other, broader economic trends. But the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service in 2015 concluded the “net overall effect of NAFTA on the U.S. economy appears to have been relatively modest, primarily because trade with Canada and Mexico accounts for a small percentage of U.S. GDP,” though it noted “there were worker and firm adjustment costs as the three countries adjusted to more open trade and investment among their economies.”

Apr. 19, 2017
Miscellaneous

“Despite major outside money, FAKE media support and eleven Republican candidates, BIG ”R" win with runoff in Georgia. Glad to be of help!"

Source: Twitter

Trump took credit for the upcoming runoff election in Georgia's 6th Congressional District, even though Republicans in the race distanced themselves from Trump as the election got closer. While the Republicans avoided an embarrassing loss, it wasn't exactly a BIG "R" win that Republican Karen Handel will face Democrat Jon Ossoff in the runoff.

“#BuyAmericanHireAmerican”

Repeated on Mar. 6 Mar. 15 Mar. 15 Mar. 18 Mar. 20 Mar. 28 Apr. 18 Apr. 18 Apr. 19 Apr. 29
Source: Twitter

Trump now calls for Americans to “buy American, hire American.” But this is misleading. Trump has a long history of outsourcing a variety of his own products. The Fact Checker has counted a total of 12 countries where Trump products were manufactured (China, the Netherlands, Mexico, India, Turkey, Slovenia, Honduras, Germany, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam and South Korea).

Apr. 18, 2017
Immigration

“The weak illegal immigration policies of the Obama Admin. allowed bad MS 13 gangs to form in cities across U.S. We are removing them fast!”

Repeated on Apr. 29
Source: Twitter

The MS-13 gang far predates Obama, and has been active since the 1980s. According to the Congressional Research Service in 2005 and 2008, the gang had spread across the country since the 1980s. Moreover, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement under Trump has been arresting an increasing number of noncriminals, indicating that it's not just the gang members that are being targeted by his administration.

Miscellaneous

“Democrat Jon Ossoff would be a disaster in Congress. VERY weak on crime and illegal immigration, bad for jobs and wants higher taxes. Say NO”

Repeated on Apr. 17 Apr. 28
Source: Twitter

Jon Ossoff, the Democrat Trump is referring to, supports a comprehensive immigration bill that allows a "path to legal status" for undocumented people (excluding felons) living in the country. But he also said he supports strong border security. As PolitiFact found, this is not the same as "allowing illegal immigration." On taxes, factcheck.org found that Ossoff has proposed to simplify the tax code, and that “in order to lower tax rates, we can eliminate carve-outs and special treatment in the tax code that privilege large organizations at the expense of small businesses.”

Miscellaneous

“Republicans must get out today and VOTE in Georgia 6. Force runoff and easy win! Dem Ossoff will raise your taxes-very bad on crime & 2nd A.”

Repeated on Apr. 17
Source: Twitter

Jon Ossoff, the Democrat Trump is referring to, supports a comprehensive immigration bill that allows a "path to legal status" for undocumented people (excluding felons) living in the country. But he also said he supports strong border security. As PolitiFact found, this is not the same as "allowing illegal immigration." On taxes, factcheck.org found that Ossoff has proposed to simplify the tax code, and that “in order to lower tax rates, we can eliminate carve-outs and special treatment in the tax code that privilege large organizations at the expense of small businesses.”

Biographical record Full story

“No administration has accomplished more in the first 90 days.”

Repeated on Apr. 28 Apr. 28
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

By any standard, Trump's start of the presidency falls short of Franklin D. Roosevelt's famous first "100 days," as well as other presidents. Political scientists note that Trump has not signed into law any major piece of legislation.

“We are about to take bold new steps to follow through on my pledge to buy American and hire American.”

Repeated on Mar. 6 Mar. 15 Mar. 15 Mar. 18 Mar. 20 Mar. 28 Apr. 18 Apr. 18 Apr. 19 Apr. 29
Source: Remarks

Trump has a long history of outsourcing a variety of his own products. The Fact Checker has counted a total of 12 countries where Trump products were manufactured (China, the Netherlands, Mexico, India, Turkey, Slovenia, Honduras, Germany, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam and South Korea).

“Our tax reform and tax plan is coming along very well. It's going to be out very soon.”

Source: Remarks

This is a flip-flop of an earlier flip-flop. Less than a week before he made this claim, Trump said he would not release any guidelines on rewriting the tax code until a new health-care bill passes -- which was a flip-flop from when he said he would pursue a tax code overhaul rather than move forward with a health-care bill.

Economy

“We've lost 70,000 factories since China joined the World Trade Organization.”

Repeated on Mar. 15 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 20
Source: Remarks

Trump hypes the possible connection between these trade deals and the loss of jobs and factories. (He also increased the number of factories to 70,000, from his usual 60,000.) The Congressional Research Service concluded in 2015 that NAFTA likely had little impact on jobs. Manufacturing jobs in the United States have been adversely affected by many factors, especially changing consumer tastes and technology. Similarly, drawing a connection between China’s entry in the WTO and factory losses is a stretch, especially because the Great Recession play a big role in factory closings.

Miscellaneous

“I don't know it you noticed recently, I signed a very big order. We're going to spend again on NASA space program.”

Source: Remarks

This was a reauthorization bill, designed to constrain the administration from making wholelsale changes in existing projects. It was considered by lawmakers to be a staus quo bill. Actual funding would come from other legislation.

Economy

“NAFTA has been a disaster for the United States -- a complete and total disaster.”

Repeated on Feb. 24 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Apr. 18 Apr. 20 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Source: Remarks

Trump’s attack on NAFTA is over the top. It is often difficult to separate out the impact of trade agreements on jobs, compared to other, broader economic trends. But the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service in 2015 concluded the “net overall effect of NAFTA on the U.S. economy appears to have been relatively modest, primarily because trade with Canada and Mexico accounts for a small percentage of U.S. GDP,” though it noted “there were worker and firm adjustment costs as the three countries adjusted to more open trade and investment among their economies.”

Jobs

“All pipelines that are coming into this country from now on has to be American steel.”

Source: Interview

Trump appears to refering to an executive action he issued but he exaggerates its impact. The revived Keystone pipeline would not have to meet this requirement. The president's memo also offer a lot of legal wiggle room, with phrases such as "to the maximum extent permitted by law."

Foreign policy

“I'm put in a position where he [North Korea's leader] actually has nuclear and we are going to have to do something about it.”

Source: Interview

North Korea detonated its first nuclear test in 2006, during George W. Bush's presidency and conducted more tests during the Barack Obama administration. So North Korea long had nuclear weapons before Trump became president.

“There was no, like loss with healthcare, this is just a constant negotiation. and the plan is getting better, better all the time.”

Source: Interview

The decision to pull the health care bill just before a House vote because scores of Republicans would vote against it was indeed a loss.

#BuyAmericanHireAmerican Watch➡️http://45.wh.gov/npcpYM”

Repeated on Mar. 6 Mar. 15 Mar. 15 Mar. 18 Mar. 20 Mar. 28 Apr. 18 Apr. 18 Apr. 19 Apr. 29
Source: Twitter

Trump now calls for Americans to “buy American, hire American.” But this is misleading. Trump has a long history of outsourcing a variety of his own products. The Fact Checker has counted a total of 12 countries where Trump products were manufactured (China, the Netherlands, Mexico, India, Turkey, Slovenia, Honduras, Germany, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam and South Korea).

Apr. 17, 2017
Miscellaneous

“The super Liberal Democrat in the Georgia Congressioal race tomorrow wants to protect criminals, allow illegal immigration and raise taxes!”

Repeated on Apr. 18 Apr. 28
Source: Twitter

Jon Ossoff, the Democrat Trump is referring to, supports a comprehensive immigration bill that allows a "path to legal status" for undocumented people (excluding felons) living in the country. But he also said he supports strong border security. As PolitiFact found, this is not the same as "allowing illegal immigration." On taxes, factcheck.org found that Ossoff has proposed to simplify the tax code, and that “in order to lower tax rates, we can eliminate carve-outs and special treatment in the tax code that privilege large organizations at the expense of small businesses.”

Foreign policy

“Nobody has ever seen such a positive response on our behalf [versus North Korea] from China.”

Source: Interview

Trump oversells his diplomacy with China, which has barely begun, as superior to all previous presidents. China has interests in North Korea that it has always sought to protect, such as the preservation of the communist regime, leading to eventual disappointment by U.S, officials.

Foreign policy

“You know, they’ve been talking with this gentleman for a long time. You read Clinton’s book, he said, ‘Oh, we made such a great peace deal,’ and it was a joke. You look at different things over the years with President Obama. Everybody has been outplayed, they’ve all been outplayed by this gentleman. And we’ll see what happens. But I just don’t telegraph my moves.”

Source: Interview

This is an odd statement. It's unclear whether Trump knows that there have been three North Korean leaders since Bill Clinton's presidency, all with the last name Kim. It's a misleading claim that the past three presidents have "all been outplayed by this gentleman." It's actually three men in the same Kim family: Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong-Il and Kim Jong-Un.

Apr. 16, 2017
Election Full story

“I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?”

Source: Twitter

This is not correct. Every Republican president since Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876 won a larger share of the electoral college votes than Trump, with the exception of George W. Bush and Richard Nixon.

Foreign policy Full story

“Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem? We will see what happens!”

Repeated on Apr. 12
Source: Twitter

This is a flip flop. Throughout the campaign, Trump falsely blamed China for being a “world champion” of devaluing the yuan.

Apr. 2, 2017
Foreign policy Full story

“You know when you talk about, when you talk about currency manipulation, when you talk about devaluations, they are world champions. And our country hasn't had a clue, they haven't had a clue.”

Repeated on Jan. 31
Source: Interview

In an interview with Financial Times that published on April 2, he repeated an out-of-date talking point. Not only is the United States not being hurt by China’s current currency manipulation, China is also not devaluing its currency anymore. In fact, China is selling foreign currency to prop up its own, in an effort to prevent the yuan from depreciating further and destabilizing the Chinese and global economy.

Economy

“We have an $800 billion trade deficit.”

Repeated on Mar. 15 Mar. 20
Source: Interview

Trump made this claim in an interview with Financial Times that published on April 2. The trade deficit was about $500 billion in 2016.

Jobs

“We’re doing great. The jobs: Ford just announced they are doing three major plants, three major expansions, thousands of jobs; General Motors, Fiat, [a] couple of them off the record because ‘Why do I need this for?’ But a couple of them were going to build in Mexico, now they are building in Michigan. Now they are building in Ohio. We got it going.”

Repeated on Feb. 9 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 24 Mar. 28 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 2 Apr. 4 Apr. 11 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

Trump repeated one of his favorite claims during an interview with Financial Times that published on April 2. Trump keeps giving himself credit for business decisions made before he became president. Ford’s decision has more to do with the company’s long-term goal — particularly its plans to invest in electric vehicles — than with the administration. Here’s what Ford chief executive Mark Fields said about the company’s decision to abandon plans to open a factory in Mexico: “The reason that we are not building the new plant, the primary reason, is just demand has gone down for small cars.”

Apr. 14, 2017

No claims

Apr. 13, 2017

No claims

Apr. 12, 2017
Election

“Great win in Kansas last night for Ron Estes, easily winning the Congressional race against the Dems, who spent heavily & predicted victory!”

Source: Twitter

Three things in this tweet are false. Estes, seeking a congressional seat long held by Republicans, did not have an easy win, Democrats did not spend heavily (Republicans did) and Democrats did not predict victory.

Health care Full story

“It's been very much misreported that we failed with health care. We haven't failed.”

Source: Interview

The House Republican legislation to replace the Affordable Care Act was pulled from a looming House vote on March 24 after congressional leaders realized that it would fail to pass by a large margin. There’s no way to spin this except as a failure, especially since passage in the House would only be the first step on a long legislative journey. Senate Republicans generally are cool to the House proposal and are likely to pursue their own path. Then the two versions must be reconciled and pass both chambers before success could be declared. But Trump failed to advance even to first base. It’s true he might get another chance at-bat, but the effort is indeed a failure so far.

Health care Full story

“We will save perhaps $900 billion....I'm saving a tremendous amount — hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars we're saving on health care.”

Source: Interview

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office report on the Republican bill said it would reduce the deficit by $337 billion over the next decade. Trump appears to be referring to a $900 billion reduction in revenue from the repeal of Obamacare taxes, but that’s actually money lost to the federal government. The proposed law would have reduced federal spending on health care by $1.2 trillion but the repeal in taxes means the impact on the budget is significantly smaller.

Miscellaneous Full story

“They'll say, why isn't Trump doing this faster? You can't do it faster, because they're obstructing. They're obstructionists.”

Source: Interview

Trump suggests that he isn’t filling administration posts because of Democratic obstruction. Democrats have slow-walked many of his cabinet nominees, but Trump has been much slower than his predecessors in filling sub-cabinet posts and other positions. Out of 553 key positions requiring Senate confirmation, 478 still have no nominee, according to the Partnership for Public Service. Another 29 have been announced but not formally nominated; only 22 positions have been confirmed. Republican senators have said they are growing impatient with the White House’s slow pace. So Trump really should be pointing the finger at his own staff.

Election Full story

“When he [FBI Director James Comey] was reading those charges, she was guilty on every charge. And then he said, she was essentially OK. But he — she wasn't OK, because she was guilty on every charge.”

Source: Interview

Trump has it backward. On July 5, 2016, Comey issued a tough statement about Clinton’s actions concerning her private email server, saying she was “extremely careless” in the handling of classified information, but he said it is “our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.” Comey added that the FBI looked back at previous cases involving the handling of classified information. “We cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts,” he said. “All the cases prosecuted involved some combination of: clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information; or vast quantities of materials exposed in such a way as to support an inference of intentional misconduct; or indications of disloyalty to the United States; or efforts to obstruct justice. We do not see those things here.”

Foreign policy Full story

“When you look at Susan Rice and what's going on, and so many people are coming up to me and apologizing now. They're saying you know, you were right when you said that. Perhaps I didn't know how right I was, because nobody knew the extent of it.”

Source: Interview

Trump continues to grasp on slim reeds to claim he was correct when he falsely tweeted that former president Barack Obama “tapped” his phones at Trump Tower. No evidence has emerged to support that claim and it was denied by Comey. But in recent days he has claimed former national security adviser Susan Rice may have violated laws because she requested the identities of U.S. citizens who were incidentally recorded or referenced in surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency. Numerous former national security officials said that Rice had every right to make those requests. CNN reported that a review of classified documents by both Republican and Democratic documents found no evidence that Rice and other Obama administration officials did anything unusual or illegal.

Miscellaneous Full story

“'The New York Times' said the word wiretapped in the headline of the first edition. Then they took it out of there fast when they realized.”

Repeated on Mar. 22
Source: Interview

Trump is mixing up different headlines for the print and Internet editions. In print, the headline was: “Wiretapped data used in inquiry of Trump aides.” Online, the headline read: “Intercepted Russian Communications Part of Inquiry Into Trump Associates.” The headlines were not changed as part of any stealth editing. In any case, the text of the New York Times article under either headline was identical.

Foreign policy Full story

“What I did should have been done by the Obama administration a long time before I did it and you would have had a much better — I think Syria would be a lot better off right now than it has been.”

Repeated on Apr. 6 Apr. 12
Source: Interview

This is a flip-flop. In 2013 and 2014, Trump repeatedly tweeted against Obama launching air attacks against Syria for allegedly deploying chemical weapons. Trump repeated this in more than a dozen tweets, saying Obama should “stay the hell out of Syria,” and that it would be “stupid” and that “very bad things will happen.” He urged Obama to instead “fix U.S.A.” and “focus on making our country strong and great again.”

Foreign policy Full story

“They had a big attack right after he drew the red line in the sand. They had a very big attack and everybody waited, what's going on, and nothing happened.”

Repeated on Apr. 6 Apr. 12
Source: Interview

Again, this is a flip-flop. Trump now criticizes Obama for inaction after declaring a “red line,” or Obama’s threat to take U.S. military action if Syria used chemical weapons. In September 2013, Trump mocked Obama’s announcement and warned against attacking Syria.

“Look at what's going on in Michigan with the expansion of the plants by Ford, by General Motors, yesterday Toyota announced that they're going to spend $1.3 to $1.9 billion in Kentucky.”

Repeated on Feb. 9 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 24 Mar. 28 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 2 Apr. 4 Apr. 11 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Source: Interview

Trump continues to falsely claim credit for a host of corporate decisions that had nothing to do with his election or his policies.

Foreign policy Full story

“Mosul was supposed to last for a week and now they've been fighting it for many months and so many more people died.”

Source: Interview

Not true. The campaign to reclaim the Iraqi city of Mosul was expected to be a slog. Officials from the U.S.-led coalition had predicted from the beginning of the operation that it likely would take weeks, possibly months.

Foreign policy Full story

“The secretary general and I had a productive discussion about what more NATO can do in the fight against terrorism. I complained about that a long time ago and they made a change, and now they do fight terrorism. I said it was obsolete. It’s no longer obsolete.”

Source: News conference

This is a flip flop. Throughout the campaign, and as recently as March 22, Trump declared the trans-Atlantic alliance “obsolete, because it doesn’t cover terrorism.” Of course, this was factually incorrect: NATO has been involved in counterterrorism since 1980, and especially since 9/11.

Foreign policy Full story

On China: ”They're not currency manipulators."

Repeated on Apr. 16
Source: Interview

This is a flip flop. Throughout the campaign, and as recently as 10 days before this announcement, Trump falsely blamed China for being a “world champion” of devaluing the yuan.

Biographical record Full story

“I don't know Putin.”

Source: News conference

This is a flip flop. But as recently as November 2015, Trump repeatedly claimed he not only knew Vladimir Putin, but knew him “very well,” and that he had a relationship with the Russian president. Trump changed his stance in July 2016, while facing criticism about his relationship with Kremlin: He declared he didn’t know Putin, after all.

Miscellaneous Full story

On Federal Reserve Chair Janet L. Yellen: “I like her, I respect her. ... I do like a low-interest-rate policy, I must be honest with you.”

Source: Interview

This is a flip flop. In May 2016, Trump said he would “most likely” replace Federal Reserve Chair Janet L. Yellen. During a September 2016 general-election debate, Trump criticized Yellen and the Fed for low interest rates, implying it was politically motivated: “This Janet L. Yellen of the Fed. The Fed is doing political — by keeping the interest rates at this level.”

Economy Full story

On Export-Import Bank: “It turns out that, first of all, lots of small companies are really helped, the vendor companies.”

Source: Interview

This is a flip flop. On the campaign trail, Trump criticized the bank and said he found it unnecessary: “It’s a one-way street also. It’s sort of a featherbedding for politicians and others, and a few companies. And these are companies that can do very well without it. So I don’t like it. I think it’s a lot of excess baggage. I think it’s unnecessary. And when you think about free enterprise it’s really not free enterprise. I’d be against it.”

Foreign policy

“We are sending an armada, very powerful. We have submarines, very powerful, far more powerful than the aircraft carrier.”

Source: Interview

Contrary to Trump's claim, the carrier group was not headed toward the Sea of Japan to deter North Korea but instead was steaming in the opposite direction to engage in exercises in the Indian Ocean, some 3,000 miles away.

Foreign policy Full story

“Korea actually used to be a part of China.”

Source: Interview

Trump, apparently quoting the president of China, left out a significant amount of context that distorted the relationship between the two countries. Korea and China have long been intertwined, geopolitically and culturally. But Korea was not a spinoff of China,

Apr. 11, 2017
Jobs

“Already, we've created more than almost 600,000 jobs.”

Source: Remarks

Trump again is counting the January jobs report, even though that concerns data for the period of Dec. 12 to Jan. 12, before he became president. Moreover, even if you counting January jobs, that brings the total to 533,000. The correct figure is 317,000.

“Yesterday, Toyota just announced that it will invest more than $1.3 billion -- it's probably going to be $1.9 billion -- into its Georgetown, Kentucky plant, an investment that would not have been made if we didn’t win the election.”

Repeated on Feb. 9 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 24 Mar. 28 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 2 Apr. 4 Apr. 11 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

Trump continues to take credit for corporate decisions made separate from his election. Asked whether Trump’s policies played a role in the company’s investment decision, Toyota’s spokesman said: “No, but we do share his goal of growing the economy and jobs in the U.S.”

Economy

“You saw the new survey that came out. It's at 93 -- which is the highest it's ever been -- 93 percent of manufacturers are optimistic about the future. It was a 27 percent increase over two months ago when it was also high because of the administration, and much higher than it's ever been -- 93 percent. Highest it's ever been.”

Repeated on Apr. 7 Apr. 25
Source: Remarks

Trump is citing a survey by the National Association of Manufacturers but that is not necessarily representative of all manufacturers. NAM declined to say whether NAM members are randomly surveyed -- and NAM members make up just six percent of manufacturing firms. This is a very low level of coverage for a survey of any population attempting to represent all industries.

Biographical record

Before the presidential campaign, ”I didn't know Steve (Bannon)."

Source: Interview

Not true. Trump appeared as a guest on Bannon's radio show nine times, and met with Bannon in 2011 to discuss a possible presidential campaign.

Health care Full story

“We’ll be going right now for tax reform, which we could have done earlier, but this really would have worked out better if we could have had some Democrat support. Remember this: We had no Democrat support. So now we’re going to go for tax reform, which I’ve always liked.”

Source: Interview

This is a flip flop. After failing to rally enough Republican votes in support of the GOP replacement bill for the Affordable Care Act, Trump announced he was moving on from health care to pursue a tax code overhaul. He said on March 24, the day House Speaker Paul D. Ryan pulled the doomed bill: “We’ll be going right now for tax reform, which we could have done earlier, but this really would have worked out better if we could have had some Democrat support. Remember this: We had no Democrat support. So now we’re going to go for tax reform, which I’ve always liked.”

Apr. 10, 2017

No claims

Apr. 9, 2017

No claims

Trump went golfing

Apr. 8, 2017

No claims

Trump went golfing

Apr. 7, 2017
Economy

“93% of our domestic manufacturers have expressed optimism in the future, a record.”

Repeated on Apr. 11 Apr. 25
Source: Remarks

Trump is citing a survey by the National Association of Manufacturers but that is not necessarily representative of all manufacturers. NAM declined to say whether NAM members are randomly surveyed -- and NAM members make up just six percent of manufacturing firms. This is a very low level of coverage for a survey of any population attempting to represent all industries.

Immigration Full story

“Last month, we saw a 64% reduction in illegal immigration on our southern border.”

Repeated on Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 21 Mar. 29 Apr. 4 Apr. 4 Apr. 7
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

Trump compares figures from March 2016 to March 2017, to claim credit for the decline in number of people apprehended or "deemed inadmissible" at the Southwest border. But a more accurate comparison that reflects the impact of the Trump administration would be February-March 2016 to February-March 2017, which shows a 52.4 percent decline.

Immigration

“In just the last few days our nation's ICE officers have arrested ... 84 criminal aliens in the Pacific Northwest”

Source: Remarks

According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 60 of 84 foreign nationals arrested during a three-day operation in the Pacific Northwest had criminal histories.

Apr. 6, 2017

“If you look at all that we’ve done and all of the jobs we’ve created, if you look at the kind of cost-cutting we’ve been able to achieve with the military and at the same time ordering vast amounts of equipment -- saved hundreds of millions of dollars on airplanes, and really billions, because if you take that out over a period of years it’s many billions of dollars -- I think we’ve had a tremendous success.”

Repeated on Jan. 30 Feb. 6 Feb. 7 Feb. 18 Feb. 22 Feb. 23 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 21 Apr. 6 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

Trump once again takes credit for the lowered cost, but the Pentagon had announced cost reductions of roughly $600 million before Trump began meeting with Lockheed Martin’s chief executive. As the weeks have passed, he keeps increasing the value of the savings so now he's suggesting "many billions" over a period of years.

Miscellaneous

“Hopefully if there is a second one [Supreme Court nomination] for me during my administration -- and there could be as many as four -- in fact, under a certain scenario there could even be more than that.”

Source: Remarks

Few presidents get more than two shots at a Supreme Court nomination so Trump's math is curious. Anthony Kennedy, 80, was a Republican pick and so perhaps could be inspired to retire under Trump. Liberals Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 84,and Stephen Breyer, 78, presumably would need to die or become very ill before they leave the court under Trump. That adds up to four, but how does Trump "more than that"? Clarence Thomas is only 68 and Samuel Alito is 67, and the other justices are even younger.

Foreign policy Full story

“It is in this vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons. ”

Repeated on Apr. 12 Apr. 12
Source: Statement

This is a flip flop. In more than a dozen tweets in 2013 and 2014, Trump consistently opposed U.S. military action and urged then-President Barack Obama against launching air attacks on Syria for allegedly deploying chemical weapons. Trump said the United States should focus on domestic issues instead.

Apr. 5, 2017
Foreign policy Full story

“We had a very, very fine delegation come over from Egypt, and also from Iraq. And they said more has been done in the last six weeks than has been done in years with the previous administration, and believe me, we’re going to keep it that way.”

Source: Remarks

This is nonsensical. Little of significance has happened in the fight against the islamic State terror group in the first six weeks of Trump's term, compared to the steady progress made in recent years to roll back its territory. In the past year, Islamic State has lost eastern Mosul and the Iraq cities of Fallujah, Ramadi, and a number of towns along the Tigris River. Iraqi troops also took Makhmour and Qayyarah, establishing bases for the attack on Mosul.

Foreign policy

“Well, I think the Obama administration had a great opportunity to solve this crisis a long time ago when he said 'the red line in the sand.' And when he didn't cross that line after making the threat, I think that set us back a long ways, not only in Syria but in many of the parts of the world because it was a blank threat. I think it was something that was not one of our better days as a country.”

Repeated on Apr. 4
Source: News conference

This is a flip-flop. At the time Obama was considering air strikes against Syria over alleged use of chemical weapons, Trump tweeted that it would be a huge mistake that would lead to "very bad things." He urged Obama "stay out of Syria."

Miscellaneous

“Elijah Cummings [a Democratic representative from Maryland] was in my office and he said, 'You will go down as one of the great presidents in the history of our country.'”

Repeated on Apr. 21
Source: Interview

Cummings said this is a misquote. He says he told Trump that "he could be a great president if … if … he takes steps to truly represent all Americans rather than continuing on the divisive and harmful path he is currently on.”

Foreign policy

“The Russia story is a total hoax.”

Source: Interview

The CIA concluded in 2016 that Russia intervened in the U.S. presidential election to help elect Trump, an assessment backed up by FBI Director James B. Comey and then-Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. On Jan. 6, the intelligence community released a declassified report expressing "high confidence" in this judgement. Senate and House committees led by Republicans have begun their own investigations, and at least one Republican lawmaker has called for the appointment of a special prosecutor.

Foreign policy

“We’ve spent $6 trillion in the Middle East, as of two months ago.”

Repeated on Jan. 25 Feb. 9 Feb. 24 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Mar. 22 Apr. 5
Source: Interview

Trump is lumping together the wars in Iraq (in the Middle East) and Afghanistan (in South Asia), which together cost about $1.6 trillion from 2001 to 2014. He is also adding in estimates of future spending, such as interest on the debt and veterans' care for the next three decades.

Health care

“You have many states coming up where they’re going to have no insurance company. O.K.? It’s already happened in Tennessee. It’s happening in Kentucky. Tennessee only has half coverage. Half the state is gone. They left. But I’d rather solve it in a much better way for the country.”

Repeated on Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Apr. 5 Apr. 28 Apr. 29
Source: Interview

This is false. All eight of the Tennessee’s rating areas have at least one insurance carrier and three of them have two carriers.

Apr. 4, 2017

“When you look for a job, you can’t find it and you give up. You are now considered statistically employed.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

This is false. A person who has given up looking for a job is considered no longer in the labor force.

“We have 100 million people... I call them the forgotten man, the forgotten woman. But a lot of those people, a good percentage of them, would like to have jobs, and they don’t.”

Repeated on Feb. 28
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

This is an absurd Four-Pinocchio claim, based on a real number. The 100 million "forgotten" that Trump refers to are based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data from 2015. It turns out that 93 percent do not want a job at all. The picture that emerges from a study of the data shows that the 95 million consists mostly of people who are retired, students, stay-at-home parents or disabled.

Foreign policy

“President Obama said in 2012 that he would establish a 'red line' against the use of chemical weapons and then did nothing.”

Repeated on Apr. 5
Source: Statement

This is a flip-flop. At the time Obama was considering air strikes against Syria over alleged use of chemical weapons, Trump tweeted that it would be a huge mistake that would lead to "very bad things." He urged Obama "stay out of Syria."

“If you look at what's happened with Ford and with General Motors and with Fiat-Chrysler and so many other car companies, you see what they're doing back in Michigan and Ohio -- they were leaving. They were going to Mexico and many other places. They're now staying here.”

Repeated on Feb. 9 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 24 Mar. 28 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 2 Apr. 4 Apr. 11 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

Trump keeps taking credit for projects that were long in the works before he became president. For example, he repeatedly claims credit for Ford’s decision to abandon its plans to open a factory in Mexico and instead expand its Michigan plant. But analysts say Ford’s decision has more to do with the company’s long-term goal — particularly, its plans to invest in electric vehicles — than the administration. It’s easier for companies to find highly skilled workers to build new products, such as electric cars, in the United States than in Mexico.

Economy

“Our trade deficit with others has gone down very considerably in the last short period of time. It’s having a big impact.”

Source: Remarks

This was a minor blip likely caused by seasonal fuctuations.

Jobs

“There was very large infrastructure bill that was approved during the Obama administration -- a trillion dollars -- nobody ever saw anything being built.”

Source: Remarks

When the $800 billion stimulus bill was passed in 2009, Trump praised it for the emphasis on infratrucure spending. (It also included tax cuts and grants to states.)

Biographical record Full story

“I've won awards on environmental protection.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

The evidence is quite slim for Trump’s claim that he has “won awards on the environmental protection.” We know of one award Trump received personally, the Green Space Award for donating 436 acres to the New York state park system after he scrapped his plans to build a golf course there. The Metropolitan Golf Association in 2007 gave an award to his golf course in Bedminster, N.J. The golf course was later cited for environmental violations.

Immigration Full story

“You see what's happened; 61 percent down now in terms of illegal people coming in. ”

Repeated on Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 21 Mar. 29 Apr. 4 Apr. 4 Apr. 7
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

Trump is citing the 61 percent decline in Southwest border apprehensions from January 2017 to March 2017. It's unclear yet if Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly made an impact, or if it was a result of Trump's rhetoric on immigration throughout the presidential campaign. There tends to be less activity during winter months, and the numbers bounce back in March and through the spring, so it's unclear whether this is a blip or a lasting trend. Moreover, the January data captures the whole month, not just since Inauguration Day.

Economy

“I took you out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.”

Source: Remarks

This was a largely symbolic move. The deal was basically dead in Congress.

“Next, I cleared the way for construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines. And it's looking like that's going to have about 42,000 jobs involved, those two jobs.”

Repeated on Jan. 24 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Mar. 28 Apr. 4 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

Trump constantly changes the number of jobs that might be created by the pipeline. This is a high-end estimate which we have previously given Two Pinocchios.

Jobs

“And then one day, Trump wins, and a few days later, they get a knock on the door, 'Sir, the Keystone Pipeline was just approved.' Can you imagine? I want to see the expression on his face. And he's a nice guy, he actually -- they came to the office because you know, I did say you have to use American steel, you have to fabricate it here. Now, they had already bought 60, 70 percent of it, so you can't be too wild, right? But I was signing the order and I said where'd they buy the steel? I didn't like the answer. I said who fabricated this deal? I didn't like the answer. I said, 'From now on, we're going to put a clause, got to be made in America. We want American steel made in America.' One hundred percent.”

Repeated on Mar. 21 Mar. 28
Source: Remarks

Trump makes it sound like he is insisting the Keystone XL is being built with U.S. steel. But the pipeline segments were already built, with half manufactured in the United States (by an India-owned company) and the rest from overseas.

Immigration Full story

Illegal immigration is ”down 61 percent since inauguration. General Kelly is doing a fantastic job."

Repeated on Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 21 Mar. 29 Apr. 4 Apr. 4 Apr. 7
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

Trump is citing the 61 percent decline in Southwest border apprehensions from January 2017 to March 2017. It's unclear yet if Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly made an impact, or if it was a result of Trump's rhetoric on immigration throughout the presidential campaign. There tends to be less activity during winter months, and the numbers bounce back in March and through the spring, so it's unclear whether this is a blip or a lasting trend. Moreover, the January data captures the whole month, not just since Inauguration Day.

Apr. 3, 2017
Election Full story

“Did Hillary Clinton ever apologize for receiving the answers to the debate? Just asking!”

Repeated on Feb. 16 Mar. 22
Source: Twitter

Trump overstates the disclosure about Clinton reportedly getting a single debate question. During the Democratic primaries, a debate was held in Flint, Mich., to focus on the water crisis. Donna Brazile, then a CNN analyst, sent an email to the Clinton campaign saying that a woman with a rash from lead poisoning was going to ask what Clinton as president could do the help the people of Flint. There’s no indication Clinton was told this information, but in any case it’s a pretty obvious question for a debate being held in Flint.

Foreign policy Full story

“.@FoxNews from multiple sources: ”There was electronic surveillance of Trump, and people close to Trump. This is unprecedented." @FBI"

Source: Twitter

Trump cited a Fox News report to allege spying by the Obama administration. But it appears to refers to national-security survelliance of foreign offcials that picked up references to U.S. citizens. Generally, those identities are masked, but officials can request the names in order to better understand the significance of the intelligence report.

Apr. 1, 2017
Foreign policy

“Wow, @FoxNews just reporting big news. Source: 'Official behind unmasking is high up. Known Intel official is responsible. Some unmasked.... ..not associated with Russia. Trump team spied on before he was nominated.' If this is true, does not get much bigger. Would be sad for U.S.”

Source: Twitter

Trump cited a rather vague Fox News report to allege spying by the Obama administration. But it appears to refers to national-security survelliance of foreign offcials that picked up references to U.S. citizens. Generally, those identities are masked, but officials can request the names in order to better understand the significance of the intelligence report.

Foreign policy

“When will Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd and @NBCNews start talking about the Obama SURVEILLANCE SCANDAL and stop with the Fake Trump/Russia story?”

Source: Twitter

The CIA concluded in 2016 that Russia intervened in the U.S. presidential election to help elect Trump, an assessment backed up by FBI Director James B. Comey and then-Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. On Jan. 6, the intelligence community released a declassified report expressing "high confidence" in this judgement. Senate and House committees led by Republicans have begun their own investigations, and at least one Republican lawmaker has called for the appointment of a special prosecutor.

Health care

“The failing @nytimes finally gets it - ”In places where no insurance company offers plans, there will be no way for ObamaCare customers to.. ...use subsidies to buy health plans." In other words, Ocare is dead. Good things will happen, however, either with Republicans or Dems."

Source: Twitter

The article cited by Trump noted that the Trump administration has the power to take steps that would mitigate the situation that Trump appears to celebrate.

Apr. 15, 2017

No claims

Trump went golfing

Mar. 31, 2017

“I saw the shuttered factories and spent time with the laid-off factory workers. I heard their stories, and I promised action and I promised them a solution. And all over America, you're already seeing solutions start to take place. Take a look at what's going on Michigan, with Ford and General Motors and Fiat-Chrysler, and so many more.”

Repeated on Feb. 9 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 24 Mar. 28 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 2 Apr. 4 Apr. 11 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Source: Remarks

Trump keeps taking credit for projects that were long in the works before he became president. For example, he repeatedly claims credit for Ford’s decision to abandon its plans to open a factory in Mexico and instead expand its Michigan plant. But analysts say Ford’s decision has more to do with the company’s long-term goal — particularly, its plans to invest in electric vehicles — than the administration. It’s easier for companies to find highly skilled workers to build new products, such as electric cars, in the United States than in Mexico.

Mar. 30, 2017
Miscellaneous

“The failing @nytimes has disgraced the media world. Gotten me wrong for two solid years. Change libel laws?”

Source: Twitter

The Times, like The Post, has seen spikes in audience and subscribers. Moreover, the day that Trump announced House Speaker Paul Ryan would be pulling the Obamacare replacement bill, Trump personally called two reporters before speaking publicly: Robert Costa from The Post, and Maggie Haberman from the Times.

Mar. 29, 2017
Miscellaneous

“Remember when the failing @nytimes apologized to its subscribers, right after the election, because their coverage was so wrong. Now worse!”

Repeated on Feb. 4 Feb. 6 Feb. 22 Feb. 27
Source: Twitter

The New York Times did not apologize to its subscribers for its coverage of Trump.

Jobs

“I want to thank Ford -- you saw their big announcement yesterday. And so many others are announcing tremendous numbers of jobs. They’re not leaving our country anymore, folks. They’re not leaving; they’re staying and they’re building right here.”

Repeated on Feb. 9 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 24 Mar. 28 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 2 Apr. 4 Apr. 11 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Source: Remarks

The investment projects announced the day before were in line with the contract Ford negotiated with the United Auto Workers in 2015.

Immigration Full story

“I want to just thank Secretary Kelly; he's done an amazing job. Down 61 percent at the border right now in terms of people and the drugs that are being stopped.”

Repeated on Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 21 Mar. 29 Apr. 4 Apr. 4 Apr. 7
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

Trump is citing the 61 percent decline in Southwest border apprehensions from January 2017 to March 2017. It's unclear yet if Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly made an impact, or if it was a result of Trump's rhetoric on immigration throughout the presidential campaign. There tends to be less activity during winter months, and the numbers bounce back in March and through the spring, so it's unclear whether this is a blip or a lasting trend. Moreover, the January data captures the whole month, not just since Inauguration Day.

Mar. 28, 2017

“Big announcement by Ford today. Major investment to be made in three Michigan plants. Car companies coming back to U.S. JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!”

Repeated on Feb. 9 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 24 Mar. 28 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 2 Apr. 4 Apr. 11 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Source: Twitter

The investment projects announced later that day were in line with the contract Ford negotiated with the United Auto Workers in 2015.

Jobs

“We've already eliminated a devastating, anti-coal regulation but that was just the beginning.”

Repeated on Mar. 20 Mar. 21
Source: Remarks

The impact of repealing the regulation is debatable, as industry estimates of 77,000 jobs being saved was based on dubious survey data. Trump promises he will bring coal miners back to work but has never explained how he would overcome markets forces, such as a preference for natural gas, that has taken a toll on the industry.

Jobs

“We approved the permit to finally build the Keystone XL Pipeline and clear the way to completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline, thousands and thousands of jobs.”

Repeated on Jan. 24 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Mar. 28 Apr. 4 Apr. 29
Source: Remarks

Trump, in saying “thousands and thousands of jobs,” leaves himself some wiggle room here. (He’d previously incorrectly said 28,000 jobs.) Moreover, some of these jobs have already been created. Workers in Arkansas, for instance, have already built about half of the high-strength line pipe needed for the project, some 333,000 tons.

Jobs

“We've already created a half a million new jobs in the first two jobs reports of my administration.”

Source: Remarks

The January jobs report, showing 230,000 jobs were created, reflects the last month of the Obama administration. The data was collected in early January, when Obama was still president.

Miscellaneous Full story

“We believe in those really magnificent words, made in the USA.”

Repeated on Mar. 6 Mar. 15 Mar. 15 Mar. 18 Mar. 20
Source: Remarks

Trump has a long history of outsourcing a variety of his own products. The Fact Checker has counted a total of 12 countries where Trump products were manufactured (China, the Netherlands, Mexico, India, Turkey, Slovenia, Honduras, Germany, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam and South Korea).

“Today, Ford, great company, announced massive new spending on three big plans in the state of Michigan, the state which I love very much,”

Repeated on Feb. 9 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 24 Mar. 28 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 2 Apr. 4 Apr. 11 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Source: Remarks

The investment projects announced later that day were in line with the contract Ford negotiated with the United Auto Workers in 2015.

Jobs

“This came up a little bit coincidentally when I was signing the pipeline deals. I’m all signing, I’ve got them done. And I said, folks, when do we get this deal? And they said, I think it’s from foreign lands. I said no good. Who makes it, who makes those beautiful pipes for the pipeline? Sir, they’re made outside of this country, and I said no more, no more. So we added a little clause, didn’t take much, that you want to build pipelines in this country, you’re going to buy your steel and you’re going to have it fabricated here.”

Repeated on Mar. 21 Apr. 4
Source: Remarks

Trump makes it sound like he is insisting the Keystone XL is being built with U.S. steel. But the pipeline segments were already built, with half manufactured in the United States (by an India-owned company) and the rest from overseas.

Miscellaneous Full story

“Why doesn't Fake News talk about Podesta ties to Russia as covered by @FoxNews or money from Russia to Clinton - sale of Uranium?”

Repeated on Mar. 27
Fact Checker rating: Source: Twitter

Trump repeats a Four Pinocchio claim he used during the campaign. It wasn't a "Bill & Hillary deal"; the State Department was one of nine agencies on a committee that approved the sale of majority of shares of a uranium mining company to the Russians. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission also separately approved the deal. There's no evidence Clinton got involved in the deal personally, and it's highly questionable this deal even rose to the level of the secretary of state.

Environment

“First, today’s energy independence action calls for an immediate re-evaluation of the so-called Clean Power Plan.”

Source: Remarks

The United States in many cases already has energy independence, being a net exporter in coal, in refined petroleum products and by 2018, in natural gas.

Environment

“Perhaps no single regulation threatens our miners, energy workers and companies more than this crushing attack on American industry.”

Source: Remarks

Trump is referring to the Clean Power Plan, but the 2015 rule was halted by the Supreme Court in early 2016. Since then, more than 9,000 coal mining jobs have disappeared, continuing a trend from the 1980s fostered more by a preference for natural gas than anti-coal regulations.

Mar. 27, 2017
Miscellaneous Full story

“Why isn't the House Intelligence Committee looking into the Bill & Hillary deal that allowed big Uranium to go to Russia, Russian speech....”

Repeated on Mar. 28
Fact Checker rating: Source: Twitter

Trump repeats a Four Pinocchio claim he used during the campaign. It wasn't a "Bill & Hillary deal"; the State Department was one of nine agencies on a committee that approved the sale of majority of shares of a uranium mining company to the Russians. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission also separately approved the deal. There's no evidence Clinton got involved in the deal personally, and it's highly questionable this deal even rose to the level of the secretary of state.

Mar. 26, 2017
Miscellaneous

“We’ve only been here for a tiny speck of time, and what I’ve done with regulations, moving jobs back into the country, what I’ve done with airplane pricing and buying is amazing. We’ve done a lot. I think we’ve done more than anybody for this short period of time.”

Source: Interview

In an interview with the New York Times magazine published March 26, Trump manages to throw together a number of bogus claims -- about moving jobs back to the United States and cutting the price of Lockheed aircraft -- with the absurd suggestion that he's already accomplished more than any previous president in so many days. As the Times noted, "Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson would take exception to this claim."

Mar. 25, 2017
Health care Full story

“ObamaCare will explode and we will all get together and piece together a great healthcare plan for THE PEOPLE. Do not worry!”

Repeated on Jan. 25 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 27 Mar. 11 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 25 Apr. 23 Apr. 24 Apr. 28 Apr. 29
Source: Twitter

The Affordable Care Act is not exploding and is expected to remain stable for the foreseeable future, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Mar. 24, 2017
Biographical record Full story

“I never said I was going to repeal and replace in the first 61 days.”

Repeated on Mar. 24
Source: Interview

He repeatedly pledged he'd start the repeal process on "day one" and that the repeal would be immediate. In a January 2017 interview, he said an Obamacare repeal vote would happen before his inauguration and replacement wold come “very quickly or simultaneously, very shortly thereafter.”

“Today, I was thrilled to announce a commitment of $25 BILLION & 20K AMERICAN JOBS over the next 4 years. THANK YOU Charter Communications!”

Source: Twitter

Trump trumpeted the company’s announcement that it would invest $25 billion in the United States and hire 20,000 workers over four years, but the company’s jobs plan was in the works as early as June 2015.

Biographical record Full story

“You've all heard my speeches. I never said repeal it and replace it within 64 days. I have a long time.”

Repeated on Mar. 24
Source: Remarks

He repeatedly pledged he'd start the repeal process on "day one" and that the repeal would be immediate. In a January 2017 interview, he said an Obamacare repeal vote would happen before his inauguration and replacement wold come “very quickly or simultaneously, very shortly thereafter.”

“Charter's announcement follows a number of American businesses from Exxon to Intel to Lockheed to Boeing to many others that have recently announced billions of dollars in investment and thousands of jobs coming into the United Sates, following my election victory.”

Repeated on Feb. 9 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 24 Mar. 28 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 2 Apr. 4 Apr. 11 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Source: Remarks

Trump trumpeted the company’s announcement that it would invest $25 billion in the United States and hire 20,000 workers over four years, but the company’s jobs plan was in the works as early as June 2015.

Mar. 23, 2017
Miscellaneous

“We just gave a check for a hundred million dollars to Flint. Think of that whole, horrible deal. That's great political leadership. What a disaster. In order to save a fee, they went to bad water and spent a fortune on pipes and infrastructure. Anyway, we're helping out Flint.”

Source: Remarks

The $100 million came from the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act signed by President Barack Obama in December 2016. The Environmental Protection Agency sent the check in March, but this was an Obama initiative.

“You know what, we’re doing even better now because we’ve brought back -- Ford is moving back in and General Motors, they’re going to be doing a lot of new plants and thousands and thousands of people coming back into Michigan.”

Repeated on Feb. 9 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 24 Mar. 28 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 2 Apr. 4 Apr. 11 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

Trump keeps giving himself credit for business decisions made before he became president. Ford’s decision has more to do with the company’s long-term goal — particularly its plans to invest in electric vehicles — than with the administration. Here’s what Ford chief executive Mark Fields said about the company’s decision to abandon plans to open a factory in Mexico: “The reason that we are not building the new plant, the primary reason, is just demand has gone down for small cars.” General Motors announced plans to rehire about 700 laid-off workers in Michigan and create 200 new jobs, but the company did not credit Trump or his election.

Mar. 22, 2017
Immigration Full story

“Sweden. I make the statement, everyone goes crazy. The next day they have a massive riot, and death, and problems. … A day later they had a horrible, horrible riot in Sweden, and you saw what happened.”

Repeated on Feb. 18 Feb. 19 Feb. 20 Feb. 24
Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

This is false. Trump at a rally on Feb. 11 made a reference to “what’s happening last night in Sweden,” confusing people in that country since nothing had happened. Trump then clarified in a tweet that his statement “was in reference to a story that was broadcast on @FoxNews concerning immigrants& Sweden.” Then two days later, riots broke out in a predominantly immigrant neighborhood in the northern suburbs of the country’s capital, Stockholm. But no one died.

Miscellaneous Full story

“Huma and Anthony, you know, what I tweeted about that whole deal, and then it turned out he had it, all of Hillary’s email on his thing.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

No. Weiner did not have all of Clinton’s emails on his laptop. The FBI ultimately concluded none of the emails added new information to the investigation into Clinton’s private server.

Foreign policy Full story

“NATO, obsolete, because it doesn’t cover terrorism. They fixed that, and I said that the allies must pay. Nobody knew that they weren’t paying. I did. I figured it. … What I said about NATO was true, people aren’t paying their bills.”

Repeated on Mar. 17
Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

False on several levels. NATO has been involved in counterterrorism since 1980, and especially since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. As for NATO’s financing, Trump apparently still does not understand how it works. NATO’s guideline, established in 2006, is that defense expenditures should amount to 2 percent of each country’s gross domestic product by 2024. In 2016, only four countries besides the United States met that standard, but NATO documents also show that defense spending has increased about 3 percent from 2015 to 2016. In any case, the money would not be going to the United States or even necessarily to NATO; this is money that countries would spend to bolster their own military.

Biographical record Full story

“Brexit, I was totally right about that. You were over there I think, when I predicted that, right, the day before.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

Trump’s timeline is off. He said in March 2016, three months before the June 23 vote on whether Britain should remain part of the European Union, that he thinks “Britain will separate from the EU. I think that maybe it’s time, especially in light of what’s happened with the craziness that is going on with immigration, with people pouring in all over the place I think that Britain will end up separating from the EU.” He was less sure about it on June 22, the day before the vote: “I don’t think anybody should listen to me because I haven’t really focused on it very much."

Biographical record Full story

“Now remember this. When I said wiretapping, it was in quotes. Because a wiretapping is, you know today it is different than wire tapping. It is just a good description. But wiretapping was in quotes. What I’m talking about is surveillance.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

Trump has invented a convenient excuse to cover up the fact that he accused the Obama administration of spying on him. In some tweets, he used quotes. But this is the key tweet: “How low has President Obama gone to tapp phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!”

Miscellaneous Full story

“Here, headline, for the front page of the New York Times, ‘Wiretapped data used in inquiry of Trump aides.’ That’s a headline. Now they then dropped that headline, I never saw this until this morning. They then dropped that headline, and they used another headline without the word wiretap, but they did mean wiretap. Wiretapped data used in inquiry. Then changed after that, they probably didn’t like it. And they changed the title. They took the wiretap word out. … Front page, January 20th. Now in their second editions, they took it all down under the internet. They took that out. Ok? But that’s the way it is.”

Repeated on Apr. 12
Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

Trump is mixing up different headlines for the print and Internet editions. In print, the headline was: “Wiretapped data used in inquiry of Trump aides.” Online, the headline read: “Intercepted Russian Communications Part of Inquiry Into Trump Associates.” The headlines were not changed as part of any stealth editing. In any case, the text of the New York Times article under either headline was identical.

Miscellaneous Full story

Q: ”The claim that Muslims celebrated 9/11 in New Jersey …" Trump: "Well, if you look at the reporter, he wrote the story in The Washington Post."

Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

This is yet another Four-Pinocchio claim that we have checked over and over. Trump claimed he saw on television thousands of Muslims cheer the collapse of the World Trade Center during the Sept. 11 attacks. There is no TV footage, no newspaper coverage, just scattered, unconfirmed reports of five or six people — not necessarily Muslim, probably teenagers — celebrating. There was a small reference buried deep in an article in The Post. When the reporter said it did not support Trump’s claim, Trump mocked his disability.

Election Full story

“Well, now if you take a look at the votes, when I say that, I mean mostly they register wrong, in other words, for the votes, they register incorrectly, and/or illegally. And they then vote. You have tremendous numbers of people. In fact I’m forming a committee on it.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

We’ve repeatedly debunked this. There are instances of people illegally voting, but they are rare. The National Association of Secretaries of State said it did not know of “any evidence” backing up Trump’s claims.

Biographical record Full story

“This just came out. This is a Politico story: Members of the Donald Trump Transition team possibly including Trump himself were under surveillance during the Obama administration following November’s election. House intelligence chairman Devin Nunes told reporters, wow. Nunes said, so that means I’m right, Nunes said the surveillance appears to have been … incidental collection, that does not appear to have been related to concerns over Russia.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

Nunes cited one anonymous source and didn’t provide any details. Still, the same Politico story Trump quotes says Nunes disputed that the information Nunes obtained vindicated Trump: “The White House and Trump’s allies immediately seized on the statement as vindication of the president’s much-maligned claim that former president Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower phones — even though Nunes himself said that’s not what his new information shows.”

Election Full story

“What I said, look I said, Donna Brazile had information, and she had information on Hillary’s debate questions. I said, why didn’t Hillary apologize. Donna Brazile just admitted that that was right.”

Repeated on Feb. 16 Apr. 3
Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

Trump overstates the disclosure about Clinton getting a debate question. During the Democratic primaries, a debate was held in Flint, Mich., to focus on the water crisis. Donna Brazile, then an analyst with CNN, sent an email to the Clinton campaign saying that a woman with a rash from lead poisoning was going to ask what Clinton as president could do the help the people of Flint. There’s no indication Clinton was told this information, but in any case it’s a pretty obvious question for a debate being held in Flint. The woman in question also was not happy with Clinton’s answer.

Miscellaneous Full story

“Well that was in a newspaper. No, no, I like Ted Cruz, he’s a friend of mine. But that was in the newspaper. I wasn’t, I didn’t say that. I was referring to a newspaper. A Ted Cruz article referred to a newspaper story with, had a picture of Ted Cruz, his father, and Lee Harvey Oswald, having breakfast.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

By “newspaper,” Trump is referring to the National Enquirer, a supermarket tabloid owned by a prominent supporter. The thinly sourced article alleged that Ted Cruz’s father, Rafael, worked with Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President John F. Kennedy. Trump has repeatedly ignored the fact that the article was denied and deemed false even before he ever mentioned it on the campaign trail.

Biographical record Full story

“Why do you say that I have to apologize? I’m just quoting the newspaper, just like I quoted the judge the other day, Judge Napolitano, I quoted Judge Napolitano, just like I quoted Bret Baier, I mean Bret Baier mentioned the word wiretap. Now he can now deny it, or whatever he is doing, you know. But I watched Bret Baier, and he used that term. I have a lot of respect for Judge Napolitano, and he said that three sources have told him things that would make me right. I don’t know where he has gone with it since then. But I’m quoting highly respected people from highly respected television networks.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

Fox News said it has no evidence to back up claims by Andrew Napolitano, a judicial analyst and commentator on Fox News. Bret Baier said on his show: “We love the judge, we love him here at Fox, but the Fox News division was never able to back up those claims and was never reported on this show.” As for Baier, Trump is apparently referring to a March 3 interview with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.). Baier referred to an unconfirmed report that there was a “wiretap at Trump Tower with some computer and Russian banks.” Ryan responded: “I am saying I have seen nothing of that. I have seen nothing come of that.”

Biographical record Full story

“And then TIME magazine, which treats me horribly, but obviously I sell, I assume this is going to be a cover too, have I set the record? I guess, right? Covers, nobody’s had more covers.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

Trump is well behind any sort of record for Time covers. Trump has been on the cover of Time magazine about a dozen times. Richard Nixon holds the record: 55.

“I inherited a mess with jobs, despite the statistics, you know, my statistics are even better, but they are not the real statistics because you have millions of people that can’t get a job, okay.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

The economy was not a mess when Trump became president. The stock market was booming and the unemployment rate was below 5 percent. Trump has falsely claimed that 94 million Americans cannot get a job but most of them do not want a job, as they are retired, in school, taking care of young children or are disabled.

Foreign policy

“Cyrus the Great, a leader of the ancient Persian Empire, famously said that '[f]reedom, dignity, and wealth together constitute the greatest happiness of humanity. If you bequeath all three to your people, their love for you will never die.'”

Source: Statement

In his statement to Iranians on the Nowruz holiday, Trump cited a supposed quote from Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, which stretched from the Balkans to South Asia at its height. But Mic reported that experts and historians who study the Achaemenids say this is a bogus Cyrus quote. It apparently came from a 2006 book on leadership advice that places high in Google results.

Foreign policy

“I heard just recently in the Middle East we’ve spent as of about two months ago $6 trillion -- $6 trillion, and you know where we are over there -- while neglecting the fate of American children in cities like Baltimore and Chicago and Detroit.”

Repeated on Jan. 25 Feb. 9 Feb. 24 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Mar. 22 Apr. 5
Source: Remarks

Trump is lumping together the wars in Iraq (in the Middle East) and Afghanistan (in South Asia), which together cost about $1.6 trillion from 2001 to 2014. He is also adding in estimates of future spending, such as interest on the debt and veterans' care for the next three decades.

Mar. 21, 2017
Health care Full story

“I was in Tennessee four nights ago. They've lost half the state. The insurance companies are gone, and they are going to lose the next one pretty soon from what they say.”

Repeated on Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Apr. 5 Apr. 28 Apr. 29
Source: Prepared speech

This is false. All eight of the state’s rating areas have at least one insurance carrier and three of them have two carriers.

Health care Full story

“It really is a crucial vote for the Republican Party and for the people of our country, to finally repeal and replace the disaster known as Obamacare. That's what it is, a disaster.”

Repeated on Jan. 25 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 27 Mar. 11 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 25 Apr. 23 Apr. 24 Apr. 28 Apr. 29
Source: Prepared speech

The Affordable Care Act is not imploding and is expected to remain stable for the foreseeable future, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Immigration Full story

“The border is in the best shape it's been in in decades. Down 61 percent since the inauguration.”

Repeated on Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 21 Mar. 29 Apr. 4 Apr. 4 Apr. 7
Fact Checker rating: Source: Prepared speech

Trump is citing the 61 percent decline in Southwest border apprehensions from January 2017 to March 2017. It's unclear yet if Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly made an impact, or if it was a result of Trump's rhetoric on immigration throughout the presidential campaign. There tends to be less activity during winter months, and the numbers bounce back in March and through the spring, so it's unclear whether this is a blip or a lasting trend. Moreover, the January data captures the whole month, not just since Inauguration Day.

“I've taken historic action to eliminate unnecessary job killing regulations, and we've just started on that one. But we've gotten rid of a lot of them. That includes eliminating regulations crushing our coal industry. We're going to put our great coal miners back to work. Clean coal, clean coal.”

Repeated on Mar. 20 Mar. 28
Fact Checker rating: Source: Prepared speech

The impact of repealing the regulation is debatable, as industry estimates of 77,000 jobs being saved was based on dubious survey data. Trump promises he will bring coal miners back to work but has never explained how he would overcome markets forces, such as a preference for natural gas, that has taken a toll on the industry.

Jobs

“I've cleared the way for the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines and added a requirement that American pipelines be constructed with American steel. That was the last minute. I said, where we getting this steel? I won't tell you where, but you can guess. I said, from now on we've got to build them here. You want to put pipelines under our lands, you're going to make the pipe in this country.”

Repeated on Mar. 28 Apr. 4
Source: Prepared speech

Trump makes it sound like he is insisting the Keystone XL is being built with U.S. steel. But the pipeline segments were already built, with half manufactured in the United States (by an India-owned company) and the rest from overseas.

“Walmart, Ford, Fiat, Chrysler, General Motors have all announced that they are keeping or adding tens of thousands of jobs right here in America. Big difference. You used to hear that they were all leaving. Now they are all coming back.”

Repeated on Feb. 9 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 24 Mar. 28 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 2 Apr. 4 Apr. 11 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Prepared speech

Trump takes undue credit for business decisions made prior to his election. Ford’s decision to abandon its plans to open a factory in Mexico and instead expand its Michigan plant has more to do with the company’s long-term goal — particularly its plans to invest in electric vehicles — than with the administration. Fiat Chrysler's plan to invest $1 billion for a factory in Michigan had been in the works for more than a year and had nothing to do with Trump. Japanese company SoftBank announced its $100 billion technology investment fund three weeks before the U.S. elections, when Trump faced a narrow path to victory. Sprint said its hiring plan was a part of a commitment by SoftBank, which owns a controlling stake in Sprint.

Jobs

“To save taxpayer dollars I've already begun negotiating better contracts for the federal government, saving over $700 million I just one set of airplanes, of which there are many sets.”

Repeated on Jan. 30 Feb. 6 Feb. 7 Feb. 18 Feb. 22 Feb. 23 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 21 Apr. 6 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Source: Prepared speech

Trump once again takes credit for the lowered cost, but the Pentagon had announced cost reductions of roughly $600 million before Trump began meeting with Lockheed Martin’s chief executive. Sometimes Trump says he saved $600 million, other times $700 million.

Foreign policy Full story

“You know, our Navy is at World War I levels. Can you believe that? World War I levels.”

Repeated on Mar. 2 Mar. 3
Fact Checker rating: Source: Prepared speech

This is a misleading comparison. A lot has changed in the past century, including the capacity of ships. The U.S. Naval fleet now includes nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, compared to gunboats and small warships of 100 years ago. The Navy, which currently has 275 ships, is on track to grow to just over 300 ships, approximately the size that a bipartisan congressional panel recommended for the current Navy.

Miscellaneous

“If it's off by 100th of a percent, it's like I end up getting Pinocchios.”

Source: Prepared speech

We would beg to differ. Trump has so many Four-Pinocchio ratings because many of his claims lack evidence or a factual basis. Under our standards, being off by 100th of a percentage point would likely result in a Geppetto Checkmark.

Miscellaneous

“I said, wait a minute. I’m approving the [Keystone XL] pipeline and they’re suing us for $14 billion, and I’ve already approved it, right? I said, I just heard it. Go back to them and tell them if they don’t drop the suit immediately we are going to terminate the deal. You have great — you know, being President gives you great power, right? So I just saw him this morning — I said, by the way, how did you do? He said, sir, they dropped the suit.”

Source: Prepared speech

This is false. Keystone did not drop the suit. The company had filed a $15 billion claim for arbitration under the North American Free Trade Agreement after President Barack Obama rejected the pipeline. When Trump said he would reinstate the deal, the company suspended the arbitration claim. But it says it will pursue it if Trump does not follow through with a permit.

Mar. 20, 2017
Economy

“Last year, our country lost almost $800 billion in trade.”

Repeated on Mar. 15 Apr. 2
Source: Prepared speech

The trade deficit was about $500 billion in 2016.

Jobs

“With just one negotiation on one set of airplanes, I saved the taxpayers of our country over $700 million.”

Repeated on Jan. 30 Feb. 6 Feb. 7 Feb. 18 Feb. 22 Feb. 23 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 21 Apr. 6 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Prepared speech

Trump takes credit for the lowered cost, but the Pentagon had announced cost reductions of roughly $600 million before Trump began meeting with Lockheed Martin’s chief executive.

“Since my Inauguration, we've already added nearly a half-a-million new jobs.”

Repeated on Mar. 10 Mar. 13 Mar. 14 Mar. 15 Mar. 18
Source: Prepared speech

This is a clear flip-flop from the stance he held for many years prior to the release of the Bureau of Labor Statistics employment report in February, after his first full month in office. He repeatedly questioned the accuracy of BLS employment statistics, and called figures calculated by career economists as "phony." White House press secretary Sean Spicer was asked about this contradiction at a news briefing after the report’s release. His response: “I talked to the president prior to this and he said to quote him very clearly. They may have been phony in the past, but it’s very real now.” Moreover, Trump is counting a job report that reflects jobs created when Obama was president.

Immigration

“As we speak tonight, we are finding the drug dealers, robbers, thieves, gang members, predators, killers and criminals of all types preying on our citizens. You've been saying it, you've been reading about it and you've been seeing it. One by one they are being tracked down and thrown the hell out of our country and we will not let them back in.”

Repeated on Feb. 12 Feb. 13 Feb. 23 Feb. 24 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Feb. 28
Source: Prepared speech

Trump takes credit for fulfilling his campaign promise of cracking down on illegal immigration, but these arrests are routine. ICE has always targeted dangerous criminals in enforcement priorities. The immigration arrests under Trump so far, however, did include people who would not have fallen under narrowed enforcement priorities under Obama.

“Our economy will be unleashed and millions will be lifted from welfare to work. Got to work on work. They're going to love it. They're going to love it. From welfare to work.”

Repeated on Jan. 20 Jan. 26 Feb. 24 Feb. 28
Source: Prepared speech

“Welfare” is a broad term and can apply to people who are working but receiving government assistance. If someone is receiving means-tested assistance, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are not working.

Health care Full story

“Many of our best and brightest are leaving the medical profession entirely because of Obamacare.”

Source: Prepared speech

There are anecdotes of some doctors, especially older ones, who are frustrated about adopting electronic health records under Obamacare. But physicians leave the industry for many reasons, mainly aging and burning out. As the baby boomer patient population gets older and has more complex conditions, there is greater demand on physicians and their services. Recent data from the Association of American Medical Colleges shows physicians are actually retiring two years later, and the group ahs not seen a significant number of physicians leaving the industry because of the Affordable Care Act.

Health care Full story

“People have been kicked off their plans and their premiums have increased by double and triple digits. Arizona up 116 percent.”

Repeated on Feb. 18 Feb. 27 Mar. 10 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17
Source: Prepared speech

Premiums increased overall in 2017 — but Trump cherry-picks the 116 percent increase in Arizona, the state hit hardest by premium increases. The average increase for the second-lowest-cost silver plan (which is used as the benchmark to calculate government subsidies) is 25 percent. A few states, such as Indiana, will actually see a decrease.

Immigration Full story

“A lot of them are coming in from the Southern border. Since the day of my election, we've already cut illegal immigration at the Southern border by 61 percent. Think of that.”

Repeated on Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 21 Mar. 29 Apr. 4 Apr. 4 Apr. 7
Fact Checker rating: Source: Prepared speech

Trump is citing the 61 percent decline in Southwest border apprehensions from January 2017 to March 2017. It's unclear yet if Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly made an impact, or if it was a result of Trump's rhetoric on immigration throughout the presidential campaign. There tends to be less activity during winter months, and the numbers bounce back in March and through the spring, so it's unclear whether this is a blip or a lasting trend. Moreover, the January data captures the whole month, not just since Inauguration Day.

Economy

“Since NAFTA was approved in 1994, the worst trade deal ever made by any country, I think, in the world, America has lost nearly one-third of its manufacturing jobs.”

Repeated on Mar. 15 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Apr. 18
Source: Prepared speech

Trump hypes the possible connection between these trade deals and the loss of jobs and factories. The Congressional Research Service concluded in 2015 that NAFTA likely had little impact on jobs. Manufacturing jobs in the United States have been adversely affected by many factors, especially changing consumer tastes and technology. Similarly, drawing a connection between China’s entry in the WTO and factory loses is a stretch, especially because the Great Recession play a big role in factory closings.

Economy

“You know, Harley-Davidson makes great motorcycles. They were in my office. They were in my office. And they came in. I said, how are you doing? Great. How's business? Great. How do you do overseas? Well, it's tough. We have some countries that charge us a $100 import tax. I said a hundred -- a 100 percent. Think of it. They want a hundred dollars on that -- 100 percent. So I said, how do you do? Not so well, it's tough. They have other countries that charge a lot.”

Repeated on Feb. 28
Source: Prepared speech

India imposes a 100 percent import tariff on motorcycles. But the company largely has been able to get around the tariff by assembling its bikes in India, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Economy

Since China joined, that's another beauty, the World Trade Organization in 2001, the United States has lost many more than 60,000 factories.

Repeated on Mar. 15 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Apr. 18
Source: Prepared speech

Trump hypes the possible connection between these trade deals and the loss of jobs and factories. The Congressional Research Service concluded in 2015 that NAFTA likely had little impact on jobs. Manufacturing jobs in the United States have been adversely affected by many factors, especially changing consumer tastes and technology. Similarly, drawing a connection between China’s entry in the WTO and factory loses is a stretch, especially because the Great Recession play a big role in factory closings.

“We believe in two simple rules: buy American and hire American.”

Repeated on Mar. 6 Mar. 15 Mar. 15 Mar. 18 Mar. 28
Source: Prepared speech

Trump has a long history of outsourcing a variety of his own products. The Fact Checker has counted a total of 12 countries where Trump products were manufactured (China, the Netherlands, Mexico, India, Turkey, Slovenia, Honduras, Germany, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam and South Korea).

Immigration Full story

“During the campaign as I've traveled all across this great country, I met with many American families whose loved ones, sons and daughters, husbands and wives, were viciously killed by illegal immigrants. Incredible. Incredible. These amazing American lives were stolen because our government refused to enforce our already-existing laws.”

Repeated on Feb. 28 Mar. 20
Source: Prepared speech

Trump likes to use anecdotes as evidence for associating violent crimes with illegal immigration, telling stories of victims of homicide by undocumented immigrants. Clearly, stories like this exist. But the vast majority of unauthorized immigrants do not fit Trump’s description of aggravated felons, whose crimes include murder.

Immigration Full story

“These American victims (of crimes by undocumented immigrants) and their families were ignored by the media. The media doesn't want to talk about it.”

Repeated on Feb. 28 Mar. 20
Source: Prepared speech

Trump likes to use anecdotes as evidence for associating violent crimes with illegal immigration, telling stories of victims of homicide by undocumented immigrants. Clearly, stories like this exist. But the vast majority of unauthorized immigrants do not fit Trump’s description of aggravated felons, whose crimes include murder.

“We are going to put our coal miners back to work. They have not been treated well, but they’re going to be treated well now. ... I have already eliminated a devastating anti-coal regulation.”

Repeated on Mar. 21
Fact Checker rating: Source: Prepared speech

The impact of repealing the regulation is debatable, as industry estimates of 77,000 jobs being saved was based on dubious survey data. Trump promises he will bring coal miners back to work but has never explained how he would overcome markets forces, such as a preference for natural gas, that has taken a toll on the industry.

Foreign policy

“We should never ever have left [Iraq], and the vacuum was created, and we discussed what happened.”

Source: Remarks

This is a flip-flop for Trump. Long before U.S. troops left Iraq in 2011, Trump had been urging they be removed immediately.

Election Full story

“James Clapper and others stated that there is no evidence Potus colluded with Russia. This story is FAKE NEWS and everyone knows it!”

Repeated on Mar. 20
Fact Checker rating: Source: Twitter

Intelligence officials have not focused on Trump's possible involvement in Russian efforts to sway the election but on associates of Trump and people involved in the campaign.

Election Full story

“The Democrats made up and pushed the Russian story as an excuse for running a terrible campaign. Big advantage in Electoral College & lost!”

Repeated on Mar. 20
Fact Checker rating: Source: Twitter

The information on Russian efforts to sway the 2016 election was developed by the intelligence community and published in a declassified report, in which the agencies said they had "high confidence" it was correct.

Election Full story

“The NSA and FBI tell Congress that Russia did not influence electoral process.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Twitter

This was a strange claim, especially because if you watch the video, National Security Agency director Rogers makes clear that, when asked about whether Russian cyber-actors changed vote tallies in Michigan and other states, he replied: “I would highlight we are a foreign intelligence organization, not a domestic intelligence organization. So it would be fair to say, we are probably not the best organization to provide a more complete answer.” Indeed, when later asked about the presidential tweet, FBI director James Comey said it did not reflect what he and Rogers had said: “It certainly wasn’t our intention to say that today.”

Election Full story

“FBI Director Comey: fmr. DNI Clapper 'right' to say no evidence of collusion between Russia and Trump Campaign.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Twitter

This was false. Comey was specifically talking about the Jan. 6 document issued by the intelligence agencies — a document that the Trump White House has largely ignored, except to suggest it was fake. Former director of national intelligence James Clapper later issued a statement saying it was “in the best interest of all Americans” to investigate possible Trump-Russia ties.

Miscellaneous Full story

“FBI Director Comey refuses to deny he briefed President Obama on calls made by Michael Flynn to Russia.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Twitter

Comey was very careful not to discuss individuals, such as fired national security adviser Michael Flynn. He noted that the listeners were not to draw any unwarranted conclusions from his refusal to comment. But apparently his warning fell on deaf ears at the White House.

Miscellaneous

“What about all of the contact with the Clinton campaign and the Russians? Also, is it true that the DNC would not let the FBI in to look?”

Repeated on Mar. 5
Source: Facebook

The FBI and the Democratic National Committee disagree on whether the FBI requested access to the DNC's servers. FBI Director James Comey testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee that the bureau made "multiple requests at different levels" to access DNC's servers, but the DNC said the FBI never requested access. The DNC ultimately allowed a private company to review its database and share findings with the FBI.

Miscellaneous Full story

“James Clapper and others stated that there is no evidence Potus colluded with Russia. This story is FAKE NEWS and everyone knows it!”

Repeated on Mar. 20
Fact Checker rating: Source: Facebook

Intelligence officials have not focused on Trump's possible involvement in Russian efforts to sway the election but on associates of Trump and people involved in the campaign.

Election Full story

“The Democrats made up and pushed the Russian story as an excuse for running a terrible campaign. Big advantage in Electoral College & lost!”

Repeated on Mar. 20
Fact Checker rating: Source: Facebook

The information on Russian efforts to sway the 2016 election was developed by the intelligence community and published in a declassified report, in which the agencies said they had "high confidence" it was correct.

Mar. 19, 2017

No claims

Trump went golfing

Mar. 18, 2017
Foreign policy

“Germany owes vast sums of money to NATO & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!”

Source: Twitter

Germany provides in-kind services for the U.S. bases, and the cost of running them is a pittance of the U.S. militraty bases. Germany owes no money to NATO, but has not yet acheived a goal, set for 2026, to spend at least two percent of its gross domestic product on defense.

“The first two job reports of my administration show that we’ve already added nearly half a million new jobs.”

Repeated on Mar. 10 Mar. 13 Mar. 14 Mar. 15 Mar. 20
Source: Prepared speech

This is a clear flip-flop from the stance he held for many years prior to the release of the Bureau of Labor Statistics employment report in February, after his first full month in office. He repeatedly questioned the accuracy of BLS employment statistics, and called figures calculated by career economists as "phony." White House press secretary Sean Spicer was asked about this contradiction at a news briefing after the report’s release. His response: “I talked to the president prior to this and he said to quote him very clearly. They may have been phony in the past, but it’s very real now.” Moreover, Trump is counting a job report that reflects jobs created when Obama was president.

“We need a new economic model – let’s call it the American Model. Under this model, we will lower the burden on American Business but, in exchange, they must hire and grow America and American jobs. This will be a win-win for our companies and for our workers. Let’s buy American and hire American.”

Repeated on Mar. 6 Mar. 15 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 28
Source: Prepared speech

Trump has a long history of outsourcing a variety of his own products. The Fact Checker has counted a total of 12 countries where Trump products were manufactured (China, the Netherlands, Mexico, India, Turkey, Slovenia, Honduras, Germany, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam and South Korea).

Mar. 17, 2017
Health care Full story

“They also want people to know that Obamacare is dead; it's a dead healthcare plan. It's not even a healthcare plan, frankly.”

Repeated on Jan. 25 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 27 Mar. 11 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 25 Apr. 23 Apr. 24 Apr. 28 Apr. 29
Source: Remarks

The Affordable Care Act is not imploding and is expected to remain stable for the foreseeable future, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Health care Full story

“I watched Bill Clinton saying, this is the craziest thing I've ever seen.”

Source: Remarks

Trump takes this comment out context. Bill Clinton’s remark on Oct. 3 about “the craziest thing I’ve ever seen” did not refer to the Affordable Care Act. Instead, he was talking about the fact that people who did not qualify for insurance subsidies did not have a way to buy into Medicare or Medicaid. He noted that his wife, Haillary Clinton, had a plan to fix that defect.

Health care Full story

“I was in Tennessee -- I was just telling the folks -- and half of the state has no insurance company, and the other half is going to lose the insurance company.”

Repeated on Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Apr. 5 Apr. 28 Apr. 29
Source: Remarks

This is false. All eight of the state’s rating areas have at least one insurance carrier and three of them have two carriers.

Health care Full story

“With Obamacare it got worse and worse. Premiums went up 116 percent. They went up 58 percent.”

Repeated on Feb. 18 Feb. 27 Mar. 10 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 20
Source: Remarks

Premiums increased overall in 2017 — but Trump cherry-picks the 116 percent increase in Arizona, the state hit hardest by premium increases. The average increase for the second-lowest-cost silver plan (which is used as the benchmark to calculate government subsidies) is 25 percent. A few states, such as Indiana, will actually see a decrease.

Health care Full story

“The Governor of Minnesota said that Affordable Care Act -- Obamacare -- no longer affordable. That's what he said.”

Repeated on Jan. 26
Source: Remarks

Trump takes this comment out of context. Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton on Oct. 12 faulted Republicans in Congress for refusing to adjust the law, which he said was the reason why individual health insurance was “no longer affordable to increasing numbers of people.”

Health care Full story

“In Tennessee, where I just left, half of the state has no insurance and --no carrier. It’s gone. And they’re going to leave the other half of the state very soon”

Repeated on Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Apr. 5 Apr. 28 Apr. 29
Source: Remarks

This is false. All eight of the state’s rating areas have at least one insurance carrier and three of them have two carriers.

Health care Full story

“Obamacare is dead. Some of you folks have yourself -- you have family members that have suffered greatly under Obamacare. It’s dying. It’s just about on its last legs. If we did nothing, if we did absolutely nothing, Obamacare is dead.”

Repeated on Jan. 25 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 27 Mar. 11 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 25 Apr. 23 Apr. 24 Apr. 28 Apr. 29
Source: Remarks

The Affordable Care Act is not imploding and is expected to remain stable for the foreseeable future, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Foreign policy Full story

“Many [NATO] nations owe vast sums of money from past years, and it is very unfair to the United States. These nations must pay what they owe.”

Repeated on Mar. 22
Fact Checker rating: Source: News conference

Trump appears to not understand how NATO financing works. Headquarters costs are based on gross national income, with the United States paying 22 percent. Then, NATO members are required to spend at least two percent of gross domestic product on national defense -- but that is goal to be achieved by 2024.

Health care Full story

“I have to tell you that Obamacare is a disaster. It's failing. ... Obamacare will fail. It will fold. It will close up very, very soon if something isn't done.”

Repeated on Jan. 25 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 27 Mar. 11 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 25 Apr. 23 Apr. 24 Apr. 28 Apr. 29
Source: News conference

The Affordable Care Act is not imploding and is expected to remain stable for the foreseeable future, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Health care Full story

“I was in Tennessee -- we had a tremendous crowd the other night, and they have -- half of the state is uncovered. The insurance companies have left, and the other half has one insurance company and that will probably be bailing out pretty soon also. They’ll have nobody.”

Repeated on Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Apr. 5 Apr. 28 Apr. 29
Source: News conference

This is false. All eight of the state’s rating areas have at least one insurance carrier and three of them have two carriers.

Foreign policy

“Our military is going to be strengthened -- it's been depleted.”

Source: News conference

The United States spends far more on defense than any other country, or even the next seven countries combined. It's a stretch to say it is "depleted."

Jobs

“We have many plants and factories coming back into the United States. Many jobs are coming back to Michigan, to Ohio, to Pennsylvania, to a lot of places where they were losing jobs.”

Repeated on Feb. 9 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 24 Mar. 28 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 2 Apr. 4 Apr. 11 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Source: News conference

Trump keeps taking credit for projects that were long in the works before he became president. For example, he repeatedly claims credit for Ford’s decision to abandon its plans to open a factory in Mexico and instead expand its Michigan plant. But analysts say Ford’s decision has more to do with the company’s long-term goal — particularly, its plans to invest in electric vehicles — than the administration. It’s easier for companies to find highly skilled workers to build new products, such as electric cars, in the United States than in Mexico.

Economy

“Germany has done very well in its trade deals with the United States, and I give them credit for it.”

Source: News conference

Germany has no trade deals with the United States.

Economy

“NAFTA has been a disaster for the United States. It’s been a disaster for companies, and in particular, it’s been a disaster for the workers. A lot of the companies just moved, but the workers are screwed.”

Repeated on Feb. 24 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Apr. 18 Apr. 20 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Source: News conference

Trump’s attack on NAFTA is over the top. It is often difficult to separate out the impact of trade agreements on jobs, compared to other, broader economic trends. But the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service in 2015 concluded the “net overall effect of NAFTA on the U.S. economy appears to have been relatively modest, primarily because trade with Canada and Mexico accounts for a small percentage of U.S. GDP,” though it noted “there were worker and firm adjustment costs as the three countries adjusted to more open trade and investment among their economies.”

Miscellaneous

“All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind who was the one responsible for saying that on television. I didn’t make an opinion on it. That was a statement made by a very talented lawyer on Fox. And so you shouldn’t be talking to me, you should be talking to Fox, okay?”

Source: News conference

Fox News said it has no evidence to back up claims by Andrew Napolitano, a judicial analyst and commentator on Fox News. Bret Baier said on his show: “We love the judge, we love him here at Fox, but the Fox News division was never able to back up those claims and was never reported on this show.”

Mar. 2, 2017
Economy

“Since November 8th, Election Day, the Stock Market has posted $3.2 trillion in GAINS and consumer confidence is at a 15 year high.”

Repeated on Feb. 16 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 28
Source: Twitter

This is a flip-flop for Trump. Before he was elected, he dismissed the stock-market performance under Obama as “artificial” and “a bubble."

Foreign policy

“I am calling for one of the largest defense spending increases in history.”

Repeated on Feb. 28 Mar. 15
Source: Remarks

This is false. Trump's proposed ten percent increase is actually relatively modest. In the past 30 years, at least one-third of the time the core defense budget was boosted more than Trump's request--in some cases more than double the percentage requested by Trump.

Foreign policy Full story

“In these troubled times, our Navy is the smallest it's been since World War I”

Repeated on Mar. 3 Mar. 21
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

This is a misleading comparison. A lot has changed in the past century, including the capacity of ships. The U.S. Naval fleet now includes nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, compared to gunboats and small warships of 100 years ago. The Navy, which currently has 275 ships, is on track to grow to just over 300 ships, approximately the size that a bipartisan congressional panel recommended for the current Navy.

Mar. 15, 2017
Miscellaneous

“Does anybody really believe that a reporter, who nobody ever heard of, ”went to his mailbox" and found my tax returns? @NBCNews FAKE NEWS!"

Source: Twitter

The reporter in question, David Cay Johnston, has won a Pulitzer Prize and covered Trump when he was in the gambling industry. Johnston says Trump used to call him at home.

“Buy American and hire American. It's not just a motto, it's a pledge.”

Repeated on Mar. 6 Mar. 15 Mar. 18 Mar. 20 Mar. 28
Source: Remarks

Trump has a long history of outsourcing a variety of his own products. The Fact Checker has counted a total of 12 countries where Trump products were manufactured (China, the Netherlands, Mexico, India, Turkey, Slovenia, Honduras, Germany, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam and South Korea).

“You see what's already been happening; plants are coming back, other plants that were expected to be built in other countries are not being built. … Ford has announced 700 new jobs coming back to their plant in Flat Rock, Michigan. Fiat Chrysler has announced that they will create 2,000 new jobs in Michigan and Ohio.”

Repeated on Feb. 9 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 24 Mar. 28 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 2 Apr. 4 Apr. 11 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

Trump keeps taking credit for projects that were long in the works before he became president. For example, he repeatedly claims credit for Ford’s decision to abandon its plans to open a factory in Mexico and instead expand its Michigan plant. But analysts say Ford’s decision has more to do with the company’s long-term goal — particularly, its plans to invest in electric vehicles — than the administration. It’s easier for companies to find highly skilled workers to build new products, such as electric cars, in the United States than in Mexico. Fiat Chrysler's plan to invest $1 billion for a factory in Michigan had been in the works for more than a year and had nothing to do with Trump.

Economy

“NAFTA, a total disaster.”

Repeated on Feb. 24 Mar. 17 Apr. 18 Apr. 20
Source: Remarks

Trump’s attack on NAFTA is over the top. It is often difficult to separate out the impact of trade agreements on jobs, compared to other, broader economic trends. But the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service in 2015 concluded the “net overall effect of NAFTA on the U.S. economy appears to have been relatively modest, primarily because trade with Canada and Mexico accounts for a small percentage of U.S. GDP,” though it noted “there were worker and firm adjustment costs as the three countries adjusted to more open trade and investment among their economies.”

Economy

“Since NAFTA was approved, we've lost nearly one-third of our manufacturing jobs in the United States. Since China entered the World Trade Organization, we've lost 60,000 factories.”

Repeated on Feb. 24 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Apr. 18 Apr. 20 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Source: Remarks

Trump hypes the possible connection between these trade deals and the loss of jobs and factories. The Congressional Research Service concluded in 2015 that NAFTA likely had little impact on jobs. Manufacturing jobs in the United States have been adversely affected by many factors, especially changing consumer tastes and technology. Similarly, drawing a connection between China’s entry in the WTO and factory loses is a stretch, especially because the Great Recession play a big role in factory closings.

Economy

“Our trade deficit last year reached nearly $800 billion.”

Repeated on Mar. 20 Apr. 2
Source: Remarks

The trade deficit was about $500 billion in 2016.

Jobs

“I'm saving a lot of money. On the airplanes I saved $725 million. Probably took me half an hour, if you add it up, all of the times. We saved a tremendous amount of money in government already.”

Repeated on Jan. 30 Feb. 6 Feb. 7 Feb. 18 Feb. 22 Feb. 23 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 21 Apr. 6 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Source: Interview

Trump once again takes credit for the lowered cost, but the Pentagon had announced cost reductions of roughly $600 million before Trump began meeting with Lockheed Martin’s chief executive. Sometimes Trump says he saved $600 million, other times $700 million.

Health care

“Obama is a disaster. The premiums are going up at numbers as high as 116 percent. And by the way, this is the worst year of all ... 2017 is going to be the worst because he's gone. He knew that was the year. Let him be out before it implodes.”

Repeated on Feb. 18 Feb. 27 Mar. 10 Mar. 13 Mar. 17 Mar. 20
Source: Interview

Trump cherry-picks data from Arizona, the state hit the hardest by 2017 premium increases under the Affordable Care Act. The average increase for the second-lowest-cost silver plan (which is used as the benchmark to calculate government subsidies) is 25 percent. A few states, such as Indiana, actually saw a decrease.

Jobs

“In the first two job reports since I took the oath of office, we’ve already added nearly half a million new jobs.”

Repeated on Mar. 10 Mar. 13 Mar. 14 Mar. 18 Mar. 20
Source: Remarks

The first job report, released in February, was based on data that was collected when Obama was still president.

“We believe in two simple rules: Buy American and Hire American.”

Repeated on Mar. 6 Mar. 15 Mar. 18 Mar. 20 Mar. 28
Source: Remarks

Trump has a long history of outsourcing a variety of his own products. The Fact Checker has counted a total of 12 countries where Trump products were manufactured (China, the Netherlands, Mexico, India, Turkey, Slovenia, Honduras, Germany, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam and South Korea).

Economy

“Tennessee has lost one third of its manufacturing jobs since the institution of NAFTA, one of the worst trade deals ever in history. Our nation has lost over 60,000 factories since China joined the World Trade Organization -- 60,000.”

Repeated on Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 20 Apr. 18
Source: Remarks

Trump hypes the possible connection between these trade deals and the loss of jobs and factories. The Congressional Research Service concluded in 2015 that NAFTA likely had little impact on jobs. Manufacturing jobs in the United States have been adversely affected by many factors, especially changing consumer tastes and technology. Similarly, drawing a connection between China’s entry in the WTO and factory loses is a stretch, especially because the Great Recession play a big role in factory closings.

Immigration Full story

“We've already experienced an unprecedented 40-percent reduction in illegal immigration on our Southern border; 61 percent since Inauguration Day -- 61 percent.”

Repeated on Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 21 Mar. 29 Apr. 4 Apr. 4 Apr. 7
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

Trump is citing the 61 percent decline in Southwest border apprehensions from January 2017 to March 2017. It's unclear yet if Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly made an impact, or if it was a result of Trump's rhetoric on immigration throughout the presidential campaign. There tends to be less activity during winter months, and the numbers bounce back in March and through the spring, so it's unclear whether this is a blip or a lasting trend. Moreover, the January data captures the whole month, not just since Inauguration Day.

Immigration Full story

“Hundreds upon hundreds of people from outside our country have been convicted of terrorism-related offenses in the United States courts.”

Repeated on Apr. 28
Source: Remarks

Of about 400 individuals charged with or credibly involved in jihad-inspired activity in the U.S. since 9/11, just under half (197) were U.S.-born citizens, according to research by the nonpartisan think tank New America Foundation. An additional 82 were naturalized citizens, and 44 were permanent residents.

Immigration

“Part of the much overturned 9th Circuit Court...that 9th Circuit -- you have to see. Take a look at how many times they have been overturned with their terrible decisions.”

Repeated on Feb. 16
Source: Remarks

Trump is referring to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which ruled against reinstating his travel ban. But there are other ways to slice the data, and it’s important to put this number into context. Most cases reviewed by the Supreme Court are reversed, and the 9th Circuit rules on more cases in general. The 9th Circuit’s reversal rate was usually higher than the average, but not always the highest.

Health care Full story

“It’s a catastrophic situation, and there’s nothing to compare anything to because Obamacare won’t be around for a year or two. It’s gone.”

Repeated on Jan. 25 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 27 Mar. 11 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 25 Apr. 23 Apr. 24 Apr. 28 Apr. 29
Source: Remarks

The Affordable Care Act is not imploding and is expected to remian stable for the foreseeable future, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Foreign policy

“Our budget calls for one of the single largest increases in defense spending history in this country.”

Repeated on Feb. 28 Mar. 2
Source: Remarks

This is false. Trump's proposed ten percent increase is actually relatively modest. In the past 30 years, at least one-third of the time the core defense budget was boosted more than Trump's request--in some cases more than double the percentage requested by Trump.

Mar. 14, 2017

“JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!”

Repeated on Mar. 10 Mar. 13
Source: Twitter

In this tweet, Trump included photos of the Bureau of Labor Statistics's employment report for Trump's first full month in office. This was a clear flip-flop from the stance he held for many years prior to this jobs report. He repeatedly questioned the accuracy of BLS employment statistics, and called figures calculated by career economists as "phony." White House press secretary Sean Spicer was asked about this contradiction at a news briefing after the report’s release. His response: “I talked to the president prior to this and he said to quote him very clearly. They may have been phony in the past, but it’s very real now.”

Mar. 13, 2017
Health care

“You represent the millions of Americans who have seen their Obamacare premiums increase by double digits and even triple digits. In Arizona, the rates were over 116 percent last year -- 116 percent increase.”

Repeated on Feb. 18 Feb. 27 Mar. 10 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 20
Source: Remarks

Trump cherry-picks data from Arizona, the state hit the hardest by 2017 premium increases under the Affordable Care Act. The average increase for the second-lowest-cost silver plan (which is used as the benchmark to calculate government subsidies) is 25 percent. A few states, such as Indiana, actually saw a decrease.

Health care

“First of all, it covers very few people. And it’s imploding. And ’17 will be the worst year. And I said it once, I’ll say it again -- because Obama is gone -- things are going to be very bad this year for the people with Obamacare. They’re going to have tremendous increases.”

Repeated on Jan. 25 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 27 Mar. 11 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 25 Apr. 23 Apr. 24 Apr. 28 Apr. 29
Source: Remarks

Credible estimates suggest the health-care law boosted the number of people with health insurance by 20 million. The Congressional Budget Office said that the individual market would be stable in most markets at least for the next ten years under the Affordable Care Act.

“We're seeing companies like Exxon, Walmart, Intel, Ford, Fiat Chrysler, and so many others announcing that they will keep and create tens of thousands of jobs in the United States. Many, many companies are not moving now, which normally they would have been out of here a long time ago. They're not moving because they understand there are going to be consequences.”

Repeated on Feb. 9 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 24 Mar. 28 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 2 Apr. 4 Apr. 11 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

Trump keeps taking credit for projects that were long in the works before he became president. For example, he repeatedly claims credit for Ford’s decision to abandon its plans to open a factory in Mexico and instead expand its Michigan plant. But analysts say Ford’s decision has more to do with the company’s long-term goal — particularly, its plans to invest in electric vehicles — than the administration. It’s easier for companies to find highly skilled workers to build new products, such as electric cars, in the United States than in Mexico. Fiat Chrysler's plan to invest $1 billion for a factory in Michigan had been in the works for more than a year and had nothing to do with Trump.

“The first two job reports that have come out since my inauguration, we've already added nearly half a million new jobs.”

Repeated on Mar. 10 Mar. 14 Mar. 15 Mar. 18 Mar. 20
Source: Remarks

This is a clear flip-flop from the stance he held for many years prior to the release of the Bureau of Labor Statistics employment report in February, after his first full month in office. He repeatedly questioned the accuracy of BLS employment statistics, and called figures calculated by career economists as "phony." White House press secretary Sean Spicer was asked about this contradiction at a news briefing after the report’s release. His response: “I talked to the president prior to this and he said to quote him very clearly. They may have been phony in the past, but it’s very real now.”

Immigration

“In the first full month of my administration following the issuance of my executive orders, illegal immigration on our southern border fell by an unprecedented 40 percent. I want to congratulate General Kelly.”

Repeated on Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 21 Mar. 29 Apr. 4
Source: Remarks

Apprehension numbers for February 2017 did decline by 40 percent, which hasn't happened in at least the past five years, PolitiFact found. But monthly apprehensions in fiscal year 2011 were regularly on par with apprehension figures from February, according to PolitiFact.

Mar. 12, 2017

No claims

Trump went golfing

Mar. 11, 2017
Health care Full story

“We are making great progress with healthcare. ObamaCare is imploding and will only get worse. Republicans coming together to get job done! - President Donald J. Trump”

Repeated on Jan. 25 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 27 Mar. 11 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 25 Apr. 23 Apr. 24 Apr. 28 Apr. 29
Source: Facebook

The Affordable Care Act is not imploding and is expected to remain stable for the foreseeable future, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Mar. 10, 2017

“GREAT AGAIN: +235,000”

Repeated on Mar. 13 Mar. 14 Mar. 15 Mar. 18 Mar. 20
Source: Twitter

The day the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its employment report for Trump's first full month in office, Trump retweeted Drudge Report: "GREAT AGAIN: +235,000." This was a clear flip-flop from the stance he held for many years prior to this jobs report. He repeatedly questioned the accuracy of BLS employment statistics, and called figures calculated by career economists as "phony." White House press secretary Sean Spicer was asked about this contradiction at a news briefing after the report’s release. His response: “I talked to the president prior to this and he said to quote him very clearly. They may have been phony in the past, but it’s very real now.”

Health care

“We must act now to save Americans from the imploding Obamacare disaster. Premiums have skyrocketed by double-digits and triple-digits in some cases. As an example, Arizona -- which I talk about all the time -- 116 percent increase and it’s going up a lot higher. ’17 would be a disaster for Obamacare. That’s the year it was meant to explode, because Obama won’t be here. That was when it was supposed to be -- it will get even worse. As bad as it is now, it’ll get even worse.”

Repeated on Feb. 18 Feb. 27 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 20
Source: Remarks

Trump cherry-picks data from Arizona, the state hit the hardest by 2017 premium increases under the Affordable Care Act. The average increase for the second-lowest-cost silver plan (which is used as the benchmark to calculate government subsidies) is 25 percent. A few states, such as Indiana, actually saw a decrease.

Health care Full story

“Americans were promised that Obamacare would bring premiums down $2,500 for a typical family. Instead, they’ve gone up by more than $4,000.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Prepared speech

The baseline for the $4,000 figure goes all the way back to 2008, the year before Obama took the oath of office. To capture what happened after some of the Obamacare provisions went into effect, that's an increase of $1,761. Moreover, since the Affordable Care Act became law, the rate of increase in healthcare costs have slowed. It is still debated by experts about whether the law gets all of the credit, but if costs had continued on the previous path, premiums would have been $3,600 higher.

Health care

“The House plan follows the guidelines I laid out in my recent address to Congress – expanding choice, lowering costs, and providing healthcare access for all.”

Source: Prepared speech

The House plan, as drafted, does not expand choice, lower costs and was estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to reduce the number of people with health insurance compared to current law.

Mar. 9, 2017
Health care

“Despite what you hear in the press, healthcare is coming along great. We are talking to many groups and it will end in a beautiful picture!”

Source: Twitter

The press is reporting reactions to the replacement plan from lawmakers and industry groups from all sides of the political spectrum. Conservative and liberal industry groups have opposed the plan, along with Democrats and some Republican lawmakers, both moderate and conservative.

Mar. 8, 2017
Economy

“LinkedIn Workforce Report: January and February were the strongest consecutive months for hiring since August and September 2015”

Source: Twitter

Trump failed to read the fine print of the LinkedIn Workforce report. The numbers were affected by seasonal hiring. When adjusted for seasonal hiring variations, hiring was down 1.3 percent from January to February, the first full month of Trump's term.

Mar. 7, 2017
Miscellaneous

“122 vicious prisoners, released by the Obama Administration from Gitmo, have returned to the battlefield. Just another terrible decision!" (@realDonaldTrump account)

Repeated on Mar. 7
Source: Twitter

This is false. Only eight former Gitmo detainees "confirmed of reengaging" in terrorist or insurgent activities were released under Obama, and 113 were released under George W. Bush. Although this tweet, sent at 7:04 a.m., was immediately called out as false on Twitter, Trump repeated it on the @POTUS account at 8:03 a.m. Trump tweeted this on the same day from @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS. Therefore, we are counting the two tweets as separate entries in our database.

Miscellaneous

“122 vicious prisoners, released by the Obama Administration from Gitmo, have returned to the battlefield. Just another terrible decision!" (@POTUS account)

Repeated on Mar. 7
Source: Twitter

This is false. Only eight former Gitmo detainees "confirmed of reengaging" in terrorist or insurgent activities were released under Obama, and 113 were released under George W. Bush. Trump first tweeted this at 7:04 a.m. on the @realDonaldTrump account, and it was immediately called out as false on Twitter. But then at 8:03 a.m., he repeated the same tweet on the @POTUS account. Therefore, we are counting the two tweets as separate entries in our database.

Jobs

“It's such spirit that we haven't seen in the country in a long time. Jobs are pouring back here. You saw what happened with Exxon, where they just announced a massive job program.”

Repeated on Mar. 6 Mar. 6
Source: Remarks

Trump again takes credit for a project long in the works before he became president. ExxonMobil has been planning this since 2013.

Mar. 6, 2017

“Buy American & hire American are the principals at the core of my agenda, which is: JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!”

Repeated on Mar. 15 Mar. 15 Mar. 18 Mar. 20 Mar. 28
Source: Twitter

Trump has a long history of outsourcing a variety of his own products. The Fact Checker has counted a total of 12 countries where Trump products were manufactured (China, the Netherlands, Mexico, India, Turkey, Slovenia, Honduras, Germany, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam and South Korea).

Jobs

“45,000 construction & manufacturing jobs in the U.S. Gulf Coast region. $20 billion investment [by ExxonMobil]. We are already winning again, America!”

Repeated on Mar. 6 Mar. 7
Source: Twitter

Trump again takes credit for a project long in the works before he became president. ExxonMobil has been planning this since 2013.

Jobs

“I’m very pleased to announce the great company ExxonMobil is going to be investing $20 billion in the Gulf Coast and the Gulf Coast region. … This was something that was done to a large extent because of our policies and the policies of this new administration having to do with regulators and so many other things.”

Repeated on Mar. 6 Mar. 7
Source: Facebook

Trump again takes credit for a project long in the works before he became president. ExxonMobil has been planning this since 2013.

“I said we’re bringing back jobs and this is one big example of it. But whether it’s the pielines or so many other things, including the fact that car companies are moving back to Michigan, Ohio, soon to be Pennsylvania and lots of other places, we’re really doing well.”

Repeated on Feb. 9 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 24 Mar. 28 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 2 Apr. 4 Apr. 11 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Facebook

Trump keeps taking credit for projects that were long in the works before he became president. For example, he repeatedly claims credit for Ford’s decision to abandon its plans to open a factory in Mexico and instead expand its Michigan plant. But analysts say Ford’s decision has more to do with the company’s long-term goal — particularly, its plans to invest in electric vehicles — than the administration. It’s easier for companies to find highly skilled workers to build new products, such as electric cars, in the United States than in Mexico.

Immigration Full story

“The Attorney General has reported to me that more than 300 persons who entered the United States as refugees are currently the subjects of counterterrorism investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Statement

The administration repeatedly used this 300 figure, without any context. That is highly misleading. The 300 figure represents a tiny fraction of all resettled refugees in the United States per year (83,380 on average), and since the refugee program began in 1980 (3 million). Since Sept. 11, 2001, roughly 190,000 refugees were accepted into the United States from the six countries listed in the immigration executive order. The 300 figure represents a fraction — though it is unclear how small or big — of the total open counterterrorism investigations (which could be 1,000 or up to 10,000). And we have no idea what charges are involved, or if these investigations will even result in any charges (or convictions, for that matter).

Mar. 5, 2017
Miscellaneous

“Is it true the DNC would not allow the FBI access to check server or other equipment after learning it was hacked? Can that be possible?”

Repeated on Mar. 20
Source: Twitter

The FBI and the Democratic National Committee disagree on whether the FBI requested access to the DNC's servers. FBI Director James Comey testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee that the bureau made "multiple requests at different levels" to access DNC's servers, but the DNC said the FBI never requested access. The DNC ultimately allowed a private company to review its database and share findings with the FBI.

Miscellaneous Full story

“Thank you for the great rallies all across the country. Tremendous support. Make America Great Again!”

Source: Twitter

The size of crowds holding "March 4 Trump" rallies varied, from about 30 people in Indianapolis to about 400 in St. Paul, Minn. Some rallies drew just as many protesters as supporters.

Mar. 4, 2017
Election Full story

“How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Twitter

There is no evidence that Obama ordered the wiretapping of Trump's calls. Trump seized on reports in the right-leaning media, but even the reports cited by the White House did not make this allegation.

Election Full story

“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Twitter

There is no evidence that Obama ordered the wiretapping of Trump's calls. Trump seized on reports in the right-leaning media, but even the reports cited by the White House did not make this allegation.

Election Full story

“Is it legal for a sitting President to be 'wire tapping' a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Twitter

There is no evidence that Obama ordered the wiretapping of Trump's calls. Trump seized on reports in the right-leaning media, but even the reports cited by the White House did not make this allegation.

Election Full story

“I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Twitter

There is no evidence that Obama ordered the wiretapping of Trump's calls. Trump seized on reports in the right-leaning media, but even the reports cited by the White House did not make this allegation.

Miscellaneous

“Just out: The same Russian Ambassador that met Jeff Sessions visited the Obama White House 22 times, and 4 times last year alone.”

Source: Twitter

This is a misleading comparison. Sessions appears to have misled the Senate about his meetings, while the meetings at the White House were recorded in a public log that Trump has now eliminated.

Miscellaneous

“Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't voluntarily leaving the Apprentice, he was fired by his bad (pathetic) ratings, not by me. Sad end to great show.”

Source: Twitter

Schwarzenegger said he was leaving of his own accord, blaming animus toward Trump for the show's sagging ratings. “You should think about hiring a new joke writer and a fact checker," Schwarenegger tweeted back.

Mar. 3, 2017
Miscellaneous Full story

“We should start an immediate investigation into @SenSchumer and his ties to Russia and Putin. A total hypocrite!”

Source: Twitter

Trump makes a misleading comparison between Attorney General Jeff Sessions's meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and Sen. Charles E. Schumer's meeting Vladimir Putin at a pu blic event in 2003. Sessions, who was a Trump campaign surrogate, misled Congress by not disclosing that he met with Kislyak on at least two occasions during the 2016 presidential campaign, including one private meeting at Sessions's Senate office.

Miscellaneous Full story

“I hereby demand a second investigation, after Schumer, of Pelosi for her close ties to Russia, and lying about it.”

Source: Twitter

Trump makes a misleading comparison between Attorney General Jeff Sessions's meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and Rep. Nancy Pelosi's 2010 meeting with then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Sessions, a Trump campaign surrogate, misled Congress by not disclosing that he met with Kislyak on at least two occasions during the 2016 presidential campaign, including one private meeting at Sessions's Senate office. Pelosi and other House leaders met with Medvedev, who brought Kislyak and other top Russian officials to the meeting.

Miscellaneous Full story

“It is so pathetic that the Dems have still not approved my full Cabinet.”

Source: Twitter

The Senate Democrats did hold up Trump's Cabinet picks at one time. But as of Trump's tweet, there were two empty slots; the administration had not sent the rest of the paperwork for one and had not sent a nominee to fill the other slot. Sen. Marco Rubio tweeted the prior evening, on March 2: "After the votes taken earlier this afternoon, the U.S. Senate has now confirmed all of the available Cabinet nominations."

Foreign policy Full story

“Our Navy's fleet is the smallest it has been since World War I, and that’s a long time ago.”

Repeated on Mar. 2 Mar. 21
Fact Checker rating: Source: Prepared speech

This is a misleading comparison. A lot has changed in the past century, including the capacity of ships. The U.S. Naval fleet now includes nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, compared to gunboats and small warships of 100 years ago. The Navy, which currently has 275 ships, is on track to grow to just over 300 ships, approximately the size that a bipartisan congressional panel recommended for the current Navy.

Mar. 1, 2017

No claims

Mar. 16, 2017
Health care

“Great progress on healthcare. Improvements being made - Republicans coming together!”

Source: Twitter

Not exactly. The day of this tweet, the House Budget Committee recommended changes to the GOP health-care bill that reflected concerns among conservative critics unhappy with the proposed legislation. Moderate Republicans have also expressed opposition, while deep concerns remain among Republicans in the Senate.

Feb. 28, 2017

“We saved $700 million plus on an F-35 after I got involved.”

Repeated on Jan. 30 Feb. 6 Feb. 7 Feb. 18 Feb. 22 Feb. 23 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 21 Apr. 6 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

Trump takes credit for the lowered cost, but the Pentagon had announced cost reductions of roughly $600 million on the F-35 before Trump began meeting with Lockheed Martin’s chief executive. Trump over time keeps increasing the money he allegedly saved.

Immigration Full story

“Remember this, on the border and throughout our country, we're getting the bad ones out, the bad people -- gang members, drug lords, in some cases, murderers.”

Repeated on Feb. 12 Feb. 13 Feb. 23 Feb. 24 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Mar. 20
Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

ICE has always targeted dangerous criminals in enforcement priorities. The recent arrests Trump is referring to did include people who would not have fallen under Obama’s narrower enforcement priorities. But such people — comprising 25 percent of the arrests — had lesser charges and noncriminal convictions and are not the “very, very hardened criminals” that Trump describes.

“You see what I've done. Ford has announced, General Motors, Fiat has announced. They're all building big plants.They're all coming back into the United States. They were fleeing.”

Repeated on Feb. 9 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 24 Mar. 28 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 2 Apr. 4 Apr. 11 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

Trump takes credit for Ford’s decision to abandon its plans to open a factory in Mexico and instead expand its Michigan plant. But analysts say Ford’s decision has more to do with the company’s long-term goal — particularly, its plans to invest in electric vehicles — than the administration. It’s easier for companies to find highly skilled workers to build new products, such as electric cars, in the United States than in Mexico.

Economy

“You take a look at what's going on with the stock market. Trillions of dollars of value have been created since I won the election -- I mean, trillions.”

Repeated on Feb. 16 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Mar. 2
Source: Interview

This is a flip-flop for Trump. Before he was elected, he dismissed the stock-market performance under Obama as “artificial” and “a bubble."

Miscellaneous

“When they [the news media] make stories up, when they create sources -- because I believe that sometimes they don't have sources, you know, the sources don't exist, and sometimes they do exist.”

Source: Interview

This is an irresponsible and false statement. Major news media organizations do not make up sources. That is grounds for firing.

Election Full story

“The fact is, I did pretty well, much better than past people in the Republican Party in the recent election, having to do with Hispanics, having to do with African-Americans.”

Repeated on Feb. 1
Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

Trump got 8 percent of the African American vote versus 6 percent for Mitt Romney in 2012 and 4 percent for John McCain in 2008. But Romney and McCain were running against the first African American candidate, Obama. Strictly by the numbers, Trump actually did worse among blacks than any Republican running against a white man, though in effect he came close to tying George W. Bush in 2000 and Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Foreign policy

“They get a lot of information [in the Yemen raid], a lot of -- a lot of different things that they really wanted to get.”

Source: Interview

The administration has provided no evidence for this claim and NBC News reported that the raid that led to the death of a Navy SEAL "yielded no significant intelligence." The U.S. Central Command in January released a video seized in the raid that purportedly held valuable information — only to later acknowledge that the video was already available online and had not been thoroughly analyzed before its release. A press conference to play up the value of the information was canceled.

Environment Full story

“But a few years ago, the EPA decided that navigable waters can mean nearly every puddle or every ditch on a farmer's land or anyplace else that they decide. Right? It was a massive power grab.”

Source: Remarks

Trump is referring to the Waters of the United States rule, which has been on hold since 2015 after legal challenges. As PolitiFact reported, the rule specifically excludes puddles and applies to certain ditches, including ones that could carry pollution downstream.

Environment Full story

“EPA's so-called Waters of the United States Rule is one of the worst examples of federal regulation and it has truly run amuck and is one of the rules most strongly opposed by farmers, ranchers and agricultural workers all across our land. It's prohibiting them from being allowed to do what they're supposed to be doing. It's been a disaster.”

Source: Remarks

So Trump incorrectly says the Waters of the United States rule has had a negative impact. The Environmental Protection Agency's 2015 rule spurred legal challenges in courts across the country, alleging that the EPA exceeded the scope of its authority. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a nationwide stay against enforcement of this rule.

Environment Full story

“The EPA's regulators were putting people out of jobs by the hundreds of thousands and regulations and permits started treating our wonderful small farmers and small businesses as if they were a major industrial polluter.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

Opponents of the EPA's Waters of the United States rule had argued it would cost taxpayer money and American jobs, the rule has not yet taken effect. So it's unclear what jobs Trump is referring to. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a nationwide stay against the enforcement of this rule, after legal challenges.

Environment Full story

“In one case in Wyoming, a rancher was fined $37,000 a day by the EPA for digging a small watering hole for his cattle. His land.”

Source: Remarks

Trump makes it sound like the rancher simply dug a small hole on his land. FactCheck.org took an extensive look at this case, and found it to be much more complicated. The rancher built a dam on a federal waterway without a permit, as required by the Clean Air Act, according to the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Miscellaneous Full story

“We have begun to drain the swamp of government corruption by imposing a 5-year ban on lobbying by Executive Branch Officials – and a lifetime ban on becoming lobbyists for a foreign government.”

Source: Prepared speech

Trump did sign an order that he said would result in a lifetime ban on administration officials lobbying for foreign governments. But his five-year ban on lobbying is less than advertised. Trump has originally promised to extend the ban to congressional officials, but he did not. Moreover, the five-year ban applies only to lobbying one’s former agency — not becoming a lobbyist. Moreover, Trump actually weakened some of the language from similar bans under Obama and George W. Bush, and reduced the level of transparency.

Immigration Full story

“We’ve defended the borders of other nations, while leaving our own borders wide open, for anyone to cross — and for drugs to pour in at a now unprecedented rate.”

Source: Prepared speech

The data are mixed on the amount of drugs coming through the borders. The amount of marijuana and cocaine seized at the border continue to decline, but seized amounts of heroin and methamphetamine increased in recent years.

“Since my election, Ford, Fiat-Chrysler, General Motors, Sprint, Softbank, Lockheed, Intel, Walmart, and many others, have announced that they will invest billions of dollars in the United States and will create tens of thousands of new American jobs.”

Repeated on Feb. 9 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 24 Mar. 28 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 2 Apr. 4 Apr. 11 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Prepared speech

Trump takes undue credit for business decisions made prior to his election. Ford’s decision to abandon its plans to open a factory in Mexico and instead expand its Michigan plant has more to do with the company’s long-term goal — particularly its plans to invest in electric vehicles — than with the administration. Fiat Chrysler's plan to invest $1 billion for a factory in Michigan had been in the works for more than a year and had nothing to do with Trump. Japanese company SoftBank announced its $100 billion technology investment fund three weeks before the U.S. elections, when Trump faced a narrow path to victory. Sprint said its hiring plan was a part of a commitment by SoftBank, which owns a controlling stake in Sprint.

“We’ve saved taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars by bringing down the price of the fantastic new F-35 jet fighter, and will be saving billions more dollars on contracts all across our government.”

Repeated on Jan. 30 Feb. 6 Feb. 7 Feb. 18 Feb. 22 Feb. 23 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 21 Apr. 6 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Source: Prepared speech

Trump takes credit for the lowered cost of the F-35 program, but the Pentagon had announced cost reductions of roughly $600 million before Trump began meeting with Lockheed Martin’s chief executive. Sometimes Trump says he saved $600 million, other times $700 million.

“We have cleared the way for the construction of the Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines — thereby creating tens of thousands of jobs — and I’ve issued a new directive that new American pipelines be made with American steel.”

Repeated on Jan. 24 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Mar. 28 Apr. 4 Apr. 29
Source: Prepared speech

Trump appears to be combining two disputed figures — 28,000 jobs for Keystone XL and 12,000 for the Dakota Access pipeline. As for the steel, workers in Arkansas have already built about half of the high-strength line pipe needed for the project, some 333,000 tons.

Immigration Full story

“As we speak, we are removing gang members, drug dealers and criminals that threaten our communities and prey on our citizens. Bad ones are going out as I speak and as I have promised throughout the campaign.”

Repeated on Feb. 12 Feb. 13 Feb. 23 Feb. 24 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Mar. 20
Fact Checker rating: Source: Prepared speech

ICE has always targeted dangerous criminals in enforcement priorities. The recent arrests Trump is referring to did include people who would not have fallen under Obama’s narrower enforcement priorities. But such people — comprising 25 percent of the arrests — had lesser charges and noncriminal convictions and are not the “bad ones” that Trump describes.

Immigration Full story

“By finally enforcing our immigration laws we will raise wages, help the unemployed, save billions and billions of dollars and make our communities safer for everyone.”

Source: Prepared speech

Trump exaggerates the impact of illegal immigration on crime, taxpayer money and jobs. We covered these three points further in our round-up of Trump's address to Congress.

“Millions lifted from welfare to work is not too much to expect.”

Repeated on Jan. 20 Jan. 26 Feb. 24 Mar. 20
Source: Prepared speech

“Welfare” is a broad term and can apply to people who are working but receiving government assistance. If someone is receiving means-tested assistance, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are not working.

“Ninety-four million Americans are out of the labor force.”

Repeated on Apr. 4
Fact Checker rating: Source: Prepared speech

This is an absurd Four-Pinocchio claim, based on a real number. The 94 million "not in labor force" that Trump refers to are based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data from 2015. It turns out that 93 percent do not want a job at all. The picture that emerges from a study of the data shows that the 95 million consists mostly of people who are retired, students, stay-at-home parents or disabled.

Foreign policy Full story

“America has spent approximately six trillion dollars in the Middle East, all this while our infrastructure at home is crumbling. With this six trillion dollars we could have rebuilt our country –- twice.”

Repeated on Jan. 25 Feb. 9 Feb. 24 Feb. 27 Mar. 22
Source: Prepared speech

Trump is lumping together the wars in Iraq (in the Middle East) and Afghanistan (in South Asia), which together cost about $1.6 trillion from 2001 to 2014. He is also adding in estimates of future spending, such as interest on the debt and veterans' care for the next three decades.

“The murder rate in 2015 experienced its largest single-year increase in nearly half a century. In Chicago, more than 4,000 people were shot last year alone — and the murder rate so far this year has been even higher. This is not acceptable in our society.”

Repeated on Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 27
Source: Prepared speech

In 2016, there was an uptick in the homicide rate in the 30 largest cities. One outlier city -- Chicago -- was responsible for 43.7 percent of the total increase in homicide rates in 2016. Seven people were shot and killed in Chicago on Feb. 22, the deadliest day in the city so far this year. Overall, violent crime is on a decades-long decline, since the height of the crack cocaine epidemic in the early 1990s.

Immigration Full story

“Jamiel’s 17-year-old son was viciously murdered by an illegal immigrant gang member, who had just been released from prison.”

Repeated on Mar. 20 Mar. 20
Source: Prepared speech

Trump likes to use anecdotes as evidence for associating violent crimes with illegal immigration, telling stories of victims of homicide by undocumented immigrants. Clearly, stories like this exist. But the vast majority of unauthorized immigrants do not fit Trump’s description of aggravated felons, whose crimes include murder.

Foreign policy Full story

“I can tell you the money is pouring in. Very nice.”

Source: Prepared speech

NATO’s guideline, established in 2006, is that defense expenditures should amount to 2 percent of each country’s gross domestic product. In 2016, only four countries besides the United States met that standard, but NATO documents also show that defense spending has increased about three percent from 2015 to 2016. In any case, the money would not be going to the United States or even necessarily to NATO; this is money that countries would spend to bolster their own military.

“More than 1 in 5 people in their prime working years are not working.”

Source: Prepared speech

Trump plays a similar trick as he did with the figure of 94 million people not in the labor force. He’s again counting people who do not want to work, such as stay-at-home parents, the disabled and students. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 1 in 25 people in that 25-54 age group looked for work and could not find it.

Foreign policy

“I am sending Congress a budget that...calls for one of the largest increases in national defense spending in American history.”

Repeated on Mar. 2 Mar. 15
Source: Prepared speech

This is false. Trump's proposed ten percent increase is actually relatively modest. In the past 30 years, at least one-third of the time the core defense budget was boosted more than Trump's request--in some cases more than double the percentage requested by Trump.

Immigration Full story

“I have ordered the Department of Homeland Security to create an office to serve American victims. The office is called VOICE, Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement. We are providing a voice to those who have been ignored by our media and silenced by special interests.”

Source: Prepared speech

Actually, these stories have been covered a lot. The Washington Post's media columnist Erik Wemple took a close look and found that the media -- especially local outlets in immigrant-heavy communities like Phoenix -- meticulously chronicles crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.

Economy

“I just met with officials and workers from a great American company, Harley-Davidson. In fact, they proudly displayed five of their magnificent motorcycles, made in the USA, on the front lawn of the White House.”

Source: Prepared speech

Harley-Davidson assembles its bikes in the U.S., but various parts of the bike are manufactured overseas -- an example of how American companies participate in the international economy.

Economy

“They [Harley-Davidson] told me ... that it is very hard to do business with other countries because they tax our goods at such a high rate. They said that in one case another country taxed their motorcycles at 100 percent.”

Repeated on Mar. 20
Source: Prepared speech

India imposes a 100 percent import tariff on motorcycles. But the company largely has been able to get around the tariff by assembling its bikes in India, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Immigration Full story

“According to the National Academy of Sciences, our current immigration system costs America’s taxpayers many billions of dollars a year.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Prepared speech

Trump cherry-picks numbers from a lengthy and detailed report that used several different models of measuring the economic and fiscal impacts of immigrants, showing both the costs and benefits. The report found that first-generation immigrants incur costs to the government that are later balanced out by their descendants for a net positive to the U.S. economy.

Feb. 27, 2017
Foreign policy

“The Middle East is far worse than it was 16, 17 years ago, there's not even a contest. So we've spent $6 trillion.”

Repeated on Jan. 25 Feb. 9 Feb. 24 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Mar. 22 Apr. 5
Source: Remarks

Trump made this claim several times in one speech. Trump is lumping together the wars in Iraq (in the Middle East) and Afghanistan (in South Asia), which together cost about $1.6 trillion from 2001 to 2014. He is also adding in estimates of future spending, such as interest on the debt and veterans' care for the next three decades.

“I got involved in an airplane contract, I got involved in some other contracts and we cut the hell out of the prices. I mean, we saved a lot of money, tremendous amount of money, beyond anything that the generals that were involved -- they said they've never seen anything like this before. On one plane, on a small order of one plane, I saved $725 million and I would say I devoted about -- if I added it up, all (inaudible), probably about an hour. So I think that might be my highest and best use.”

Repeated on Jan. 30 Feb. 6 Feb. 7 Feb. 18 Feb. 22 Feb. 23 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 21 Apr. 6 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

Trump takes credit for the lowered cost, but the Pentagon had announced cost reductions of roughly $600 million on the F-35 before Trump began meeting with Lockheed Martin’s chief executive. Trump over time keeps increasing the money he allegedly saved.

Crime

“You look at what's happening in our cities, you look at what's happening in Chicago, what's going on in Chicago. We will fight violent crime and we will win and we'll win that one fairly quickly.”

Repeated on Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28
Source: Remarks

In 2016, there was an uptick in the homicide rate in the 30 largest cities. One outlier city -- Chicago -- was responsible for 43.7 percent of the total increase in homicide rates in 2016. Seven people were shot and killed in Chicago on Feb. 22, the deadliest day in the city so far this year. Overall, violent crime is on a decades-long decline, since the height of the crack cocaine epidemic in the early 1990s.

Immigration Full story

“We're getting the bad ones out and that's always where I said I was going to start. I was going to start with these bad players and they are bad. They are rough and tough and we're getting them the hell out of our country and we're bringing them to where they started out.”

Repeated on Feb. 12 Feb. 13 Feb. 23 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 20
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

ICE has always targeted dangerous criminals in enforcement priorities. The recent arrests Trump is referring to did include people who would not have fallen under Obama’s narrower enforcement priorities. But such people — comprising 25 percent of the arrests — had lesser charges and noncriminal convictions and are not the “very, very hardened criminals” that Trump describes.

Health care

“Obamacare has failed. If you go to Minnesota where they had a 66 percent increase and the governor of Minnesota who is with us today said Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, is no longer affordable, something to that effect. I think that might be it exactly. But the Affordable Care Act is no longer affordable. Obamacare has failed.”

Repeated on Jan. 25 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 27 Mar. 11 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 25 Apr. 23 Apr. 24 Apr. 28 Apr. 29
Source: Remarks

To put it in context, the number of people affected by premium increases is just one-fourteenth the size of the employment-based health-insurance market. Moreover, some of the initial steps taken by the Trump administration have helped worsen the problems in the individual insurance market — allowing Trump to create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Miscellaneous

“They [The New York Times] had to write a letter of essentially apology to their subscribers because they got the election so wrong.”

Repeated on Jan. 28 Feb. 4 Feb. 6 Mar. 29
Source: Interview

The New York Times did not apologize to its subscribers for its coverage of Trump.

Health care

“Since it [Obamacare] has gone into effect, premiums are up by almost 100 percent in many areas....You just take a look at what's happening in various states like Arizona -- I believe it was up 116 percent; it's going to be worse this year.”

Repeated on Feb. 18 Mar. 10 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 20 Mar. 21
Source: Remarks

Trump cherry-picks data from Arizona, the state hit the hardest by 2017 premium increases under the Affordable Care Act. The average increase for the second-lowest-cost silver plan (which is used as the benchmark to calculate government subsidies) is 25 percent. A few states, such as Indiana, actually saw a decrease.

Health care Full story

“It has gotten so bad that nearly 20 million Americans have chosen to pay the penalty or received an exemption rather than buy insurance. That’s something that nobody has ever heard of or thought could happen, and they’re actually doing that rather than being forced to buy insurance.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

Trumps slips in the word "exemption," which allows him to inflate the figure. Only 6.5 million taxpayers paid the so-called “shared responsibility” payments in 2015. That’s actually a decrease from 2014, when 8 million taxpayers made a payment. Another 12.7 million taxpayers received an exemption but the main reason is because they live in a state that choose not to accept the Medicaid expansion in Obamacare.

Feb. 26, 2017
Miscellaneous

“The race for DNC Chairman was, of course, totally 'rigged.' Bernie's guy, like Bernie himself, never had a chance. Clinton demanded Perez!”

Source: Twitter

Trump cites no evidence that the battle for Democratic National Committee chair, won narrowly by former Labor Secretary Tom Perez, was rigged. Indeed, there is no evidence and Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), who backed Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), rejected Trump's claim. "No, he doesn't have a point," Sanders said when asked about the tweet.

Foreign policy

“Russia talk is FAKE NEWS put out by the Dems, and played up by the media, in order to mask the big election defeat and the illegal leaks!”

Repeated on Apr. 28
Source: Twitter

Trump is falsely labeling nonpartisan investigations as "fake news" hyped by Democrats. The CIA concluded in 2016 that Russia intervened in the U.S. presidential election to help elect Trump, an assessment backed up by FBI Director James B. Comey and then-Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. On Jan. 6, the intelligence community released a declassified report expressing "high confidence" in this judgement. Senate and House committees led by Republicans have begun their own investigations, and at least one Republican lawmaker has called for the appointment of a special prosecutor.

Feb. 25, 2017
Economy Full story

“The media has not reported that the National Debt in my first month went down by $12 billion vs a $200 billion increase in Obama first mo.”

Source: Twitter

Trump is citing such a narrow window of time that the statistics he’s pointing to don’t mean very much. The level of debt fluctuates day to day and week to week, depending on seasonal changes in growth and when the government makes payments, collects tax revenue, issues new debt and other debt matures — making the data very susceptible to cherry-picking. Using the same logic, you could claim that after four days in office Trump increased outstanding public debt by more than $10 billion, and that Obama had reduced it by $6 billion.

Feb. 24, 2017
Miscellaneous Full story

“I saw one story recently where they said, ‘Nine people have confirmed.’ There’re no nine people. I don’t believe there was one or two people. Nine people…. They make up sources.”

Source: Prepared speech

Trump is referring to a Washington Post article that disclosed that then-National security adviser Michael Flynn privately discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with that country’s ambassador to the United States during the month before President Trump took office, contrary to public assertions by Trump officials. That article prompted a firestorm that led to Flynn’s firing by Trump, because it turned out that Flynn had misled Vice President Pence and other administration officials about whether he had discussed sanctions. The article cited information provided by “nine current and former officials, who were in senior positions at multiple agencies at the time of the calls.” (Calls by the Russian ambassador are monitored by intelligence agencies.) No White House official has disputed the accuracy of the article – and indeed, it resulted in Flynn’s departure from the administration.

Miscellaneous Full story

“The dishonest media did not explain that I called the fake news the enemy of the people. The fake news. They dropped off the word ‘fake.’ And all of a sudden the story became the media is the enemy.”

Source: Prepared speech

Trump listed five mainstream media organizations –The New York Times, NBC, ABC, CBS and CNN – as the “fake news media” and declared they are the enemy of the American people. By listing major media organizations as the enemy, Trump was clearly making a statement about the broader news media.

Election Full story

“But it was a little rigged against him [Bernie Sanders], you know, super delegate, super delegate. She [Hillary Clinton] had so many delegates before the thing even started, I actually said to my people, how does that happen?”

Source: Prepared speech

Trump says the system was rigged against Sanders because of the superdelegates. In June 2016, when the media began declaring Clinton the presumptive nominee, Clinton was on track to win the nomination even without superdelegates. We dug into this in depth in a separate fact-check.

Immigration Full story

“These are bad dudes. We’re getting the bad ones out, OK? We’re getting the bad — if you watch these people, it’s like gee, that’s so sad. We’re getting bad people out of this country, people that shouldn’t be whether it’s drugs or murder or other things. We’re getting bad ones out, those are the ones that go first and I said it from day one. Basically all I’ve done is keep my promise.”

Repeated on Feb. 12 Feb. 13 Feb. 23 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 20
Fact Checker rating: Source: Prepared speech

ICE has always targeted dangerous criminals in enforcement priorities. The recent arrests Trump is referring to did include people who would not have fallen under Obama’s narrower enforcement priorities. But such people — comprising 25 percent of the arrests — had lesser charges and noncriminal convictions and are not the “bad dudes” that Trump describes.

Foreign policy Full story

“In the Middle East, we’ve spent as of four weeks ago, $6 trillion. Think of it.”

Repeated on Jan. 25 Feb. 9 Feb. 24 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Mar. 22 Apr. 5
Source: Prepared speech

Trump is lumping together the wars in Iraq (in the Middle East) and Afghanistan (in South Asia), which together cost about $1.6 trillion from 2001 to 2014. He is also adding in estimates of future spending, such as interest on the debt and veterans' care for the next three decades.

Health care Full story

“Obamacare covers very few people — and remember, deduct from the number all of the people that had great health care that they loved that was taken away from them — it was taken away from them.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Prepared speech

Trump essentially repeats a false GOP talking point that previously earned Four Pinocchios. The Affordable Care Act is estimated to have added 20 million people to the health-insurance rolls, while the number of people who had to switch out of pre-ACA plans is a fraction of that.

Biographical record Full story

“ICE came and endorsed me. They never endorsed a presidential candidate before, they might not even be allowed to.”

Repeated on Jan. 25
Source: Prepared speech

Federal agencies can’t endorse political candidates. The unions representing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and Border Patrol agents did endorse Trump. Both groups said Trump was their first-ever endorsement. But they did not do so unanimously. The National Border Patrol Council endorsement was based just on the vote of 11 union leaders, which sparked controversy among union members. Agents in El Paso, in a 14-to-13 vote, narrowly failed to have the local union disavow the endorsement.

“I’m also working with the Department of Justice to being reducing violent crime. I mean, can you believe what’s happening in Chicago as an example? Two days ago, seven people were shot and I believe killed. Seven people, seven people, Chicago, a great American city, seven people shot and killed. We will support the incredible men and women of law enforcement.”

Repeated on Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 27 Feb. 28
Source: Prepared speech

In 2016, there was an uptick in the homicide rate in the 30 largest cities. One outlier city -- Chicago -- was responsible for 43.7 percent of the total increase in homicide rates in 2016. Seven people were shot and killed in Chicago on Feb. 22, the deadliest day in the city so far this year. Overall, violent crime is on a decades-long decline, since the height of the crack cocaine epidemic in the early 1990s.

Foreign policy Full story

“Take a look at NAFTA, one of the worst deals ever made by any country, having to do with economic development. It’s economy un-development, as far as our country is concerned.”

Repeated on Feb. 24 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Apr. 18 Apr. 20 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Source: Prepared speech

Trump’s attack on NAFTA is over the top. It is often difficult to separate out the impact of trade agreements on jobs, compared to other, broader economic trends. But the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service in 2015 concluded the “net overall effect of NAFTA on the U.S. economy appears to have been relatively modest, primarily because trade with Canada and Mexico accounts for a small percentage of U.S. GDP,” though it noted “there were worker and firm adjustment costs as the three countries adjusted to more open trade and investment among their economies.”

“[Keystone XL pipeline] could be 42,000 jobs, somewhere around there — a lot of jobs.”

Repeated on Jan. 24 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Mar. 28 Apr. 4 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Prepared speech

Trump constantly changes the number of jobs that might be created by the pipeline. This is a high-end estimate which we have previously given Two Pinocchios.

“Ford and Fiat Chrysler, General Motors, Sprint, Intel, and so many others are now, because of the election result, making major investments in the United States, expanding production and hiring more workers. And they’re going back to Michigan and they’re going back to Ohio and they’re going back to Pennsylvania and they’re going back to North Carolina and to Florida.”

Repeated on Feb. 9 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 24 Mar. 28 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 2 Apr. 4 Apr. 11 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Prepared speech

Trump takes credit for Ford’s decision to abandon its plans to open a factory in Mexico and instead expand its Michigan plant. But analysts say Ford’s decision has more to do with the company’s long-term goal — particularly, its plans to invest in electric vehicles — than the administration. It’s easier for companies to find highly skilled workers to build new products, such as electric cars, in the United States than in Mexico.

“It’s time for all Americans to get off of welfare and get back to work, you’re going to love it, you’re going to love it, you’re going to love it.”

Repeated on Jan. 20 Jan. 26 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Mar. 20
Source: Prepared speech

“Welfare” is a broad term and can apply to people who are working but receiving government assistance. If someone is receiving means-tested assistance, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are not working.

Immigration Full story

“I took a lot of heat on Sweden. And then a day later, I said has anybody reported what's going on? And it turned out that they didn't -- not too many of them did. Take a look at what happened in Sweden. I love Sweden, great country, great people, I love Sweden. But they understand. The people over there understand I'm right.”

Repeated on Feb. 18 Feb. 19 Feb. 20 Mar. 22
Source: Prepared speech

Trump had referred to rising crime rates in Sweden, but the country's overall rate has fallen in recent years. Sweden has welcomed refugees and immigrants, but Swedish crime experts do not agree that the country's immigration policies are linked to crime. Just two days after Trump made his false claim, riots broke out in a predominantly immigrant neighborhood in Stockholm, the country’s capital. That neighborhood was the scene of riots in 2010 and 2013, stemming from anger directed at the influx of refugees and migrants into the country.

Feb. 23, 2017
Immigration Full story

“You see what's happening at the border. All of a sudden for the first time, we're getting gang members out. We're getting drug lords out. We're getting really bad dudes out of this country, and at a rate that nobody's ever seen before.”

Repeated on Feb. 12 Feb. 13 Feb. 24 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 20
Source: Remarks

If immigration arrests continue at the current pace under Trump, he is on track to meet arrest rates in the earlier years of Obama's administration before Obama narrowed immigration enforcement priorities.

Economy Full story

“I'm trying to find a country where we actually have a surplus of trade as opposed to a -- everything's a deficit.”

Source: Remarks

It's not that hard to find countries with which the U.S. runs a trade surplus in goods. At the top of the list are Hong Kong, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, Belgium and Australia.

“She [Lockheed chief executive] cut her price over $700 million, right? By over $700 million.”

Repeated on Jan. 30 Feb. 6 Feb. 7 Feb. 18 Feb. 22 Feb. 23 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 21 Apr. 6 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Source: Remarks

Trump once again takes credit for the lowered cost, but the Pentagon had announced cost reductions of roughly $600 million before Trump began meeting with Lockheed Martin’s chief executive. Sometimes Trump says he saved $600 million, other times $700 million.

Miscellaneous Full story

“People don't realize how bad it [sex trafficking] is in this country.”

Source: Remarks

Though human trafficking is a major issue in some regions of the world, experts and available evidence indicate trafficking for sexual exploitation is not a serious problem in the United States. A recent study funded by the Justice Department concluded the total number of juveniles in the sex trade in the United States was about 9,000 to 10,000.

Foreign policy Full story

The United States has ”fallen behind on nuclear weapon capacity."

Source: Interview

The United States has significant nuclear weapons capacity, more than it needs for its security. Trump appears to be referring to a temporary and insignificant gap in the number of deployed weapons between Russia and the United States. Under the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which Trump says is "one-sided," by February 2018, neither country can have more than 1,550 warheads on 700 deployed launchers and no more than 800 total deployed and non-deployed launchers.

Miscellaneous

“Gary Cohn just paid $200 million in tax in order to take this job, by the way.”

Source: Remarks

Cohn, the director of the National Economic Council, sold about $220 million in Goldman Sachs stock before joining the administration. He also received a $65 million payment that was tied to future performance. Given that the capital gains tax rate is capped at 20 percent, there is no way Cohn paid $200 million in tax on a $285 million payout, particularly because he can defer capital gains if the proceeds are invested in approved securities such as Treasury bonds.

Feb. 22, 2017

“We've already saved a lot -- billions and billions of dollars have been saved.”

Repeated on Jan. 30 Feb. 6 Feb. 7 Feb. 18 Feb. 22 Feb. 23 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 21 Apr. 6 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

From the context of his remarks on the federal budget, Trump is referring to the Lockheed F-35 program and also seems to be adding in a pending contract for a new Air Force One. Again, he is taking credit for something that had already been negotiated, a claim that had previously earned him Four Pinocchios. The Pentagon had already announced cost reductions of roughly $600 million before Trump had met with Lockheed’s chief executive. The contract with Boeing for Air Force One had not been negotiated.

Feb. 21, 2017
Biographical record Full story

“Oh, of course. And I do it — wherever I get a chance, I do it [denounce anti-Semitism].”

Source: Interview

Since his presidential campaign, Trump was asked repeatedly to address anti-Semitic incidents and other racial or religious harassment incidents. As The Fix blog found, many of his answers left something to be desired.

Feb. 20, 2017
Immigration Full story

“Give the public a break - The FAKE NEWS media is trying to say that large scale immigration in Sweden is working out just beautifully. NOT!”

Repeated on Feb. 18 Feb. 19 Feb. 24 Mar. 22
Source: Twitter

Trump referred to rising crime rates in Sweden, but the country's overall rate has fallen in recent years. Sweden has welcomed refugees and immigrants, but Swedish crime experts do not agree that the country's immigration policies are linked to crime.

Feb. 19, 2017
Immigration Full story

“My statement as to what's happening in Sweden was in reference to a story that was broadcast on @FoxNews concerning immigrants & Sweden.”

Repeated on Feb. 18 Feb. 20 Feb. 24 Mar. 22
Source: Twitter

Trump referred to rising crime rates in Sweden, but the country's overall rate has fallen in recent years. Sweden has welcomed refugees and immigrants, but Swedish crime experts do not agree that the country's immigration policies are linked to crime.

Feb. 18, 2017
Miscellaneous Full story

“The dishonest media, which has published one false story after another, with no sources, even though they pretend they have them. They make them up in many cases.”

Source: Prepared speech

It is unclear what stories Trump is referring to here, but mainstream news organizations do not publish articles with “no sources” and certainly do not “make them up in most cases.” That is grounds for firing. Certainly, sources can be misinformed, and respected news organizations strive to correct or update stories if a mistake has been made.

Miscellaneous Full story

“When Thomas Jefferson said ‘nothing can be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself,’ he said, ‘becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.’ That was June 14 — my birthday — 1807.”

Source: Prepared speech

Trump selectively quotes from Jefferson here, who for most of his life was a fierce defender of the need for a free press. When Jefferson wrote to 17-year-old John Novell, urging him to avoid a career in journalism, he was embittered by reports spread by his political opponents that he had slept with Sally Hemings, one of his slaves. Today, most historians now believe she was the mother of six of his children.

“Jobs are already starting to pour back in. They’re coming back in like you haven’t seen in a long time. Ford, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler are bringing in and bringing back thousands of jobs, investing billions of dollars because of the new business climate that we are creating in our country.”

Repeated on Feb. 9 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 24 Mar. 28 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 2 Apr. 4 Apr. 11 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Prepared speech

Ford’s decision has more to do with the company’s long-term goal — particularly its plans to invest in electric vehicles — than with the administration. Meanwhile, the January jobs report, showing 230,000 jobs were created, reflects the last month of the Obama administration. The data was collected in early January, when Obama was still president.

“I’ve taken steps to begin the construction of Keystone and the Dakota Access pipeline. Anywhere from 30,000 to 40,000 jobs.”

Repeated on Jan. 24 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Mar. 28 Apr. 4 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Prepared speech

Trump appears to be combining two disputed figures — 28,000 jobs for Keystone XL and 12,000 for the Dakota Access Pipeline. We have looked closely at the Keystone numbers, and the same methodological issues appear to apply to the Dakota estimates. The actual number of Keystone construction jobs, for instance, is just 3,900 on an annualized basis — and other jobs have already been created (such as for building high-strength line pipe.) In the context of the U.S. economy, which just in January added 230,000 jobs, these are not many jobs.

“They were close to signing a $4.2 billion deal to have a new Air Force One. Can you believe this? I said no way. I said I refuse to fly in a $4.2 billion airplane. I refuse.”

Source: Prepared speech

Trump is exaggerating here. Boeing only had a $170 million contract to begin designing a replacement for Air Force One, and the cost of the project had not been set. The Defense Department’s five-year plan indicated a cost of $2.9 billion over the next five years for design and development. It’s logical to assume at least another $1 billion in additional expenses to complete and procure the aircraft. An estimate of $4 billion — for design, testing and manufacture of at least two jets — was not completely out of line. But the budget was subject to approval by Congress and the actual design of the aircraft. So Trump is taking credit for cutting a price that had not been negotiated yet.

“We’ve gotten hundreds of millions of dollars off the price of a plane that was going to be ordered.”

Repeated on Jan. 30 Feb. 6 Feb. 7 Feb. 18 Feb. 22 Feb. 23 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 21 Apr. 6 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Prepared speech

Trump is referring to the Lockheed F-35 program. Again, he is taking credit for something that had already been negotiated, a claim that had previously earned him Four Pinocchios. The Pentagon had already announced cost reductions of roughly $600 million before Trump had met with Lockheed’s chief executive.

“Look at what’s happening in Chicago. Hundreds of shootings. Hundreds of deaths. I’ll tell you what’s happening in Chicago and many other places.”

Repeated on Feb. 16 Feb. 24 Feb. 27 Feb. 28
Source: Prepared speech

“Inner cities” is not a category by which crime is measured, and Trump often uses this term to refer to large, urban cities. In 2016, there was an uptick in the homicide rate in the 30 largest cities. One outlier city -- Chicago -- was responsible for 43.7 percent of the total increase in homicide rates in 2016. Overall, violent crime is on a decades-long decline since the height of the crack cocaine epidemic in the early 1990s.

Immigration Full story

“Now you know the countries we’re talking about. And these were countries picked by Obama.”

Repeated on Jan. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Prepared speech

Four countries were identified by Congress, in a bill signed by Obama, and then the Obama administration added three more. But Obama — and Democrats in Congress — wanted to require greater visa scrutiny of people who had traveled to those countries. When given a chance, the Obama administration specifically rejected the citizenship-based restrictions that Trump ordered. So there were significant differences in the approach.

Immigration Full story

“You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden. Who would believe this? Sweden. They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible.”

Repeated on Feb. 19 Feb. 20 Feb. 24 Mar. 22
Source: Prepared speech

This was a very strange comment. Nothing had happened the night before in Sweden, as Swedes quickly noted.

Immigration Full story

“We’ve allowed thousands and thousands of people into our country. And there was no way to vet those people. There was no documentation. There was no nothing.”

Repeated on Jan. 26
Source: Prepared speech

This is false. The vetting of refugees is careful and takes about two years, including FBI screening, Department of Homeland Security interviews and extensive security and background checks.

Health care Full story

“You look at some states, [health insurance premiums in] Arizona up 116 percent.”

Repeated on Feb. 27 Mar. 10 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 20
Source: Prepared speech

Trump cherry-picks data from Arizona, the state hit the hardest by 2017 premium increases under the Affordable Care Act. The average increase for the second-lowest-cost silver plan (which is used as the benchmark to calculate government subsidies) is 25 percent. A few states, such as Indiana, actually saw a decrease.

Health care Full story

“Obamacare doesn’t work. It’s become totally unaffordable.”

Repeated on Jan. 25 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 27 Mar. 11 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 25 Apr. 23 Apr. 24 Apr. 28 Apr. 29
Source: Prepared speech

To put it in context, the number of people affected by premium increases is just one-fourteenth the size of the employment-based health-insurance market. Moreover, some of the initial steps taken by the Trump administration have helped worsen the problems in the individual insurance market — allowing Trump to create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Economy Full story

“Believe me, I and we inherited one big mess. That I can tell you.”

Repeated on Feb. 16
Source: Prepared speech

The economy was in pretty good shape when Trump became president, especially compared with the economic crisis that Obama inherited in 2009. In January 2009, coinciding with the last labor report of the George W. Bush administration, nearly 800,000 jobs disappeared, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, compared with the nearly 230,000 jobs added in January 2017. (Trump has given himself credit for the January numbers, but the data was collected when Obama still held office.)

Economy Full story

“Look at what's happening to the stock market.”

Repeated on Feb. 16 Feb. 16 Feb. 28 Mar. 2
Source: Prepared speech

This is a flip-flop for Trump. Before he was elected, he dismissed the stock-market performance under Obama as “artificial” and “a bubble."

Feb. 17, 2017

“We're seeing companies open up factories in America. We're seeing them keep jobs at home. Ford, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, just to name a very, very few, so many more already.”

Repeated on Feb. 9 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 24 Mar. 28 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 2 Apr. 4 Apr. 11 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Prepared speech

Trump repeatedly takes credit for business decisions unrelated to his presidency. Ford’s decision has more to do with the company’s long-term goal — particularly its plans to invest in electric vehicles — than with the administration. Meanwhile, the January jobs report, showing 230,000 jobs were created, reflects the last month of the Obama administration. The data was collected in early January, when Obama was still president.

Feb. 16, 2017
Biographical record Full story

“A new Rasmussen poll just came out just a very short while ago, and it has our approval rating at 55 percent and going up.”

Repeated on Feb. 6
Source: News conference

Trump has a tendency to focus only on polls that are good for him. Rasmussen has a right-leaning bias and earns a C+ grade from FiveThirtyEight.com. Other polls show Trump with significantly lower approval ratings, such as Gallup (40 percent) and the Pew Research Center (39 percent).

Economy Full story

“The stock market has hit record numbers.”

Repeated on Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 28 Mar. 2
Source: News conference

This is a flip-flop for Trump. Before he was elected, he dismissed the stock-market performance under Obama as “artificial” and “a bubble."

“Plants and factories are already starting to move back into the United States, and big league — Ford, General Motors, so many of them.”

Repeated on Feb. 9 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 24 Mar. 28 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 2 Apr. 4 Apr. 11 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: News conference

Trump keeps giving himself credit for business decisions made before he became president. Ford’s decision has more to do with the company’s long-term goal — particularly its plans to invest in electric vehicles — than with the administration. Here’s what Ford chief executive Mark Fields said about the company’s decision to abandon plans to open a factory in Mexico: “The reason that we are not building the new plant, the primary reason, is just demand has gone down for small cars.”

Miscellaneous Full story

“To be honest, I inherited a mess. It’s a mess. At home and abroad, a mess.”

Repeated on Feb. 18
Source: News conference

Trump indicated he was backing up this statement by noting that “jobs are pouring out of the country. ... The Middle East is a disaster. North Korea.” The state of foreign policy is open to interpretation — Trump claimed he was developing “a plan for the defeat of ISIS,” the terrorist group in Iraq and Syria. But the economy was in pretty good shape when Trump became president, especially compared with the economic crisis that Obama inherited in 2009. In January 2009, coinciding with the last labor report of the George W. Bush administration, nearly 800,000 jobs disappeared, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, compared with the nearly 230,000 jobs added in January 2017. (Trump has given himself credit for the January numbers, but the data was collected when Obama still held office.)

Election Full story

“We got 306 [electoral college votes] because people came out and voted like they’ve never seen before, so that’s the way it goes. I guess it was the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan.”

Repeated on Jan. 25
Source: News conference

Trump was wrong on the size of his electoral college win. Of the nine presidential elections since 1984, Trump’s electoral college win ranks seventh. When a reporter pointed out his error, Trump first indicated that he was talking about Republican candidates. But George H.W. Bush received 426 electoral votes in 1988. Trump’s response: “I don’t know; I was given that information.”

Immigration Full story

“We've ordered a crackdown on sanctuary cities that refuse to comply with federal law and that harbor criminal aliens, and we have ordered an end to the policy of catch and release on the border. ... We are saving American lives every single day.”

Repeated on Feb. 5 Apr. 26
Fact Checker rating: Source: News conference

There is limited research on the impact of sanctuary policies and crime. And the research that does exist challenges Trump’s claim. There’s no official definition of “sanctuary,” but it generally refers to rules restricting state and local governments from alerting federal authorities about people who may be in the country illegally. A handful of studies looked at whether there is a causation between sanctuary cities and crime. They either found no statistically significant impact of sanctuary policies on crime, or a reduction in crime due to immigrant-friendly policing strategies.

Miscellaneous Full story

“In fact, we had to go quicker than we thought because of the bad decision we received from a circuit that has been overturned at a record number. I have heard 80 percent.”

Repeated on Mar. 15
Source: News conference

Trump is referring to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which ruled against reinstating his travel ban. But there are other ways to slice the data, and it’s important to put this number into context. Most cases reviewed by the Supreme Court are reversed, and the 9th Circuit rules on more cases in general. The 9th Circuit’s reversal rate was usually higher than the average, but not always the highest. None of the data supports Trump’s contention that the court is “in chaos” and “in turmoil.”

Miscellaneous Full story

“We have also taken steps to begin construction of the Keystone Pipeline and Dakota Access Pipelines. Thousands and thousands of jobs, and put new buy-American measures in place to require American steel for American pipelines.”

Repeated on Jan. 24 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Mar. 28 Apr. 4 Apr. 29
Source: News conference

Trump, in saying “thousands and thousands of jobs,” leaves himself some wiggle room here. (He’d previously incorrectly said 28,000 jobs.) Moreover, some of these jobs have already been created. Workers in Arkansas, for instance, have already built about half of the high-strength line pipe needed for the project, some 333,000 tons.

Miscellaneous Full story

“You [the media] have a lower approval rate than Congress. I think that’s right.”

Source: News conference

Trump indicated that he wasn’t sure if this assertion is correct. It is not. The public’s trust in the media has certainly fallen over the years. But a 2016 Gallup poll shows that Congress is viewed positively by 9 percent of respondents, compared with 20 percent for newspapers and 21 percent for television. That’s not a high confidence level — besides Congress, only “big business” ranks lower than the media — but it’s enough to make Trump’s claim incorrect.

Miscellaneous Full story

“When WikiLeaks, which I had nothing to do with, comes out and happens to give, they’re not giving classified information.”

Source: News conference

WikiLeaks actually released hundreds of thousands of classified State Department cables, in a significant blow to U.S. diplomacy.

Election Full story

“Nobody mentions that Hillary received the questions to the debates.”

Repeated on Mar. 22 Apr. 3
Source: News conference

Trump overstates the disclosure about Clinton reportedly getting a single debate question. During the Democratic primaries, a debate was held in Flint, Mich., to focus on the water crisis. Donna Brazile, then a CNN analyst, sent an email to the Clinton campaign saying that a woman with a rash from lead poisoning was going to ask what Clinton as president could do the help the people of Flint. There’s no indication Clinton was told this information, but in any case it’s a pretty obvious question for a debate being held in Flint.

Foreign policy Full story

“You know, they say I’m close to Russia. Hillary Clinton gave away 20 percent of the uranium in the United States. She’s close to Russia.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: News conference

Trump’s claim suggests the State Department had sole approval authority on a uranium rights deal with a company largely owned by Russia’s nuclear energy agency. But the State Department is one of nine agencies in the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States to vet and sign off on all U.S. transactions involving foreign governments. As we’ve noted before, there is no evidence Clinton herself got involved in the deal personally, and it is highly questionable that this deal even rose to the level of the secretary of state. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission also needed to approve, and did approve, the transfer.

Immigration Full story

“We had a very smooth rollout of the travel ban. But we had a bad court. Got a bad decision.”

Source: News conference

Trump appears to have forgotten that imprecise wording in the executive order led to confusion over whether U.S. permanent residents — green-card holders — were also banned from returning to the United States. The White House counsel later issued guidance making clear that they were not covered. The Court of Appeals later said that the counsel’s statement was not a sufficient fix.

Biographical record Full story

“Russia is a ruse. I have nothing to do with Russia. Haven’t made a phone call to Russia in years. Don’t speak to people from Russia.”

Repeated on Feb. 7
Source: News conference

Trump met with the Russian ambassador before an April 2016 speech, according to news reports. He's being misleading when he says he has "nothing to do with Russia." Trump repeatedly sought deals in Russia. In 1987, he went to Moscow to find a site for a luxury hotel; no deal emerged. In 1996, he sought to build a condominium complex in Russia; that also did not succeed. In 2005, Trump signed a one-year deal with a New York development company to explore a Trump Tower in Moscow, but the effort fizzled.

“You go to some of these inner city places and it’s so sad when you look at the crime. You have people — and I’ve seen this, and I’ve sort of witnessed it — in fact, in two cases I have actually witnessed it. They lock themselves into apartments, petrified to even leave, in the middle of the day. They’re living in hell.”

Repeated on Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 27 Feb. 28
Source: News conference

“Inner cities” is not a category by which crime is measured, and Trump often uses this term to refer to large, urban cities. In 2016, there was an uptick in the homicide rate in the 30 largest cities. One outlier city -- Chicago -- was responsible for 43.7 percent of the total increase in homicide rates in 2016. Overall, violent crime is on a decades-long decline, since the height of the crack cocaine epidemic in the early 1990s.

Miscellaneous Full story

“Leaking, and even illegal classified leaking, has been a big problem in Washington for years. Failing @nytimes (and others) must apologize!”

Source: Twitter

This is a flip-flop for Trump. Before becoming president, Trump heartily endorsed WikiLeaks and the release of classified information, particularly about his then-rival Hillary Clinton. During a July 2016 news conference, Trump even called on Russia to hack Clinton’s email account. Now, facing information leaks out of his own administration (including information that led to the resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn), Trump decided it’s a bad thing.

Miscellaneous Full story

“The spotlight has finally been put on the low-life leakers! They will be caught!”

Source: Twitter

This is a flip-flop for Trump. Before becoming president, Trump heartily endorsed WikiLeaks and the release of classified information, particularly about his then-rival Hillary Clinton. During a July 2016 news conference, Trump even called on Russia to hack Clinton’s email account. Now, facing information leaks out of his own administration (including information that led to the resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn), Trump decided it’s a bad thing.

Economy Full story

“Stock market hits new high with longest winning streak in decades. Great level of confidence and optimism - even before tax plan rollout!”

Repeated on Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 28 Mar. 2
Source: Twitter

This is a flip-flop for Trump. Before he was elected, he dismissed the stock-market performance under Obama as “artificial” and “a bubble."

Miscellaneous Full story

“I will say that I never get phone calls from the media. How did they write a story like that in the Wall Street Journal without asking me or how did they write a story in the New York Times, put it on the front page?”

Source: News conference

It is false that these newspapers did not call for comment.

Immigration Full story

“That’s the other thing that was wrong with the travel ban. You had Delta with a massive problem with their computer system at the airports.”

Repeated on Jan. 30 Feb. 5
Source: News conference

Trump’s order, signed on the evening of Friday, Jan. 27, sparked delays, confusion and protests in airports that night and throughout the weekend. Delta’s computer glitch on the night of Sunday, Jan. 29, led to cancellations that night and into Monday morning — days after the first protests and delays due to Trump’s order.

Health care

“We've begun preparing to repeal and replace Obamacare. Obamacare is a disaster, folks. It is a disaster.”

Repeated on Jan. 25 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 27 Mar. 11 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 25 Apr. 23 Apr. 24 Apr. 28 Apr. 29
Source: News conference

To put it in context, the number of people affected by premium increases is just one-fourteenth the size of the employment-based health-insurance market. Moreover, some of the initial steps taken by the Trump administration have helped worsen the problems in the individual insurance market — allowing Trump to create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Feb. 2, 2017
Miscellaneous Full story

“If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view - NO FEDERAL FUNDS?”

Source: Twitter
Foreign policy Full story

“Iran was on its last legs and ready to collapse until the U.S. came along and gave it a life-line in the form of the Iran Deal: $150 billion”

Repeated on Feb. 6
Source: Twitter

Trump always uses too high an estimate, $150 billion, and makes it sound like the United States cut a check to Iran. But this was always Iran’s money. Iran had billions of dollars in assets that were frozen in foreign banks around the globe because of international sanctions over its nuclear program. The Treasury Department estimated that once Iran fulfilled other obligations, it would have about $55 billion left. The Central Bank of Iran said the number was actually $32 billion. And it's a stretch to say Iran was "ready to collapse.”

Foreign policy

“Smart! ⬇️ 'Kuwait issues its own Trump-esque visa ban for five Muslim-majority countries | Al Bawaba'”

Repeated on Feb. 4
Source: Facebook

This story was posted on Trump's Facebook account, but it turned out to be fake news. Kuwait “categorically denies these claims,” the country’s foreign ministry said. Trump’s Facebook post has not been taken down.

Immigration Full story

“I love Australia as a country, but we had a problem where for whatever reason, President Obama said that they were going to take probably well over 1,000 illegal immigrants who were in prisons, and they were going to bring them and take them into this country. And I just said, ‘Why?’…1,250. It could be 2,000, it could be more than that.”

Repeated on Feb. 1
Source: Remarks

Trump is referring to the estimated 1,250 refugees and asylum-seekers that the United States, under Obama, agreed to accept from an Australian detention center. Refugees and asylum-seekers who arrive illegally by boat in Australia are called “illegal maritime arrivals.” They can apply for two types of temporary visas, and some may qualify to apply for permanent residency.

Feb. 14, 2017
Miscellaneous Full story

“So what’s going on with autism? When you look at the tremendous increases, really, it’s such an incredible -- it’s like really a horrible thing to watch, the tremendous amount of increase.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

There’s not enough research and no medical consensus to determine whether autism is on the rise. The 2016 rates were consistent with the last published rate in 2014. The rate has gotten worse since 2000, but it's unclear how much of that is due to greater awareness, early detection, and the expansion of disorders included on the autism spectrum.

Miscellaneous Full story

“The real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of Washington? Will these leaks be happening as I deal on N.Korea etc?”

Source: Twitter

This is a flip-flop for Trump. Before becoming president, Trump heartily endorsed WikiLeaks and the release of classified information, particularly about his then-rival Hillary Clinton. During a July 2016 news conference, Trump even called on Russia to hack Clinton’s email account. Now, facing information leaks out of his own administration (including information that led to the resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn), Trump decided it’s a bad thing.

Feb. 13, 2017
Immigration Full story

“We really have done a great job. We’re actually taking people that are criminals — very, very, hardened criminals in some cases with a tremendous track record of abuse and problems — and we’re getting them out and that’s what I said I would do.”

Repeated on Feb. 12 Feb. 23 Feb. 24 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 20
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

ICE has always targeted dangerous criminals in enforcement priorities. The recent arrests Trump is referring to did include people who would not have fallen under Obama’s narrower enforcement priorities. But such people — comprising 25 percent of the arrests — had lesser charges and noncriminal convictions and are not the “very, very hardened criminals” that Trump describes.

Feb. 12, 2017
Immigration Full story

“The crackdown on illegal criminals is merely the keeping of my campaign promise. Gang members, drug dealers & others are being removed!”

Repeated on Feb. 13 Feb. 23 Feb. 24 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 20
Fact Checker rating: Source: Twitter

Trump is referring to the recent arrests of undocumented immigrants convicted of crimes (“criminal aliens”). Trump takes credit for fulfilling his campaign promise of cracking down on illegal immigration, but these arrests are routine. ICE has always targeted dangerous criminals in enforcement priorities. The recent arrests, however, did include people who would not have fallen under narrowed enforcement priorities under Obama. Still, 25 percent of the arrests were of people who had lesser charges and noncriminal convictions and are not the gang members or drug dealers that he describes.

Miscellaneous Full story

“While on FAKE NEWS @CNN, Bernie Sanders was cut off for using the term fake news to describe the network. They said technical difficulties!”

Source: Twitter

This is not true. In an interview with Erin Burnett, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) made a joke about Trump labeling CNN as “fake news.” After he made the joke, the audio cut off, and CNN cut to a commercial. Upon returning from the commercial, Burnett picked up where they left: “Senator, you were just talking — joking — about CNN, fake news.” Then Sanders went on to criticize Trump’s labeling of CNN as “fake news.”

Feb. 11, 2017
Miscellaneous Full story

“I am so proud of my daughter Ivanka. To be abused and treated so badly by the media, and to still hold her head so high, is truly wonderful!”

Source: Twitter

Trump exaggerates by saying that Ivanka Trump was "abused and treated so badly by the media." His tweet was referring to news coverage about Nordstrom dropping her brand. There was no evidence that Nordstrom acted out of political considerations, or that news coverage attacked Ivanka Trump over the news. The company has maintained for months (including in internal emails) that it will base its decisions on sales performance. Internal records reviewed by the Wall Street Journal show the sales of Ivanka Trump's brand fell 32 percent at Nordstrom last fiscal year.

Feb. 10, 2017

“We've had Ford and General Motors and many, many others, Intel, yesterday made a major announcement and they did that because of what is happening with our tax structure which is going along very well.”

Repeated on Feb. 9 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 24 Mar. 28 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 2 Apr. 4 Apr. 11 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

Trump keeps giving himself credit for business decisions made before he became president. Ford’s decision has more to do with the company’s long-term goal — particularly its plans to invest in electric vehicles — than with the administration. Here’s what Ford chief executive Mark Fields said about the company’s decision to abandon plans to open a factory in Mexico: “The reason that we are not building the new plant, the primary reason, is just demand has gone down for small cars.”

Health care

“We're also working very much, and this has a lot to do with business, on health care, where we can get great health care for our country at a much-reduced price both to the people receiving the health care and to our country because our country is paying so much, and Obamacare as you know, is a total and complete disaster.”

Repeated on Jan. 25 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 27 Mar. 11 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 25 Apr. 23 Apr. 24 Apr. 28 Apr. 29
Source: Remarks

To put it in context, the number of people affected by premium increases is just one-fourteenth the size of the employment-based health-insurance market. Moreover, some of the initial steps taken by the Trump administration have helped worsen the problems in the individual insurance market — allowing Trump to create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Feb. 9, 2017
Foreign policy Full story

“We never even kept a small, just even a little tiny oil well; not one little well. I said keep the oil.”

Repeated on Jan. 25
Source: Remarks

In 2015, Iraq produced about 4 million barrels a day, enough crude oil to fill more than 700 Trump Towers. Securing all of the oil, including in northern Iraq where the Islamic State exists, would require a military force larger than the one that invaded Iraq in 2003. It would also be considered a war crime.

Foreign policy Full story

“We've spent $6 trillion -- think of it -- as of about two months ago; $6 trillion in the Middle East. We've got nothing.”

Repeated on Jan. 25 Feb. 9 Feb. 24 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Mar. 22 Apr. 5
Source: Remarks

Trump is lumping together the wars in Iraq (in the Middle East) and Afghanistan (in South Asia), which together cost about $1.6 trillion from 2001 to 2014. He is also adding in estimates of future spending, such as interest on the debt and veterans' care for the next three decades.

“Ford is going to build -- you know, they canceled a big plant in a certain place, I won't say where -- a $2 billion plant. And they're building it in the United States, and they're expanding greatly.”

Repeated on Feb. 9 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 17 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 6 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 23 Mar. 24 Mar. 24 Mar. 28 Mar. 28 Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 2 Apr. 4 Apr. 11 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

Trump takes credit for Ford’s decision to abandon its plans to open a factory in Mexico and instead expand its Michigan plant. But analysts say Ford’s decision has more to do with the company’s long-term goal — particularly, its plans to invest in electric vehicles — than the administration. It’s easier for companies to find highly skilled workers to build new products, such as electric cars, in the United States than in Mexico.

Miscellaneous Full story

“Sen.Richard Blumenthal, who never fought in Vietnam when he said for years he had (major lie),now misrepresents what Judge Gorsuch told him?”

Source: Twitter

Trump is wrong that the Connecticut Democrat had misrepresented Gorsuch’s remarks. Blumenthal’s account was immediately confirmed by Ron Bonjean, a member of the group guiding the judge through his confirmation process on behalf of the Trump administration.

Miscellaneous Full story

“Chris Cuomo, in his interview with Sen. Blumenthal, never asked him about his long-term lie about his brave ”service" in Vietnam. FAKE NEWS!"

Source: Twitter

Cuomo’s first question to Blumenthal was: “What is your response to the president of the United States saying you should not be believed because you misrepresented your military record in the past?” Blumenthal ducked the question, but contrary to Trump’s tweet, the issue was raised.

Feb. 8, 2017
Miscellaneous Full story

“My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person -- always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Twitter

There is no evidence that Nordstrom acted out of political considerations. The company has maintained for months (including in internal emails) that it will base its decisions on sales performance. Internal records reviewed by the Wall Street Journal show the sales of Ivanka Trump's brand fell 32 percent at Nordstrom last fiscal year.

Feb. 7, 2017

“The murder rate in our country's the highest it's been in 47 years, right? Did you know that -- 47 years? I'd say that in a speech and everybody's surprised. Because the press doesn't tell it like it is. It wasn't to their advantage to say that.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

Trump often gets this statistic wrong. In 2015, there was the biggest percentage jump in a single year since 1970-1971, or 45 years ago. It was not the highest rate in 45 or 47 years. Overall, the rate of homicides and violent crimes are back down to the levels they were 45 years ago, and are at about half the rates at their peak in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Miscellaneous

“Years of getting approvals, nobody showed up to fight it, this company spends tremendous - hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars - and then all of a sudden people show up to fight it.”

Source: Remarks

As the Toronto Star's Daniel Dale notes, there were protests against the pipeline before it was granted approvals.

Biographical record Full story

“I don't know Putin, have no deals in Russia, and the haters are going crazy - yet Obama can make a deal with Iran, #1 in terror, no problem!”

Repeated on Feb. 16
Source: Twitter

Trump now claims he doesn’t know Russian President Vladimir Putin, but in the past, he had claimed he had spoken to him. Trump’s assertion he has “no deals in Russia” is misleading at best, since Trump has actively pursued deals there and has relied on Russia investors. As for the nuclear agreement with Iran, that agreement was forged with the assistance of diplomats from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, China, Russia and the European Union. Obama did not negotiate it alone.

Miscellaneous Full story

“It is a disgrace that my full Cabinet is still not in place, the longest such delay in the history of our country. Obstruction by Democrats!”

Source: Twitter

This is false. Bill Clinton did not have a cabinet in place until March 11, George H.W. Bush had to wait till March 17 and Obama did not get a full cabinet until April 28. Trump would not have grounds to complain that at this point he has fewer Cabinet members confirmed than his predecessors. While Democrats have put up roadblocks, part of the reason for the delay is because paperwork has been slow in coming from some of Trump’s wealthier nominees.

“I saved more than $600 million. I got involved in negotiation on a fighter jet, the F-35. And by the way, Lockheed Martin, a great company. But they weren't bringing their price up. I got involved, I saved more than $600 million.”

Repeated on Jan. 30 Feb. 6 Feb. 7 Feb. 18 Feb. 22 Feb. 23 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 21 Apr. 6 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

Trump is referring to the Lockheed F-35 program. Again, he is taking credit for something that had already been negotiated, a claim that had previously earned him Four Pinocchios. The Pentagon had already announced cost reductions of roughly $600 million before Trump had met with Lockheed’s chief executive.

Election Full story

“Many people have come out and said I am right...When you look at the registration, and you see dead people that have voted, that are on many, many dead people are on that have voted, when you see people that are registered in two states that voted in two states, when you see other things, when you see illegals, people that are not citizens, and they are on the registration rolls. See? What they do is they load up the registration rolls. There is a lot of bad things happening.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

In defending his claim that millions of people illegally voted in the election, Trump cited problems with registration. He appears to once again cite a 2012 Pew report that found that 2.75 million people were registered in more than one state but there is no evidence that any of them voted twice. There is also little evidence that "many dead people" voted.

Feb. 6, 2017

“I have already saved more than $700 million when I got involved in the negotiation on the F-35. You know about that.”

Repeated on Jan. 30 Feb. 6 Feb. 7 Feb. 18 Feb. 22 Feb. 23 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 21 Apr. 6 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

Trump takes credit for the lowered cost, but the Pentagon had announced cost reductions of roughly $600 million before Trump began meeting with Lockheed Martin’s chief executive.

Miscellaneous Full story

“You've seen what happened in Paris and Nice. All over Europe it's happening. It's gotten to a point where it's not even being reported. And in many cases, the very, very dishonest press doesn't want to report it. They have their reasons, and you understand that.”

Source: Remarks

The press is reporting these cases. The White House later clarified to say Trump was referring to attacks that were underreported.

Foreign policy Full story

“We've already given them [Iran] billions and billions, probably $150 billion.”

Repeated on Feb. 2
Source: Interview

Trump always uses too high an estimate, $150 billion, and makes it sound like the United States cut a check to Iran. But this was always Iran’s money. Iran had billions of dollars in assets that were frozen in foreign banks around the globe because of international sanctions over its nuclear program. The Treasury Department estimated that once Iran fulfilled other obligations, it would have about $55 billion left. The Central Bank of Iran said the number was actually $32 billion.

Foreign policy Full story

“The previous administration allowed it to happen. Because we shouldn't have been in Iraq, but we shouldn't have gotten out the way we got out. It created a vacuum. ISIS was formed.”

Source: Interview

This is false and facile. The terrorist group is the direct result of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, which Trump had supported. The civil war that started in Syria in 2011 breathed new life into what had become a moribund organization. The conflict in Syria created a perfect vacuum in terms of governance, and so the civil war became an opportunity for the restoration of the organization. ISIS then saw opportunity to rebound in Iraq. One factor was the withdrawal of U.S. troops. But there was also rampant mismanagement by the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, which greatly degraded the Iraqi military and exacerbated tensions between Sunnis and Shiites.

Miscellaneous Full story

“Any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election. Sorry, people want border security and extreme vetting.”

Repeated on Feb. 16
Source: Twitter

This odd tweet appeared aimed at reassuring Trump supporters after polls from CBS News, CNN/ORC, Gallup and Quinnipiac University showed majorities of Americans opposed to the order and its provisions. (Other polls indicated support for Trump’s order.) In the 2016 presidential election, while polls played down Trump’s chances of winning the electoral college, most nationwide polls actually were close to mark. The RealClearPolitics average showed Clinton ahead by 2.1 percentage points — exactly the margin she achieved in her popular-vote victory.

Miscellaneous Full story

“The failing @nytimes was forced to apologize to its subscribers for the poor reporting it did on my election win. Now they are worse!”

Repeated on Jan. 28 Feb. 4 Feb. 16 Feb. 27 Mar. 29
Source: Twitter

The Times did not apologize to its subscribers for its coverage of Trump. Both the Times and The Post have seen spikes in audience and subscribers.

Feb. 5, 2017
Immigration Full story

“You had 109 people out of hundreds of thousands of travelers and all we did was vet those people very, very carefully. ... It was 109 people.”

Repeated on Jan. 30 Feb. 16
Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

Trump’s figures on the scope of the travel ban were ludicrously low. The universe of people likely affected by the travel suspension was around 60,000, according to the State Department — not 109. The White House later admitted the 109 figure reflected only the number of people who were affected by the ban and were in-flight at the time the order was signed

Foreign policy Full story

“We gave them $1.7 billion in cash, which is unheard of. And we put the money up, and we have really nothing to show for it.”

Source: Interview

The payment was connected to a $1.7 billion settlement of claims with Iran announced by the State Department, in which $400 million was always Iran’s money. (The rest was negiotiated interest.) In the 1970s, the then-pro-Western Iranian government under the shah paid $400 million for U.S. military equipment. But the equipment was never delivered because the two countries broke off relations after the seizure of American hostages at the U.S. Embassy in Iran. Trump says the United States has nothing to show for it, but the money was transferred on the same day four Americans being held in Iran were released, though the Obama administration denied there was any connection.

Immigration Full story

“I'm very much opposed to sanctuary cities. They breed crime. There's a lot of problems.”

Repeated on Feb. 16 Apr. 26
Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

There is limited research on the impact of sanctuary policies and crime. And the research that does exist challenges Trump’s claim. There’s no official definition of “sanctuary,” but it generally refers to rules restricting state and local governments from alerting federal authorities about people who may be in the country illegally. A handful of studies looked at whether there is a causation between sanctuary cities and crime. They either found no statistically significant impact of sanctuary policies on crime, or a reduction in crime due to immigrant-friendly policing strategies.

Election Full story

On 3 million illegal immigrants voting: ”Well, many people have come out and said I am right, you know that."

Repeated on Jan. 23
Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

This is a fantasy, worthy of Four Pinocchios. Trump is obsessed with how he lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes, and so he keeps making this claim even though there is no evidence to support it.

Biographical record Full story

“I've been against the war in Iraq from the beginning.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

False. There is zero evidence of his early opposition to the invasion.

Feb. 4, 2017
Miscellaneous Full story

“After being forced to apologize for its bad and inaccurate coverage of me after winning the election, the FAKE NEWS @nytimes is still lost!”

Repeated on Jan. 28 Feb. 6 Feb. 27 Mar. 29
Source: Twitter

The Times did not apologize to its subscribers for its coverage of Trump. Both the Times and The Post have seen spikes in audience and subscribers.

Immigration Full story

“Interesting that certain Middle-Eastern countries agree with the ban. They know if certain people are allowed in it's death & destruction!”

Repeated on Feb. 2
Source: Twitter

Trump appears to referring to a news story he posted on his Facebook account — that Kuwait had issued “its own Trump-esque visa ban for five Muslim-majority countries.” Trump added: “Smart!” But it turned out this was fake news. Kuwait “categorically denies these claims,” the country’s foreign ministry said. Trump’s Facebook post has not been taken down.

Immigration Full story

“What is our country coming to when a judge can halt a Homeland Security travel ban and anyone, even with bad intentions, can come into U.S.?”

Source: Twitter

Trump tweeted a number of critical comments about the “so-called judge” who halted the president’s travel ban of citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries. The judiciary was established in the U.S. Constitution as a third branch of government (along with the executive and legislative branches), part of the complex system of checks and balances that ensures the continuation of democracy. Marbury v. Madison, a Supreme Court case decided more than 200 years ago, helped establish the notion of judicial review and cemented the notion that the judiciary was equal in power to the president and Congress.

Immigration Full story

“Because the ban was lifted by a judge, many very bad and dangerous people may be pouring into our country. A terrible decision”

Source: Twitter

There is little evidence that the ruling halting Trump’s order has allowed “very bad and dangerous people” to pour into the country. The practical effect of the order was to restore visas and refugee admissions. Being accepted as a refugee in the United States is a difficult, lengthy process. Obtaining a U.S. visa generally requires an in-person interview, unless you are a citizen of one of 38 countries that participate in the visa-waiver program. Under a 2015 law, however, four of the seven countries covered in the ban require even dual citizens to have an in-person interview.

Feb. 3, 2017
Miscellaneous Full story

“Professional anarchists, thugs and paid protesters are proving the point of the millions of people who voted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Source: Twitter

Trump seems to be citing a segment of Sean Hannity’s show, during which Hannity questioned whether there was a paid effort to galvanize protesters showing up at airports in the wake of Trump’s immigration executive order. But there’s no evidence there were paid protesters at airports. There were reports that a group called “Demand Protest” was paying people to protest against Trump on the day of his inauguration, but Snopes.com debunked that claim.

Economy Full story

“We expect to be cutting a lot out of Dodd-Frank because frankly, I have so many people, friends of mine that had nice businesses. They can't borrow money. They just can't get any money because the banks just won't let them borrow it because of the rules and regulations in Dodd-Frank.”

Source: Remarks

If Trump were just talking about all business loans, his statement would be wrong. Commercial lending is at record highs. The picture is murkier if he were referring only to small businesses, as the White House claims. Trump specifically mentioned the “rules and regulations” of Dodd-Frank. The law was not intended to target community banks, and it carved out many exemptions. But regulatory oversight appears to have become tougher, so a case could be made that the post-Dodd-Frank regulatory environment made it harder for community banks to make small-business loans.

Economy Full story

“Countries charge U.S. companies taxes or tariffs while the U.S. charges them nothing or little.We should charge them SAME as they charge us!”

Source: Twitter

Many countries — but not the United States — have a value-added tax, in which tax is collected at each stage in the production or distribution of a product or service. But with refunds, the burden is really paid by the final consumer. Moreover, the VAT also affects domestic producers. In terms of tariffs, it is incorrect the United States charges “nothing or little.” The United States imposes tariffs on Chinese goods, but they are not as high as Chinese tariffs on U.S. goods.

“The January employment report shows that the private sector added 237,000 jobs last month. A lot of that has to do with the spirit our country now has.”

Source: Prepared speech

Trump gives himself credit for the January numbers, but the data was collected when Obama still held office.

Feb. 1, 2017
Immigration Full story

“Everybody is arguing whether or not it is a BAN. Call it what you want, it is about keeping bad people (with bad intentions) out of country!”

Source: Twitter

Trump and his administration have quibbled with the news media’s use of the word “ban” to describe the executive order. But Trump himself called it a ban.

Election Full story

“If you remember, I wasn’t going to do well with the African American community, and after they heard me speaking and talking about the inner city and lots of other things, we ended up getting — I won’t go into details — but we ended up getting substantially more than other candidates who had run in the past years. And now we’re going to take that to new levels.”

Repeated on Feb. 28
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

Trump got 8 percent of the African American vote versus 6 percent for Mitt Romney in 2012 and 4 percent for John McCain in 2008. But Romney and McCain were running against the first African American candidate, Obama. Strictly by the numbers, Trump actually did worse among blacks than any Republican running against a white man, though in effect he came close to tying George W. Bush in 2000 and Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Immigration Full story

“Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!”

Repeated on Feb. 2
Source: Twitter

Trump is referring to the estimated 1,250 (not “thousands”) refugees and asylum-seekers that the United States, under Obama, agreed to accept from an Australian detention center. Refugees and asylum-seekers who arrive illegally by boat in Australia are called “illegal maritime arrivals.” They can apply for two types of temporary visas, and some may qualify to apply for permanent residency.

Feb. 15, 2017
Economy Full story

“Overregulation costs our economy an estimated $2 trillion a year, which is incredible -- $2 trillion -- and it costs your businesses a lot of money, tremendous amounts of money and time.”

Source: Remarks

Trump presents an unbalanced figure. Various organizations have come up with similar estimates on the cost of regulations. But there is an important element missing in the use of this somewhat sketchy figure — the benefit side of the analysis. Every regulation has costs — but also benefits.

Miscellaneous Full story

“The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by ”intelligence" like candy. Very un-American!"

Source: Twitter

This is a flip-flop for Trump. Before becoming president, Trump heartily endorsed WikiLeaks and the release of classified information, particularly about his then-rival Hillary Clinton. During a July 2016 news conference, Trump even called on Russia to hack Clinton’s email account. Now, facing information leaks out of his own administration (including information that led to the resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn), Trump decided it’s a bad thing.

Miscellaneous Full story

“Information is being illegally given to the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost by the intelligence community (NSA and FBI?).Just like Russia”

Source: Twitter

Actually, The Post is doing great. The Times, like The Post, has seen spikes in audience and subscribers.

Jan. 31, 2017
Foreign policy Full story

“Every other country lives on devaluation.You look at what China's doing, you look at what Japan has done over the years. They -- they play the money market, they play the devaluation market, and we sit there like a bunch of dummies.”

Repeated on Apr. 2
Source: Remarks

His rhetoric is way out of date. Not only is the United States not being hurt by China’s current currency manipulation, China is also not devaluing its currency anymore. In fact, China is selling foreign currency to prop up its own, in an effort to prevent the yuan from depreciating further and destabilizing the Chinese and global economy.

Jan. 30, 2017
Immigration Full story

“Only 109 people out of 325,000 were detained and held for questioning. Big problems at airports were caused by Delta computer outage,..... protesters and the tears of Senator Schumer. Secretary Kelly said that all is going well with very few problems. MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN!”

Repeated on Feb. 5 Feb. 16
Fact Checker rating: Source: Twitter

The Trump White House’s figures on the scope of the travel ban were ludicrously low. The universe of people likely affected by the travel suspension was around 60,000, according to the State Department — not 109. The White House later admitted the 109 figure reflected only the number of people who were affected by the ban and were in-flight at the time the order was signed.

“But we cut approximately $600 million off the F-35 fighter, and that only amounts to 90 planes out of close to 3,000 planes. And when you think about $600 million, it was announced by Marillyn, who's very talented, the head of Lockheed Martin.”

Repeated on Jan. 30 Feb. 6 Feb. 7 Feb. 18 Feb. 22 Feb. 23 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Feb. 28 Mar. 15 Mar. 20 Mar. 21 Apr. 6 Apr. 21 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

Trump takes credit for the lowered cost, but the Pentagon had announced cost reductions of roughly $600 million before Trump began meeting with Lockheed Martin’s chief executive.

Immigration Full story

“If the ban were announced with a one week notice, the 'bad' would rush into our country during that week. A lot of bad 'dudes' out there!”

Source: Twitter

It typically takes weeks or months to get a tourist visa to enter the United States. It certainly would take months for “bad guys,” presumably with records that would take longer for background checks, to receive a tourist visa.

Jan. 29, 2017
Immigration Full story

“My policy is similar to what President Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Statement

This was a facile claim, as there were many differences. Obama responded to an actual threat — the discovery that two Iraqi refugees had been implicated in bombmaking in Iraq that had targeted U.S. troops. Second, Obama did not announce a ban on visa applications -- and in fact never banned visas in the first place. Third, Obama’s policy did not prevent all citizens of that country, including green-card holders, from traveling to the United States.

Immigration Full story

“The seven countries named in the Executive Order are the same countries previously identified by the Obama administration as sources of terror.”

Repeated on Feb. 18
Fact Checker rating: Source: Statement

Four countries were identified by Congress, in a bill signed by Obama, and then the Obama administration added three more. But Obama — and Democrats in Congress — wanted to require greater visa scrutiny of people who had traveled to those countries. When given a chance, the Obama administration specifically rejected the citizenship-based restrictions that Trump ordered. So there were significant differences in the approach.

Jan. 28, 2017
Miscellaneous Full story

“Thr coverage about me in the @nytimes and the @washingtonpost gas been so false and angry that the times actually apologized to its..... ...dwindling subscribers and readers.They got me wrong right from the beginning and still have not changed course, and never will. DISHONEST”

Repeated on Feb. 4 Feb. 6 Feb. 27 Mar. 29
Source: Twitter

The New York Times did not apologize to its subscribers for its coverage of Trump. Both the Times and The Post have seen spikes in audience and subscribers. (The Post announced at the end of 2016 that it is “profitable and growing.”)

Jan. 27, 2017
Immigration Full story

“They’ve been horribly treated. Do you know if you were a Christian in Syria, it was impossible, at least very tough, to get into the United States? If you were a Muslim, you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible, and the reason that was so unfair, everybody was persecuted in all fairness, but they were chopping off the heads of everybody but more so the Christians. And I thought it was very, very unfair.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

Trump goes too far to claim that it is “very tough” for Syrian Christians to become refugees in the United States and that they have been “horribly treated.” While it is correct that a relatively small percentage of Syrian refugees have been admitted, the experience of Iraqi refugees is exactly the opposite, even though the same U.N. agency handles the refugee requests. The basic fact is that no one fully understands why there is such a disparity, though it appears connected to the roots the Syrians have with Lebanon.

Biographical record

“The Cuban Americans — I got 84 percent of that vote, and they voted in big numbers.”

Source: Interview

Trump received 54 percent of the vote in Florida, according to National Election Pool exit poll data. (There is no national poll since two-thirds of eligible Cuban voters live in Florida.)

Jan. 21, 2017
Foreign policy Full story

“I remember hearing [when I was young] from one of my instructors, ‘The United States has never lost a war.’ And then, after that, it’s like we haven’t won anything. We don’t win anymore.”

Source: Remarks

This is debatable. At the very least, one might count the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War and the end of the Cold War as victories for the United States.

Biographical record Full story

“I have a running war with the media. They are among the most dishonest human beings on Earth. And they sort of made it sound like I had a feud with the intelligence community.”

Source: Remarks

The media simply reported what Trump said about the intelligence community. On Dec. 9, when The Washington Post reported that intelligence officials had concluded that Russia had sought to undermine Hillary Clinton in the election, the Trump team issued a statement: “These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.” After information leaked that Trump had been briefed that an unverified dossier alleged Russia had embarrassing information about him, Trump lashed out at the intelligence agencies and asked, “Are we living in Nazi Germany?”

Biographical record Full story

“I looked out, the field was — it looked like a million, million and a half people….The rest of the 20-block area, all the way back to the Washington Monument, was packed.”

Repeated on Jan. 20 Jan. 22 Jan. 25
Source: Remarks

Speaking to employees at the CIA, Trump complained about news coverage showing his inauguration crowd was smaller than Barack Obama’s crowd in 2009. Trump’s crowd did not go all the way to the Washington Monument. No matter how you calculate it, Trump’s crowd was significantly smaller than Obama’s crowd — and the Women’s March on Washington the next day.

Biographical record Full story

“We have the all-time record in the history of Time magazine. … I’ve been on it for 15 times this year.”

Source: Remarks

Trump has been on the cover of Time magazine a total of 11 times. Richard Nixon holds the record: 55. Depending on whether you count small photographs, Hillary Clinton has been on the cover between 22 and 31 times.

Jan. 25, 2017

“I just signed two executive orders that will save thousands of lives, millions of jobs, and billions and billions of dollars.”

Source: Remarks

Trump lauded two executive actions regarding immigration and border security, including building a wall along the border of Mexico. The numbers appear to have little basis in reality. Just building the wall is estimated to cost as much as $25 billion -- before annual maintenance costs.

Biographical record Full story

“Before we go any further, I want to recognize the ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and Border Patrol officers in this room today and to honor their service and not just because they unanimously endorsed me for president.”

Source: Remarks

The unions for ICE agents and Border Patrol officers did endorse Trump in the 2016 campaign. But they did not do so unanimously. The National Border Patrol Council endorsement was based just on the vote of 11 union leaders, which sparked controversy among union members. Agents in El Paso, in a 14-to-13 vote, narrowly failed to have the local union disavow the endorsement.

Election Full story

“We ended up winning by a massive amount, 306. I needed 270. We got 306.”

Repeated on Feb. 16
Source: Interview

Trump’s electoral college margin was relatively narrow by historical standards. He ranks 46th out of 58 elections. A switch of about 40,000 votes in three states would have swung the election to Clinton.

Election Full story

“Then he’s groveling again. You know I always talk about the reporters that grovel when they want to write something that you want to hear but not necessarily millions of people want to hear or have to hear.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Interview

Trump attacked the author of a 2012 Pew Center on the States report for saying his report did not back up Trump’s claims of voter fraud. Trump suggested the researcher had changed his tune, but when the report was issued, the author repeatedly explained it did not reflect voter fraud.

Election Full story

“Of those [allegedly illegal] votes cast, none of ’em come to me. None of ’em come to me. They would all be for the other side…They all voted for Hillary.”

Source: Interview

Not only is there no evidence of massive voter fraud, but there is also no way Trump could possibly know this.

Biographical record Full story

“They say I had the biggest crowd in the history of inaugural speeches…we had the biggest audience in the history of inaugural speeches.”

Repeated on Jan. 20 Jan. 21 Jan. 22
Source: Interview

Crowd estimates are difficult, but attendance for Trump’s speech appears to be at least 80 percent smaller than Obama’s 2009 swearing-in, 70 percent smaller than Lyndon B. Johnson’s inauguration and 60 percent smaller than Obama’s second inauguration in 2013. In terms of TV viewership, Trump ranks fifth, far behind Reagan. Even online estimates don’t boost him to “biggest audience.”

“When President Obama was there [Chicago] two weeks ago making a speech, very nice speech, two people were shot and killed during his speech.”

Source: Interview

This is wrong. No one was shot and killed in Chicago that day, according to the Chicago Police Department. Four shootings occurred that day, with a total of six people shot, but no one died.

Foreign policy Full story

“We should’ve taken the oil. And if we took the oil, you wouldn’t have ISIS. And we would have had wealth.”

Repeated on Feb. 9
Source: Interview

In 2015, Iraq produced about 4 million barrels a day, enough crude oil to fill more than 700 Trump Towers. Securing all of the oil, including in northern Iraq where the Islamic State exists, would require a military force larger than the one that invaded Iraq in 2003. It would also be considered a war crime.

Foreign policy Full story

“We have spent as of one month ago $6 trillion in the Middle East.”

Repeated on Jan. 25 Feb. 9 Feb. 24 Feb. 27 Feb. 28 Mar. 22 Apr. 5
Source: Interview

Trump is lumping together the wars in Iraq (in the Middle East) and Afghanistan (in South Asia), which together cost about $1.6 trillion from 2001 to 2014. He is also adding in estimates of future spending, such as interest on the debt and veterans' care for the next three decades.

Health care Full story

“You had millions of people that now aren’t insured anymore.”

Source: Interview

In attacking the Affordable Care Act, Trump repeats a Four-Pinocchio whopper. Some 20 million people have gained health coverage because of the law. About 2 million people were told their old plans no longer qualified under the law, but after an uproar, most received waivers that kept the plans going until the end of 2017. In any case, anyone whose plan was terminated could buy new insurance.

Health care Full story

“Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton (D) said Obamacare 'is no longer affordable,' and Bill said ‘Obamacare is crazy.' ”

Repeated on Mar. 17
Source: Interview

Trump takes both comments out of context and twists their meaning. Dayton faulted Republicans for refusing to adjust the law, which he said made insurance “no longer affordable to increasing numbers of people.” Bill Clinton’s remark about a “crazy system” referred to the fact that people who did not qualify for insurance subsidies did not have a way to buy into Medicare or Medicaid.

Biographical record Full story

“No, no, you have to understand, I had a tremendous victory, one of the great victories ever. In terms of counties I think the most ever, or just about the most ever.”

Source: Interview

Trump's electoral college victory was relatively narrow, ranking 46th out of 58 electoral college results. He also lost the popular vote by 2.1 percentage points. The focus on winning counties is misleading, as Clinton won the counties with the most people, which is why she had such a commanding popular-vote margin.

Health care

“Obamacare is a disaster. It's too expensive. It's horrible health care. It doesn't cover what you have to cover.”

Repeated on Jan. 25 Feb. 10 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 27 Mar. 11 Mar. 13 Mar. 15 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 17 Mar. 21 Mar. 25 Apr. 23 Apr. 24 Apr. 28 Apr. 29
Source: Interview

To put it in context, the number of people affected by premium increases is just one-fourteenth the size of the employment-based health-insurance market. Moreover, some of the initial steps taken by the Trump administration have helped worsen the problems in the individual insurance market — allowing Trump to create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Jan. 24, 2017

“This is on the Keystone pipeline…A lot of jobs, 28,000 jobs. Great construction jobs.”

Repeated on Jan. 24 Feb. 16 Feb. 18 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Mar. 28 Apr. 4 Apr. 29
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

In contrast to Obama, who always played down the number of jobs that would be created by the Keystone XL Pipeline, Trump inflated the numbers. The project would create part-year work in four states for 10,400 workers, the State Department determined. That added up to 3,900 annual construction jobs. About 12,000 other annual jobs would stem from direct spending on the project. So that adds up to 16,000, most of which are not construction jobs. (This statement earned Three Pinocchios.)

“If Chicago doesn’t fix the horrible ‘carnage’ going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!”

Source: Twitter

The percentage is accurate, per Chicago police. But with only one month of data in 2017, it’s too early to use that statistic to call it “carnage.” Trump also said he would “send in the feds,” although federal agencies already work with Chicago police.

Jan. 23, 2017
Biographical record Full story

“I’m a very big person when it comes to the environment. I have received awards on the environment.”

Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

There is little evidence that Trump received awards for the environment. The White House pointed us to a self-published book by Trump’s former environmental consultant. The only award mentioned in that book was from the New Jersey Audubon Society — but the group denied it ever gave an award to Trump, the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster or any of its employees.

Economy Full story

“We think we can cut regulations by 75 percent. Maybe more.”

Source: Remarks

This is clearly a made-up figure. As of the end of 2015, there were nearly 180,000 pages in the code of federal regulations. So, in theory, that means getting it down to 45,000 pages. There were 71,000 pages back in 1975. Even under Ronald Reagan, the number of pages climbed almost 20 percent.

Election Full story

“Between 3 million and 5 million illegal votes caused me to lose the popular vote.”

Repeated on Feb. 5
Fact Checker rating: Source: Remarks

This is a fantasy, worthy of Four Pinocchios. Trump is obsessed with how he lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes, and so he keeps making this claim even though there is no evidence to support it.

Jan. 22, 2017
Biographical record Full story

“Had a great meeting at CIA Headquarters yesterday, packed house, paid great respect to Wall, long standing ovations, amazing people. WIN!”

Repeated on Jan. 26
Source: Twitter

Trump appeared to be responding to criticism of his heavily political speech in front of the CIA’s memorial wall. He claimed to have received standing ovations, but he never invited the employees to take a seat. So they remained standing the whole time.

Biographical record Full story

“Wow, television ratings just out: 31 million people watched the Inauguration, 11 million more than the very good ratings from 4 years ago!”

Repeated on Jan. 20 Jan. 21 Jan. 25
Source: Twitter

Actually, Obama’s ratings in 2009 were 7 million people higher than Trump’s numbers. Second-term inaugurals tend to get lower ratings, so Trump is cherry-picking the comparison.

Jan. 20, 2017

“Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered, but the jobs left, and the factories closed.”

Source: Prepared speech

The suburbs around Washington are among the richest in the United States, largely because of the federal government (which attracts people with college or advanced degrees). Among the 25 most populous metropolitan areas, the D.C. metro area has the highest median income in the nation -- $93,294 versus a U.S. median of $55,775 -- though growth has slowed in recent years, in part because of reductions in defense spending. Indeed, income in the D.C. area has grown essentially at the same rate as the rest of the nation since 2006, including a dip in median income during the Great Recession. But there is no empirical evidence that the D.C. area got rich off the rest of the country, as Trump suggests.

Election Full story

“You came by the tens of millions to become part of a historic movement, the likes of which the world has never seen before.”

Source: Prepared speech

Trump is a minority president, in terms of the popular vote. He lost the popular vote by nearly 2.9 million votes to Hillary Clinton. Trump’s electoral college win, meanwhile, was a squeaker. Trump had narrow victories in three key states (and narrow losses in two others).

“Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities … and the crime and the gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential. This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.”

Source: Prepared speech

In 2015, 13 percent of people lived below poverty level inside metropolitan statistical areas. That is on par with the national poverty rate in 2015 (13.5 percent). Overall, the poverty rate has remained relatively flat under Obama. Violent and property crimes overall have been declining for about two decades and are far below rates seen one or two decades ago.

Foreign policy Full story

“For many decades, we’ve enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry; subsidized the armies of other countries, while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military.”

Source: Prepared speech

Trump mixes up several things here. He seems to be referring to free-trade agreements in the first part of his sentence, though he ignores the fact that many U.S. industries also benefit and grow when they are able to sell products overseas. The cost of maintaining foreign bases is a mere pittance of the $500 billion defense budget. And foreign military aid requires that the funds be spent on U.S. hardware, creating jobs for Americans.

Economy Full story

“[We’ve] spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas while America’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay. We’ve made other countries rich, while the wealth, strength and confidence of our country has dissipated over the horizon.”

Source: Prepared speech

Trump continues to attack companies that ship jobs overseas and has promised to keep jobs in the United States. But Trump has had a long history of outsourcing a variety of his products as a businessman, and he has acknowledged doing so.

“One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores, with not even a thought about the millions and millions of American workers that were left behind. The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed all across the world.”

Source: Prepared speech

Trump engages in hyperbole, attributing all of the decline in manufacturing to foreign trade. Some economists calculate 1 million to 2 million jobs were lost after China was admitted to the World Trade Organization in 2000. But economists say they believe the biggest factor in the decline in manufacturing is automation, not jobs going overseas. Another factor is decreased consumer spending on manufactured goods. A new report by the Congressional Research Service notes that “employment in manufacturing has fallen in most major manufacturing countries over the past quarter-century,” so the U.S. experience is not unusual.

“We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies and destroying our jobs.”

Source: Prepared speech

Trump attacks companies that ship jobs overseas, and has promised to keep jobs in the United States. But this is inconsistent with his long history of outsourcing products as a businessman. We know of at least 12 countries where Trump products were manufactured. Further, Trump products transited other countries through the packaging and shipping process — meaning that workers in more than 12 countries contributed to getting many of Trump’s products made, packaged and delivered to the United States.

“We will get our people off of welfare and back to work, rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor.”

Repeated on Jan. 26 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Mar. 20
Source: Prepared speech

“Welfare” is a broad term and can apply to people who are working but receiving government assistance. If someone is receiving means-tested assistance, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are not working.

Biographical record Full story

“Even the media said the crowd was massive … that was all the way back down to the Washington Monument.”

Repeated on Jan. 21 Jan. 22 Jan. 25
Source: Remarks

Speaking to employees at the CIA, Trump complained about news coverage showing his inauguration crowd was smaller than Obama’s crowd in 2009. Trump’s crowd did not go all the way to the Washington Monument. No matter how you calculate it, Trump’s crowd was significantly smaller than Obama’s crowd — and the Women’s March on Washington the next day.

Jan. 26, 2017
Foreign policy Full story

“NAFTA has been a terrible deal, a total disaster for the United States from its inception, costing us as much as $60 billion a year with Mexico alone in trade deficits.”

Source: Remarks

The trade-deficit number is close to correct, but Trump apparently does not understand the meaning of “trade deficit.” He often suggests this money could be used to pay for his planned wall along the southern border. But that’s nonsensical. A trade deficit only means that people in one country are buying more goods from another country than people in the second country are buying from the first country. No money passes from government to government.

“We want to get our people off of welfare and back to work. So important. It’s out of control. It’s out of control.”

Repeated on Jan. 20 Jan. 26 Feb. 24 Feb. 28 Mar. 20
Source: Remarks

“Welfare” is a broad term and can apply to people who are working but receiving government assistance. If someone is receiving means-tested assistance, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are not working.

“Here in Philadelphia, the murder rate has been steady — I mean just terribly increasing.”

Source: Remarks

This is wrong. Murders have declined significantly in Philadelphia over the past decade, from 397 in 2007 to 277 in 2016; the number has been below 300 for four straight years in a city that neared 500 in 1990. The number of violent crimes, property crimes and robberies are lower than they've been in at least four decades.

Immigration Full story

“We’ve taken in tens of thousands of people. We know nothing about them. They can say they vet them. They didn’t vet them. They have no papers. How can you vet somebody when you don’t know anything about them and you have no papers?”

Repeated on Feb. 18
Source: Interview

Trump often claims there is “no system to vet” refugees. The process actually takes two more years, after vetting that starts with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and then continues with checks by U.S. intelligence and security agencies. (Our colleagues at PolitiFact did a good look at this process.)

Biographical record Full story

“And the audience was standing ovation. They actually -- they were standing from the beginning. They didn't even sit down. It was one standing ovation.”

Repeated on Jan. 22
Source: Interview

Trump appeared to be responding to criticism of his heavily political speech in front of the CIA’s memorial wall. He claimed to have received standing ovations, but he never invited the employees to take a seat. So they remained standing the whole time.

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