healthmyths
Platinum Member
- Sep 19, 2011
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- #121
In discussing with a friend about George H. W. Bush and his legacy, we recalled this remark he made about President Trump:
"I don't like him. I don't know much about him, but I know he's a blowhard. And I'm not too excited about him being a leader," said George Bush Sr, who was president between 1989 and 1993.
George Bush Sr calls Trump a 'blowhard'
And I agree with George H. W. Bush! And I agree with all that say President Trump is obnoxious. A braggart. A loud-mouth. All the adjectives the "sophisticated" politically adroit and politicians have said about Trump.
But they are missing the point.
Trump is not a politician. He is a boss. He wants things done and in many ways HIS way!
And all these sophisticates including GWB Sr and Jr. didn't get it.
Most of us don't like Trump personally BUT totally admire what he has accomplished in his two short years!
Tump’s list: 289 accomplishments in just 20 months, ‘relentless’ promise-keeping
Trump’s list: 289 accomplishments in just 20 months, ‘relentless’ promise-keeping
Again... most of us that have respect for the Presidency and the President have a deeper respect for people that
1) Love America...2) Love their families ..3) Respect law enforcement and 4) get things done!
And so Bush Sr,Jr.,Clintons, and hosts of other unsophisticated people that look at the packaging i.e. Trump and not the contents because that's what the MSM is doing...i.e. advertising the negatives about Trump which for a FACT:
Media Trump Hatred Shows In 92% Negative Coverage Of His Presidency: Study
Anti-Trump Media? 92% Of Coverage Of His Presidency Is Negative: Study | Investor's Business Daily
The FACT is the MSM et.al. Anti-Trumpers are just not sophisticated to look beyond the packaging and
are NOT seeing the results.
And that's OK! Trump is getting around them and most of us sophisticated people that agree...
President Trump is obnoxious. A braggart. A loud-mouth. All the adjectives the "sophisticated" politically adroit and politicians have said about Trump...BUT HE IS GETTING THINGS DONE!!!
US will hold off on raising China tariffs to 25% as Trump and Xi agree to a 90-day trade truce
US, China call a 90-day truce in trade war as Trump, Xi agree to continue wide ranging talks
- Xi Jinping and Donald Trump discussed a range of issues — among them the trade dispute that has left over $200 billion worth of goods hanging in the balance.
- "President Trump has agreed that on January 1, 2019, he will leave the tariffs on $200 billion worth of product at the 10 percent rate, and not raise it to 25 percent at this time," the White House said.
This is a start!
".@60Minutes did a phony story about child separation when they know we had the exact same policy as the Obama Administration. In fact a picture of children in jails was used by other Fake Media to show how bad (cruel) we are, but it was in 2014 during O years. Obama separated....children from parents, as did Bush etc., because that is the policy and law. I tried to keep them together but the problem is, when you do that, vast numbers of additional people storm the Border. So with Obama seperation is fine, but with Trump it's not. Fake 60 Minutes!"
Source: Twitter
in fact: Obama did not have "the exact same policy" as Trump, and no "law" required Trump to separate families. While Obama policy did result in some parents being separated from children -- former Obama officials say this happened in exceptional circumstances like the parent being found carrying drugs -- it was Trump who decided to attempt to criminally prosecute everyone found crossing the border illegally. This decision resulted in the routine separation of parents and children, which did not occur under Obama.
Filed under:
Immigration
Barack Obama
"Would be very SMART if Mexico would stop the Caravans long before they get to our Southern Border, or if originating countries would not let them form (it is a way they get certain people out of their country and dump in U.S. No longer)."
Source: Twitter
in fact: Latin American countries do not deliberately use caravans of migrants to rid themselves of problem citizens. This is a variation on Trump's usual false claim about the Diversity Visa Lottery, about which he also alleges a conspiracy by foreign governments.
Filed under:
Immigration
NOV 23, 2018
"I am extremely happy and proud of the job being done by @USTreasury Secretary @StevenMnuchin1. The FAKE NEWS likes to write stories to the contrary, quoting phony sources or jealous people, but they aren't true. They never like to ask me for a quote b/c it would kill their story."
Source: Twitter
in fact: The Wall Street Journal asked Trump for a quote for the article in question, which included a quote from Trump spokesperson Lindsay Walters. The Journal wrote that Trump "incorrectly implied The Wall Street Journal didn't seek his comment for the article...The Journal made repeated requests for comment this week, including a request for comment from Mr. Trump. The Journal sent the White House a detailed list of questions Friday morning. After initially declining comment, the White House issued statements Friday afternoon, followed by the president's tweet."
Filed under:
Media
NOV 22, 2018
"There was no deletion of emails (by Ivanka Trump), like the 33,000, plus probably another 100,000 that Hillary Clinton did after she got a subpoena."
Source: Thanksgiving phone call to the troops and exchange with reporters
in fact: There were not 100,000 additional deleted emails.
Filed under:
Hillary Clinton
"And we are doing very well. I can say this: China wants to make a deal very badly...because of the tariffs. Because right now, on $250 billion, they'll be paying us, as of January 1st, 25 per cent. And in many cases, they're already paying 25 per cent. On the rest that they're not, they're paying 10. But the 10 per cent goes to 25 per cent on January 1st. And so they're going to be paying a tremendous amount of money, which, frankly, is great for our country. We're taking in billions of dollars from China. We never took in 10 cents from China. They took everything from us; we never took anything from them. Now, as of already, we're taking in -- right now, we're taking in billions. China is -- people don't understand this: China is right now paying us -- right now, paying us billions of dollars a month."
Source: Thanksgiving phone call to the troops and exchange with reporters
in fact: China does not pay the tariffs Trump has imposed on Chinese products imported by Americans. The American importers pay these tariffs.
Filed under:
Tariffs
Trade
Trump has repeated this claim 8 times
"We are an economic power that is far greater than we were. When we were -- when I took over, we were teetering. We were in bad shape. We were going down to minus-four, minus-five, minus-six per cent in GDP. Instead, last quarter, we had 4.2 per cent."
Source: Thanksgiving phone call to the troops and exchange with reporters
in fact: The U.S. was not experiencing anything remotely like negative-4, negative-5, or negative-6 per cent GDP growth before Trump took office, and there was no sign whatsoever that it was headed to this kind of severe negative growth. There had not been a single negative quarter since 2014, when there was negative-1 per cent growth in the first quarter -- which was immediately followed by quarters of positive 5.1 per cent and 4.9 per cent. Growth in the fourth quarter of 2016, Obama's last full quarter, was 1.8 per cent.
Filed under:
Economy
"China has been taking advantage of the United States for many, many years. They have taken out four-, five-, and six-hundred billion dollars a year."
Source: Thanksgiving phone call to the troops and exchange with reporters
in fact: The U.S. has never once had a $500 billion or $600 billion trade deficit with China, according to U.S. government data. The deficit was $337 billion in 2017, $375 billion if you only count trade in goods and exclude trade in services.
Filed under:
China
Trade
Exaggeration
Trump has repeated this claim 96 times
"And I've also done more for the vets than anybody has ever done. I got Choice approved. They've been trying to get Choice for 40 years -- more than 40 years; they couldn't get it -- where a vet can go directly to a doctor now instead of waiting on line for two months and two weeks and three weeks, and amounts of time that are unthinkable to anybody, including yourselves. So I think I've done more than anybody else, certainly in many, many years, and probably in many decades."
Source: Thanksgiving phone call to the troops and exchange with reporters
in fact: The Veterans Choice health program was passed and created in 2014 under Obama. The law Trump signed in 2018, the VA MISSION Act, modified the Choice program.
Filed under:
Military
Health care
Trump has repeated this claim 50 times
"But then you can also take a look at Iran, take a look at Syria, where, you know, millions of people have been just slaughtered horribly, horribly."
Source: Thanksgiving phone call to the troops and exchange with reporters
in fact: The exact death toll in Syria's war is highly unclear, but experts agree that "millions" is far too high. As of September 2018, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had documented 364,792 war deaths, since 2011, and believed the total was at least 100,000 higher.
Filed under:
Middle East
Syria
Exaggeration
Trump has repeated this claim 2 times
"But they're (Saudi Arabia) vehemently denying it. And we have hundreds of thousands of jobs. Do people really want me to give up hundreds of thousands of jobs?"
Source: Thanksgiving phone call to the troops and exchange with reporters
in fact: There is no basis for the claim that Saudi Arabia's business deals with the U.S. will produce "hundreds of thousands of jobs.." (The White House did not respond to a request for an explanation from U.S. website Axios on a previous version of this claim.) Trump has increased his jobs estimates from "over 40,000" jobs in March to 450,000 jobs on Oct. 13 to 500,000 jobs on Oct. 17 to 600,000 jobs on Oct. 19, the day he also introduced a claim of "over a million jobs." Reuters has reported: "An internal document seen by Reuters from Lockheed Martin forecasts fewer than 1,000 positions would be created by the defense contractor, which could potentially deliver around $28 billion of goods in the deal. Lockheed instead predicts the deal could create nearly 10,000 new jobs in Saudi Arabia, while keeping up to 18,000 existing U.S. workers busy if the whole package comes together -- an outcome experts say is unlikely."
Filed under:
Saudi Arabia
Jobs
Military
Trump has repeated this claim 9 times
"Well, I have the oil prices low because I'm jawboning them (Saudi Arabia) and others all the time to keep them low. Nobody ever did that. No president ever did that. And gasoline is now at a very low number."
Source: Thanksgiving phone call to the troops and exchange with reporters
in fact: It is "clearly false" that Trump is the only president to have pressured Saudi Arabia and others to keep oil prices low, said Jeff Colgan, a Brown University political science professor who is an expert in the politics of energy. "Many US administrations have asked the Saudis to intervene in the oil market to lower (or raise) oil prices. Examples include then-VP Bush in the late 1980s, President Bush in 1990-91 ahead of the Gulf War, Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson in the late 1990s, and the Bush Jr. administration in advance of the 2003 Iraq invasion," Colgan said in an email.
Filed under:
Saudi Arabia
Energy
Past presidents
"No, not at all. Saudi Arabia has been a long-time strategic partner. They're investing hundreds of billions of dollars in our country. I mean, hundreds of billions. They're keeping the oil prices low. I see that yesterday, one of the papers, I was blamed for causing traffic jams because I have the oil prices so low." And: "And gasoline is now at a very low number. But I actually got even beat up for that, where they said, 'The president has the gasoline so low that he's causing traffic jams.' Can you believe this one? I said, 'That's one nobody ever thought of.' So, anyway, no -- but I'll always -- let's have some traffic jams."
Source: Thanksgiving phone call to the troops and exchange with reporters
in fact: We could find no evidence of a newspaper story blaming (or perhaps crediting) Trump for Thanksgiving traffic jams. We could find no evidence of any significant media outlet running a story blaming (or perhaps crediting) Trump for Thanksgiving traffic jams. Trump later told the Washington Post that the media outlet was the Palm Beach Post in Florida, but the Palm Beach story on gas prices and traffic volumes did not mention Trump at all. And even if it did, that would not make this a "big story today."
Filed under:
Energy
Trump has repeated this claim 2 times
"No, not at all. Saudi Arabia has been a long-time strategic partner. They're investing hundreds of billions of dollars in our country. I mean, hundreds of billions."
Source: Thanksgiving phone call to the troops and exchange with reporters
in fact: Saudi Arabia is not investing hundreds of billions in the U.S. This appears to be a reference to his usual false claim that Saudi Arabia has agreed to $450 billion worth of purchases from the U.S.
Filed under:
Saudi Arabia
Jobs
Military
Trump has repeated this claim 15 times
"But we're getting hurt by the Ninth Circuit, very, very badly. Everybody files in the Ninth Circuit. I haven't seen anybody file anyplace else. They automatically go to the Ninth Circuit. They could go anyplace in the country. And I think we're going to have to stop that somehow."
Source: Thanksgiving phone call to the troops and exchange with reporters
in fact: It is an exaggeration to claim that "everybody" suing the Trump administration files in the 9th Circuit, which Trump accuses of being excessively liberal. Though the 9th Circuit is indeed a favourite of anti-Trump litigants, numerous suits have been heard in areas covered by other circuits. For example, the 4th Circuit ruled against Trump's travel ban in February, while the D.C. Circuit ruled in favour of Trump in December, deciding that a privacy group didn't have the standing to sue Trump's voter fraud commission over its collection of information on voters.
Filed under:
Courts
Trump has repeated this claim 4 times
"Right now, under the Democrats, they don't have a merit system. They want open borders, and people can just flow in." And: "I mean, the Democrats want open borders, and they want these people coming in. Many of those people are criminals, okay?"
Source: Thanksgiving phone call to the troops and exchange with reporters
in fact: Democrats do not support "open borders."
Filed under:
Immigration
Exaggeration
Democrats
Trump has repeated this claim 37 times
"Justice Roberts can say what he wants, but the 9th Circuit is a complete & total disaster. It is out of control, has a horrible reputation, is overturned more than any Circuit in the Country, 79%, & is used to get an almost guaranteed result."
Source: Twitter
in fact: The 9th Circuit is not overturned more than any court in the country. The Associated Press reported: "In the last term, the Supreme Court overturned 100 per cent of the decisions of the 1st Circuit in Boston, the 3rd Circuit in Philadelphia and the 6th Circuit in Cincinnati. For the 9th Circuit, 86 per cent were overturned. Over the past five years, the Supreme Court overturned a greater percentage of rulings from the 3rd Circuit (92.3 per cent), the 6th Circuit (85.1 per cent) and the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit (81.8 per cent) than from the 9th (77.4 per cent), according to The Associated Press' analysis of statistics from the legal website Scotusblog. The 9th is by far the largest of the 13 federal courts of appeals, covering Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. That means that in raw numbers, more cases are heard and reversed from the 9th year in and year out. But that does not make it the most frequently overturned." It is also important to note that these overturn percentages are only for the cases the Supreme Court chose to take up. It does not take up the vast majority of cases.
Filed under:
Courts
NOV 21, 2018
"You just can't win with the Fake News Media. A big story today is that because I have pushed so hard and gotten Gasoline Prices so low, more people are driving and I have caused traffic jams throughout our Great Nation. Sorry everyone!"
Source: Twitter
in fact: We could find no evidence of any significant media outlet running a story blaming (or perhaps crediting) Trump for Thanksgiving traffic jams. Trump later told the Washington Post that the media outlet was the Palm Beach Post in Florida, but the Palm Beach story on gas prices and traffic volumes did not mention Trump at all. And even if it did, that would not make this a "big story today."
Filed under:
Energy
Trump has repeated this claim 2 times
NOV 20, 2018
"And, by the way, just so everybody knows, I have no business whatsoever with Saudi Arabia. Couldn't care less."
Source: Exchange with reporters before Marine One departure
in fact: Trump has a long history of business ties to Saudi Arabia, and Saudis have continued to be important patrons of his hotels during his presidency. The Washington Post reported: "Trump's business relationships with the Saudi government -- and rich Saudi business executives -- go back to at least the 1990s. In Trump's hard times, a Saudi prince bought a superyacht and hotel from him. The Saudi government paid him $4.5 million for an apartment near the United Nations. Business from Saudi-connected customers continued to be important after Trump won the presidency. Saudi lobbyists spent $270,000 last year to reserve rooms at Trump's hotel in Washington. Just this year, Trump's hotels in New York and Chicago reported significant upticks in bookings from Saudi visitors." Trump, during his campaign, himself acknowledged his lucrative relationships with Saudis, saying in 2015, "Saudi Arabia, I get along with all of them. They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much."
Filed under:
Saudi Arabia
Trump has repeated this claim 2 times
"I mean, as a country, we're doing great. Our unemployment is at a record low."
Source: Exchange with reporters before Marine One departure
in fact: The U.S. unemployment rate, 3.7 per cent, is the lowest in 49 years, but not at a record low. The unemployment rate hit 2.5 per cent in 1953.
Filed under:
Jobs
Economy
Exaggeration
Trump has repeated this claim 2 times
"Well, you go the 9th Circuit and it's a disgrace. And I'm going to put in a major complaint because you cannot win -- if you're us -- a case in the 9th Circuit and I think it's a disgrace. When people file -- every case gets filed in the 9th Circuit because they know -- that's not law. That's not what this country stands for. Every case that gets filed in the 9th Circuit, we get beaten. And then we end up having to go to the Supreme Court, like the travel ban, and we won. The 9th Circuit -- we're going to have to look at that. Because every case, no matter where it is, they file it -- practically, I mean practically -- for all intents and purposes -- they file it in what's called the 9th Circuit...Everybody that wants to sue the United States, they file their case in -- almost -- they file their case in the 9th Circuit."
Source: Exchange with reporters before Marine One departure
in fact: It is an exaggeration to claim that "everybody" suing the Trump administration files in the 9th Circuit, which Trump accuses of being excessively liberal. Though the 9th Circuit is indeed a favourite of anti-Trump litigants, numerous suits have been heard in areas covered by other circuits. For example, the 4th Circuit ruled against Trump's travel ban in February, while the D.C. Circuit ruled in favour of Trump in December, deciding that a privacy group didn't have the standing to sue Trump's voter fraud commission over its collection of information on voters.
Filed under:
Courts
Trump has repeated this claim 4 times
"...early on and for a little period of time, Ivanka did some emails. They weren't classified like Hillary Clinton. They weren't deleted like Hillary Clinton, who deleted 33- -- she wasn't hiring -- she wasn't doing anything to hide her emails. I looked at it just very briefly today, and the presidential records -- they're all in presidential records. There was no hiding. There was no deleting like Hillary Clinton did. There was no servers in the basement like Hillary Clinton had. You're talking about a whole different -- you're talking about all fake news. So what Ivanka did, it's all in the presidential records. Everything is there. There was no deletion. There was no nothing. What it is is a false story. Hillary Clinton deleted 33,000 emails. She had a server in the basement. That's the real story."
Source: Exchange with reporters before Marine One departure
in fact: There was nothing false or fake about the story on Ivanka Trump using a private email account to conduct government business. Trump could make a reasonable case that it would be unfair to liken Ivanka Trump's email situation to Hillary Clinton's, but that is different from saying the story is inaccurate.
Filed under:
Trump White House
Mdia
"Well, I have nothing to do with Saudi -- just so you understand, I don't make deals with Saudi Arabia. I don't have money from Saudi Arabia. I have nothing to do with Saudi Arabia. I couldn't care less."
Source: Exchange with reporters before Marine One departure
in fact: The Washington Post reported: "Trump's business relationships with the Saudi government -- and rich Saudi business executives -- go back to at least the 1990s. In Trump's hard times, a Saudi prince bought a superyacht and hotel from him. The Saudi government paid him $4.5 million for an apartment near the United Nations. Business from Saudi-connected customers continued to be important after Trump won the presidency. Saudi lobbyists spent $270,000 last year to reserve rooms at Trump's hotel in Washington. Just this year, Trump's hotels in New York and Chicago reported significant upticks in bookings from Saudi visitors." Trump, during his campaign, himself acknowledged his lucrative relationships with Saudis, saying in 2015, "Saudi Arabia, I get along with all of them. They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much."
Filed under:
Saudi Arabia
Trump has repeated this claim 2 times
"They're (Saudi Arabia) paying us $400 billion-plus to purchase and invest in our country. That's probably the biggest amount ever paid to the United States -- this is over a long period of time. It means hundreds of thousands of jobs, billions of dollars of investment and product."
Source: Exchange with reporters before Marine One departure
in fact: There is no basis for the claim that Saudi Arabia's business deals with the U.S. will produce "hundreds of thousands of jobs." (The White House did not respond to a request for an explanation from U.S. website Axios on a previous version of this claim.) Trump has increased his jobs estimates from "over 40,000" jobs in March to 450,000 jobs on Oct. 13 to 500,000 jobs on Oct. 17 to 600,000 jobs on Oct. 19, the day he also introduced a claim of "over a million jobs." Reuters has reported: "An internal document seen by Reuters from Lockheed Martin forecasts fewer than 1,000 positions would be created by the defense contractor, which could potentially deliver around $28 billion of goods in the deal. Lockheed instead predicts the deal could create nearly 10,000 new jobs in Saudi Arabia, while keeping up to 18,000 existing U.S. workers busy if the whole package comes together -- an outcome experts say is unlikely."
Filed under:
Saudi Arabia
Jobs
Military
Trump has repeated this claim 9 times
"It's 'America First' for me. It's all about 'America First.' We're not going to give up hundreds of billions of dollars in orders (from Saudi Arabia), and let Russia, China, and everybody else have them." And: "They're paying us $400 billion-plus to purchase and invest in our country. That's probably the biggest amount ever paid to the United States -- this is over a long period of time. It means hundreds of thousands of jobs, billions of dollars of investment and product. And if you think I'm going to let Russia have that money or -- or those -- or those things; if you think I'm going to let China make the military equipment -- hey, China and Russia would love to make $100 billion worth of military equipment from Saudi Arabia. We have the contracts. They wanted those contracts." And: "Wait, wait, wait, wait. They're buying hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of things from this country. If I say we don't want to take your business, if I say we're going to cut it off, they will get the equipment -- military equipment and other things -- from Russia and China. Russia and China would be very, very happy because right now we're doing very well against China. We're doing very well against everybody, including Russia. And I'm going to keep it that way. And I'm not going to tell a country that is spending hundreds of billions of dollars..."
Source: Exchange with reporters before Marine One departure
in fact: There is no basis for either the claim that the U.S. has more than $400 billion in business orders from Saudi Arabia or that it has $110 billion in military-related orders from Saudi Arabia. The White House has not explained what Trump is talking about; PolitiFact reported: "Hossein Askari, a business professor at George Washington University, analyzes international trade in the Middle East. He knows of no tally of contracts to back up Trump's assertion. 'There is absolutely no such number that could support the $450 billion,' Askari said." As for the $110 billion figure, the Associated Press wrote: "Trump's wrong to suggest that he has $110 billion in military orders from Saudi Arabia. A far smaller amount in sales has actually been signed...Details of the $110 billion arms package, partly negotiated under the Obama administration and agreed upon in May 2017, have been sketchy. At the time the Trump administration provided only a broad description of the defense equipment that would be sold. There was no public breakdown of exactly what was being offered for sale and for how much...The Pentagon said this month that Saudi Arabia has signed 'letters of offer and acceptance' for only $14.5 billion in sales, including helicopters, tanks, ships, weapons and training. Those letters, issued after the U.S. government has approved a proposed sale, specify its terms...Trump's repeated claims that he's signed $110 billion worth of new arms sales to Riyadh are 'just not true,' said Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution and former CIA and Defense Department official."
Filed under:
Saudi Arabia
Jobs
Military
Trump has repeated this claim 15 times
"After the United States, Saudi Arabia is the largest oil producing nation in the world."
Source: Written statement on Saudi Arabia and Khashoggi
in fact: Russia, not Saudi Arabia, is the world's second-largest oil producer, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Filed under:
Energy
Saudi Arabia
"After my heavily negotiated trip to Saudi Arabia last year, the Kingdom agreed to spend and invest $450 billion in the United States. This is a record amount of money. It will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, tremendous economic development, and much additional wealth for the United States."
Source: Written statement on Saudi Arabia and Khashoggi
in fact: There is no basis for the claim that Saudi Arabia's business deals with the U.S. will produce "hundreds of thousands of jobs." (The White House did not respond to a request for an explanation from U.S. website Axios on a previous version of this claim.) Trump has increased his jobs estimates from "over 40,000" jobs in March to 450,000 jobs on Oct. 13 to 500,000 jobs on Oct. 17 to 600,000 jobs on Oct. 19, the day he also introduced a claim of "over a million jobs." Reuters has reported: "An internal document seen by Reuters from Lockheed Martin forecasts fewer than 1,000 positions would be created by the defense contractor, which could potentially deliver around $28 billion of goods in the deal. Lockheed instead predicts the deal could create nearly 10,000 new jobs in Saudi Arabia, while keeping up to 18,000 existing U.S. workers busy if the whole package comes together -- an outcome experts say is unlikely."
Filed under:
Saudi Arabia
Jobs
Military
Trump has repeated this claim 9 times
"After my heavily negotiated trip to Saudi Arabia last year, the Kingdom agreed to spend and invest $450 billion in the United States. This is a record amount of money. It will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, tremendous economic development, and much additional wealth for the United States. Of the $450 billion, $110 billion will be spent on the purchase of military equipment from Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and many other great U.S. defense contractors."
Source: Written statement on Saudi Arabia and Khashoggi
in fact: There is no basis for either the claim that the U.S. has more than $400 billion in business orders from Saudi Arabia or that it has $110 billion in military-related orders from Saudi Arabia. The White House has not explained what Trump is talking about; PolitiFact reported: "Hossein Askari, a business professor at George Washington University, analyzes international trade in the Middle East. He knows of no tally of contracts to back up Trump's assertion. 'There is absolutely no such number that could support the $450 billion,' Askari said." As for the $110 billion figure, the Associated Press wrote: "Trump's wrong to suggest that he has $110 billion in military orders from Saudi Arabia. A far smaller amount in sales has actually been signed...Details of the $110 billion arms package, partly negotiated under the Obama administration and agreed upon in May 2017, have been sketchy. At the time the Trump administration provided only a broad description of the defense equipment that would be sold. There was no public breakdown of exactly what was being offered for sale and for how much...The Pentagon said this month that Saudi Arabia has signed 'letters of offer and acceptance' for only $14.5 billion in sales, including helicopters, tanks, ships, weapons and training. Those letters, issued after the U.S. government has approved a proposed sale, specify its terms...Trump's repeated claims that he's signed $110 billion worth of new arms sales to Riyadh are 'just not true,' said Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution and former CIA and Defense Department official."
Filed under:
Saudi Arabia
Jobs
Military
Trump has repeated this claim 15 times
"...propping up dictator Bashar Assad in Syria (who has killed millions of his own citizens), and much more."
Source: Written statement on Saudi Arabia and Khashoggi
in fact: The exact death toll in Syria's war is highly unclear, but experts agree that "millions" is far too high. As of September 2018, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had documented 364,792 deaths in the war, since 2011, and believed the total was at least 100,000 higher.
Filed under:
Middle East
Syria
Exaggeration
Trump has repeated this claim 2 times
NOV 19, 2018
"Of course we should have captured Osama Bin Laden long before we did. I pointed him out in my book just BEFORE the attack on the World Trade Center. President Clinton famously missed his shot."
Source: Twitter
in fact: This claim is so misleading that we're calling it false. Trump mentioned bin Laden only in passing in his 2000 book -- one brief mention in 304 pages, the New York Times reported. It was this: "One day we're all assured that Iraq is under control, the U.N. inspectors have done their work, everything's fine, not to worry. The next day the bombing begins. One day we're told that a shadowy figure with no fixed address named Osama bin Laden is public enemy number one, and U.S. jet fighters lay waste to his camp in Afghanistan. He escapes back under some rock, and a few news cycles later it's on to a new enemy and new crisis." Trump did not suggest bin Laden was an imminent threat for a major attack or "point him out" in any prescient way.
Filed under:
Terrorism
NOV 18, 2018
Catch and Release is an obsolete term. It is now Catch and Detain. Illegal Immigrants trying to come into the U.S.A., often proudly flying the flag of their nation as they ask for U.S. Asylum, will be detained or turned away. Dems must approve Border Security & Wall NOW!
Source: Twitter
in fact: The U.S. government has not stopped the practice of releasing asylum seekers into the U.S. to await the resolution of their applications. "It is true that everyone caught crossing the border is detained for at least a short period. And many are detained for a long time. But it is not true that none are eventually released into the interior of the United States. It is probably true that a somewhat smaller share are being released into the community than before President Trump took office," said Julia Gelatt, senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. Gelatt said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) "does not have the capacity to detain everyone coming across the border seeking asylum as well as everyone that ICE is arresting in the interior of the United States, so some are being released. But ICE detention space is growing, so more are being held now than in the past." Whether someone is eventually released into the U.S. depends on their characteristics, she said. For example: "For asylum seekers who are adults not travelling with children, they are most-often transferred to ICE custody. Depending on whether ICE has detention space, whether the migrant is subject to mandatory detention, and whether the migrant has a criminal background or is considered a flight risk, they may be detained by ICE, or released with or without an ankle bracelet pending their immigration court date." Conversely, "adults not travelling with children, who are not seeking asylum, as well as unaccompanied minors from Mexico are often removed quickly, through voluntary departure, expedited removal, or reinstatement of a prior removal order. This has not changed." Gelatt added: "If a judge had not just blocked the Trump administration's changes to asylum policy, the process for asylum seekers likely would have resulted in more would-be asylum seekers being removed quickly from the United States, and fewer released into the United States awaiting their court dates. But now that the change is under a temporary restraining order, that is less relevant here."
Filed under:
Immigration
Trump has repeated this claim 2 times
"So funny to see little Adam Schitt (D-CA) talking about the fact that Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker was not approved by the Senate, but not mentioning the fact that Bob Mueller (who is highly conflicted) was not approved by the Senate!"
Source: Twitter
in fact: Trump's claim about Mueller is so nonsensical and misleading that we're calling it false. Mueller was not approved by the Senate in his role as special counsel because special counsels do not require Senate approval. Mueller was approved by the Senate 98-0 in 2001 to serve as FBI director, then approved 100-0 in 2011 for a two-year extension in that role.
Filed under:
Robert Mueller
Trump has repeated this claim 4 times
Question: "Bill McRaven, retired Admiral, Navy Seal, 37 years, former head of U.S. Special Operations --" Trump: "Hillary Clinton fan." Question: "Special Operations --" Trump: "Excuse me, Hillary Clinton fan." Question: "Who led the operations, commanded the operations that took down Saddam Hussein and that killed Osama bin Laden says that your sentiment is the greatest threat to democracy in his lifetime." Trump: "He's a Hilary Clinton, uh, backer and an Obama-backer..."
Source: Interview with Fox News's Chris Wallace
in fact: There is no evidence McRaven was a "Hillary Clinton backer," though there were rumours during her campaign that she might consider McRaven as a running mate. McRaven told CNN's Jake Tapper: "I did not back Hillary Clinton or anyone else. I am a fan of President Obama and President George W. Bush, both of whom I worked for. I admire all presidents, regardless of their political party, who uphold the dignity of the office and who use that office to bring the Nation together in challenging times. I stand by my comment that the President's attack on the media is the greatest threat to our democracy in my lifetime..."
Filed under:
Military
Hillary Clinton
Question: "A federal judge who you appointed has just ruled that you must give CNN reporter Jim Acosta his press pass back. Your reaction to the ruling, sir." Trump: "It's fine, I mean it's not a big deal. What they said, though, is that we have to create rules and regulations for conduct et cetera, et cetera, we're doing that. We're going to write them up right now, it's not a big deal."
Source: Interview with Fox News's Chris Wallace
in fact: The judge in this case, Timothy Kelly, did not say the White House has to "create rules and regulations for conduct" of reporters. Kelly said that the White House had not afforded Acosta the due process to which he was entitled. He said nothing to suggest the White House needed to create conduct rules.
Filed under:
Media
Courts
Trump has repeated this claim 2 times
"Look at Florida. I went down to Florida. Rick Scott won and he won by a lot. I don't know what happened to all those votes that disappeared at the very end. And if I didn't put a spotlight on that election before it got down to the 12,500 votes he would've lost that election, OK? In my opinion he would have lost."
Source: Interview with Fox News's Chris Wallace
in fact: Florida Republican Rick Scott won his Senate race by just over 10,000 votes out of more than 8 million total votes, 50.0 per cent to 49.9 per cent; most people would not describe this as winning by "a lot." Regardless, there is simply no basis for the claim that Scott would have lost had Trump not made unfounded allegations of election fraud.
Filed under:
Midterm election
Voter fraud
"Are you ready? I won the Senate, and that's historic too, because if you look at presidents in the White House it's almost never happened where you won a seat. We won -- we now have 53 as opposed to 51 and we have 53 great Senators in the U.S. Senate. We won. That's a tremendous victory. Nobody talks about that."
Source: Interview with Fox News's Chris Wallace
in fact: It is not true that it has "almost never happened" where the sitting president's party has gained Senate seats in a midterm election. Republicans gained two seats in George W. Bush's first midterm, one seat in Ronald Reagan's, and one seat in Richard Nixon's. Democrats gained four seats in John F. Kennedy's and nine seats in Franklin D. Roosevelt's.
Filed under:
Midterm election
"I read a front-page story in the Washington Post, they never even called me, nobody ever calls me. You know, they hear -- I don't even think they have sources, I think they just make it up, like it's fiction." And: "The news about me is largely phony. It's false. Even sometimes they'll say, uh, 'Sources say.' There is no source, in many cases."
Source: Interview with Fox News's Chris Wallace
in fact: There is no hint of any evidence that Washington Post journalists or journalists for any other paper have invented phony sources in their stories on what is going on in his administration.
Filed under:
Media
Trump has repeated this claim 17 times
NOV 17, 2018
"We're all committed I'm committed, to make sure that we get all of this cleaned out and protected, take care of the floors. You know, the floors of the forests, very important. You look at other countries, where they do it differently, and it's a whole different story. I was with the president of Finland and he said, we have a much different -- we're a forest nation. He called it a forest nation, and they spent a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things, and they don't have any problem, and when it is, it's a very small problem."
Source: Remarks on wildfires in Paradise, California
in fact: Finland does not rake its forests to help prevent forest fires. Finland's president said he did not mention raking in his conversation with Trump. The Associated Press reported: "Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said in an interview published Sunday in the Ilta-Sanomat newspaper that he spoke briefly with Trump about forest management on Nov. 11, when they both were in Paris for Armistice Day events. Niinisto said their conversation focused on the California wildfires and the surveillance system Finland uses to monitor forests for fires. He remembered telling Trump 'We take care of our forests,' but couldn't recall raking coming up."
Filed under:
Environment
"And I don't question his loyalty at all. He's already been tested, in many ways. Mike Pence is a terrific person. That was a phony story written by the New York Times who, by the way, never called me for a comment. How do you do a story like that? See, it's fake news. And that's what breaks up the country. Fake news. How do you do a story like that and you don't call the principal? I would give them a quote. I would say it's not true and that's the end of their story. But they don't do that. They write and then they make up sources. They may speak to one person, but they make up phony sources. They make -- like you write a novel. Have you ever written a novel? That's the way a lot of the news stories -- you look, that's why I call it 'fake news.' It's fake. And it's a very bad thing for our country. It's very dangerous. Mike Pence is 100 percent. They should retract that story. But you can't do that story without calling me for a quote. Or you could call Sarah Huckabee, and say, 'Can I get a quote?' And here she is. 'Can I get a quote from the president' -- I would be happy to give a quote. I would be happy. And you know what the quote would be? 'Mike Pence is 100 percent.' Now you can't do your story. So that's why they don't like calling me for a quote."
Source: Exchange with reporters before Marine One departure
in fact: There is no hint of any evidence that Times journalists or journalists for any other paper have invented phony sources in their stories on what is going on in his administration; this particular story, on Trump's private questions about the loyalty of Mike Pence, was written by Maggie Haberman, known to be one of the best-sourced journalists covering the Trump administration. As for Trump's claim that he was not called for comment, Haberman said: "We don't dial presidents directly for comment, we go through the press office at the White House, which I did. I can't speak to whether Sarah Sanders or Hogan Gidley told him about the story ahead of time, but they provided a comment that is in the story."
Filed under:
Media
Trump has repeated this claim 17 times
"And whatever we can do for Turkey and, frankly, countries that we get along with very well -- we're having a good moment with Turkey. As you know, he gave Pastor Brunson back last week, and we appreciate that. We are doing very well with Turkey."
Source: Exchange with reporters before Marine One departure
in fact: Brunson was released by Turkey in October, more than a month prior to Trump's remarks, not "last week."
Filed under:
Middle East
"We're not letting people into our country illegally. And we're not doing a release. We'll do a catch, but we're not doing releases. So if they think they're going to be released into our country like in the old days -- like for years and years, they catch and release -- we're not releasing. They don't get released."
Source: Exchange with reporters before Marine One departure
in fact: The U.S. government has not stopped the practice of releasing asylum seekers into the U.S. to await the resolution of their applications. "It is true that everyone caught crossing the border is detained for at least a short period. And many are detained for a long time. But it is not true that none are eventually released into the interior of the United States. It is probably true that a somewhat smaller share are being released into the community than before President Trump took office," said Julia Gelatt, senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. Gelatt said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) "does not have the capacity to detain everyone coming across the border seeking asylum as well as everyone that ICE is arresting in the interior of the United States, so some are being released. But ICE detention space is growing, so more are being held now than in the past." Whether someone is eventually released into the U.S. depends on their characteristics, she said. For example: "For asylum seekers who are adults not travelling with children, they are most-often transferred to ICE custody. Depending on whether ICE has detention space, whether the migrant is subject to mandatory detention, and whether the migrant has a criminal background or is considered a flight risk, they may be detained by ICE, or released with or without an ankle bracelet pending their immigration court date." Conversely, "adults not travelling with children, who are not seeking asylum, as well as unaccompanied minors from Mexico are often removed quickly, through voluntary departure, expedited removal, or reinstatement of a prior removal order. This has not changed." Gelatt added: "If a judge had not just blocked the Trump administration's changes to asylum policy, the process for asylum seekers likely would have resulted in more would-be asylum seekers being removed quickly from the United States, and fewer released into the United States awaiting their court dates. But now that the change is under a temporary restraining order, that is less relevant here."
Filed under:
Immigration
Trump has repeated this claim 2 times
"The New York Times did a phony story, as usual, about my relationship with @VP Mike Pence. They made up sources and refused to ask me, the only one that would know, for a quote...."
Source: Twitter
in fact: There is no hint of any evidence that Times journalists invented phony sources. This story was written by Maggie Haberman, known to be one of the best-sourced journalists covering the Trump administration. As for Trump's claim that he was not asked for comment, Haberman said: "We don't dial presidents directly for comment, we go through the press office at the White House, which I did. I can't speak to whether Sarah Sanders or Hogan Gidley told him about the story ahead of time, but they provided a comment that is in the story."
Filed under:
Media
Trump has repeated this claim 17 times
NOV 16, 2018
"People are not being told that the Republican Party is on track to pick up two seats in the U.S. Senate, and epic victory: 53 to 47. The Fake News Media only wants to speak of the House, where the Midterm results were better than other sitting Presidents."
Source: Twitter
in fact: While the media's emphasis was cetainly on the Democrats' takeover of the House rather than Republicans retaining the Senate, media outlets were not concealing the fact that Republicans were gaining seats in the Senate.
Filed under:
Media
Midterm election
"They drafted him (Babe Ruth). They took him as a pitcher, but they knew they wanted to make him a hitter."
Source: Awarding of Presidential Medal of Freedom
in fact: Ruth was signed, not drafted: "The baseball draft did not begin until 1965," said Leigh Montville, author of the biography The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth. Montville added: "The Red Sox bought Ruth's contract from the minor-league Baltimore Orioles, who needed money. The Red Sox thought of him as a pitcher. Period. His success at hitting opened up a second, unforeseen door...Trump is wrong about everything here."
Filed under:
Sports and entertainment
"And I have heard for many years -- what's the worst trade in the history of sports? Babe Ruth, 19-year-old pitcher, for $100,000 and a 35-year-old third baseman. That was not a good trade -- who was out of baseball the following season. That was not good. Of course, $100,000 is probably like $25 million today, but it was still a lousy deal."
Source: Awarding of Presidential Medal of Freedom
in fact: We're willing to cut Trump a lot of slack when making an impromptu estimate about inflation, but not this much. One hundred thousand dollars in December 1919, when Ruth's contract was sold to the Yankees, would be worth $1.3 million today, according to the U.S. government's inflation calculator.
Filed under:
Sports and entertainment
"Babe Ruth was one of the best pitchers. He still has records today. In 1920, he started with the New York Yankees. And I have heard for many years -- what's the worst trade in the history of sports? Babe Ruth, 19-year-old pitcher, for $100,000 and a 35-year-old third baseman. That was not a good trade -- who was out of baseball the following season. That was not good. Of course, $100,000 is probably like $25 million today, but it was still a lousy deal."
Source: Awarding of Presidential Medal of Freedom
in fact: Trump was comprehensively inaccurate about the 1919 transaction in which Babe Ruth was purchased by the New York Yankees. There was no "35-year-old third baseman" sent to the Boston Red Sox in return for Ruth; this was a straight sale -- "strictly cash...it was not a trade," said Michael Gibbons, who spent 35 yeaars as executived director of the Babe Ruth Birthplace & Museum in Baltimore. Leigh Montville, author of the biography The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth, noted that Ruth was 24 years old at the time, not 19. Gibbons said the sale was for $125,000, not $100,000, though there is some dispute about the exact amount.
Filed under:
Sports and entertainment
"The fact is, I was a much better candidate than Hillary Clinton. I went to the right states; she went to the wrong states. She was not a good campaigner. Obviously, I campaigned very well. And I easily won the election and the Electoral College -- 306 -- I guess it was 306 to 223. That's a big difference."
Source: Signing of cybersecurity bill
in fact: Hillary Clinton earned 232 electoral votes on Election Day, not 223. This was not a one-time slip; it was the 16th time Trump said "223."
Filed under:
Election
Hillary Clinton
Trump has repeated this claim 16 times
"We have tariffs coming in on $250 billion worth of goods. And these are -- we're talking about billions and billions of dollars a month will flow into our country, and has already started flowing into our country. That comes from China."
Source: Signing of cybersecurity bill
in fact: The revenue from tariffs on Chinese goods imported to the U.S. does not come from China. It is paid by the Americans who purchase the Chinese goods.
Filed under:
Tariffs
Trade
Trump has repeated this claim 8 times
"We have helped create China, as we know it today, by allowing money to be sucked out of our country by the billions. Five-hundred billion dollars a year, in many cases, over a long period of time. And we can't allow that to happen."
Source: Signing of cybersecurity bill
in fact: The U.S. has never once had a $500 billion trade deficit with China, according to U.S. government data. The deficit was $337 billion in 2017, $375 billion if you only count trade in goods and exclude trade in services.
Filed under:
China
Trade
Exaggeration
Trump has repeated this claim 96 times
"Decorum. You can't take three questions and four questions, and just stand up and not sit down. Decorum. You have to practice decorum. You were there; you understood, and you understand. We want total freedom of the press; that's very important to me. It's more important to me than anybody would believe. But you have to act with respect. You're in the White House. And when I see the way some of my people get treated at press conferences, it's terrible. So we're setting up a certain standard, which is what the court is requesting."
Source: Signing of cybersecurity bill
in fact: Timothy Kelly, the judge hearing the case over the White House's suspension of CNN reporter Jim Acosta's press pass, did not make any kind of request for the White House to create a "certain standard" for reporter decorum. Kelly said that the White House had not afforded Acosta the due process to which he was entitled. He said nothing to suggest the White House needed to create conduct rules.
Filed under:
Media
Courts
Trump has repeated this claim 2 times
NOV 15, 2018
"But we're not finished. We never will be finished. To support our heroes in uniform, we have secured a record $716 billion in military funding this year. And last year, we increased it by hundreds of billions of dollars to $700 billion."
Source: Speech about veterans
in fact: Neither of these budgets is an unprecedented level, even if you ignore inflation. Obama signed a $725 billion version of the same bill in 2011.
Filed under:
Military
Trump has repeated this claim 25 times
"In June, I proudly signed into law the most significant VA reform in half a century, called Veterans Choice. Everyone knows what that means. Now, if a veteran cannot get the treatment they need from the VA in a timely manner, they can see a private doctor. They don't have to wait 12 days or 20 days."...Since I took office, 2.2 million veterans have been able to receive the care they need outside of the VA system. So there's no more waiting on lines. Literally, people were waiting. You know better than I do. But they'd be waiting three, four, five, six weeks, in some cases, to see a doctor."
Source: Speech about veterans
in fact: The Associated Press reported: "The current Choice program allows veterans to see doctors outside the VA system if they must wait more than 30 days for an appointment - not '12 days or 20 days.' But many are waiting much longer than the program prescribes...A report released this year by the Government Accountability Office found that despite the Choice program's guarantee of providing an appointment within 30 days, veterans waited an average of 51 days to 64 days." The AP noted: "How much Choice will be expanded under his law will depend on yet-to-be-completed regulations that will determine eligibility for veterans as well as available money for the program. The VA has yet to resolve long-term financing due to congressional budget caps that could put money for VA or other domestic programs at risk of shortfalls next year."
Filed under:
Military
Health care
Trump has repeated this claim 50 times
"In June, I proudly signed into law the most significant VA reform in half a century, called Veterans Choice. Everyone knows what that means. Now, if a veteran cannot get the treatment they need from the VA in a timely manner, they can see a private doctor. They don't have to wait 12 days or 20 days."
Source: Speech about veterans
in fact: The Veterans Choice health program was passed and created in 2014 under Obama. The law Trump signed in 2018, the VA MISSION Act, modified the Choice program.
Filed under:
Military
Health care
Trump has repeated this claim 50 times
"If you look at the various statistics, African-American employment (unemployment) is the lowest level in history. Hispanic employment (unemployment) is the lowest level in history. Asian employment (unemployment) is the lowest level in history."
Source: Speech about veterans
in fact: Trump was correct about the first two, incorrect about the third. The Asian-American unemployment rate briefly dropped to a low, 2.0 per cent, in May -- a low, at least, since the government began issuing Asian-American data in 2000 -- but the most recent rate at the time Trump spoke, for October, was 3.2 per cent. This was higher than the rate in Obama's last full month in office -- 2.8 per cent in December 2016 -- and in multiple months of George W. Bush's second term.
Filed under:
Economy
Jobs
Race relations
Trump has repeated this claim 67 times
"And veteran unemployment has reached its lowest level in nearly 21 years... But this is the lowest in 21 years."
Source: Speech about veterans
in fact: The veterans' unemployment rate was 2.9 per cent in October. That was higher than the 2.3 per cent in May 2000, 18 years prior.
Filed under:
Military
Jobs
Trump has repeated this claim 5 times
"These are Angry People, including the highly conflicted Bob Mueller, who worked for Obama for 8 years."
Source: Twitter
in fact: Mueller served under Obama for less than five years. Mueller, a Republican, was appointed to a 10-year term as FBI director by George W. Bush. That term ran from 2001 to 2011. Obama, a Democrat who took office in 2009, then asked Mueller to stay in the job for an additional two years. Mueller was replaced by James Comey in 2013.
Filed under:
Robert Mueller
Barack Obama
Russian ties
Trump has repeated this claim 4 times
"Universities will someday study what highly conflicted (and NOT Senate approved) Bob Mueller and his gang of Democrat thugs have done to destroy people."
Source: Twitter
in fact: Trump's claim about Mueller is so nonsensical and misleading that we're calling it false. Mueller was not approved by the Senate in his role as special counsel because special counsels do not require Senate approval. Mueller was approved by the Senate 98-0 in 2001 to serve as FBI director, then approved 100-0 in 2011 for a two-year extension in that role.
Filed under:
Robert Mueller
Trump has repeated this claim 4 times
"The only 'Collusion' is that of the Democrats with Russia and many others.'"
Source: Twitter
in fact: The claim that Democrats colluded with Russia is simple nonsense; the word "collusion" -- in common language, a "secret agreement or co-operation especially for an illegal or deceitful purpose" -- just does not apply to Democrats' Russia-related activities. The accusation is based on the fact that the British ex-spy who produced a research dossier on the Trump campaign's alleged links to Russia, which was funded in part by Clinton's campaign, used Russian sources in compiling his information. That does not come close to meeting the definition of "collusion."
Filed under:
Election
Democrats
Russian ties
Trump has repeated this claim 33 times
NOV 14, 2018
"Take DeSantis. Ron DeSantis was at three, had no money. He was running against in the Republican primary, who was at 31 and he had $21 million cash in the bank. The Department of Agriculture, right? Nice guy, too. But I didn't know him, so I don't feel guilty. I endorsed DeSantis. I endorsed DeSantis and he won by 20 points."
Source: Interview with the Daily Caller
in fact: We cannot find any poll in which DeSantis was at 3 per cent in the Republican primary for governor of Florida. As of May 2018, three months before the vote, DeSantis was no lower than 16 per cent. In a poll reported by the conservative website The Resurgent in April 2017, eight months before DeSantis officially entered the race, DeSantis was at 9 per cent.
Filed under:
Republicans
Polls
Endorsements
Trump has repeated this claim 4 times
"Well, I'll give you another. You take Georgia. He was 10 points down when I endorsed him, he ended up winning by 40 points in the primary. He's now in, but he was 10 points down."
Source: Interview with the Daily Caller
in fact: Trump's endorsement of Brian Kemp in the Republican primary for Georgia governor indeed caused Kemp's numbers to skyrocket, but Kemp was not "10 points down" at the time of the endorsement. The most recent public poll before the endorsement had Kemp up three points. Trump himself has previously said Kemp was merely down five points before the endorsement, not ten: "The other day we endorsed a great gentleman from Georgia. He was probably five points down. He won the election by 40," he said at a rally on July 31.
Filed under:
Republicans
Polls
Endorsements
Trump has repeated this claim 4 times
"Tester, nobody wanted even to contest it. Well, look at what happened in North Dakota with Heidi. Heidi, they said don't contest. One year ago, when we were looking, they all said don't contest Heidi, she can't be beat. She lost by a lot."
Source: Interview with the Daily Caller
in fact: It is not true that nobody wanted to "contest" the Senate seat of Montana Democrat Jon Tester or North Dakota Democrat Heidi Heitkamp. Both of them were widely seen to be highly vulnerable, since Trump won their states by large margins in 2016.
Filed under:
Midterm election
Republicans
Trump has repeated this claim 6 times
"Oprah went (to campaign in Georgia), Obama went, and Michelle Obama went. They went, and they spent a lot of time...But they had Obama, Mrs. Obama and Oprah. Oprah spent three days there..."
Source: Interview with the Daily Caller
in fact: Oprah spent one day in Georgia campaigning for Democrat Stacey Abrams, not three days.
Filed under:
Midterm election
Sports and entertainment
"Oprah went (to campaign for Georgia Democratic governor candidate Stacey Abrams), Obama went, and Michelle Obama went. They went, and they spent a lot of time...But they had Obama, Mrs. Obama and Oprah."
Source: Interview with the Daily Caller
in fact: Michelle Obama did not visit Georgia to campaign for Stacey Abrams. She did not campaign for Abrams at all, a spokesperson for Barack Obama said.
Filed under:
Midterm election
Barack Obama
"...and he (Georgia governor candidate Brian Kemp) won. And everybody said he wasn't going to win."
Source: Interview with the Daily Caller
in fact: It is not true that "everybody" said Republican Brian Kemp was not going to win. Kemp was leading in the last three polls of the race, and Georgia has had a Republican governor for the last 15 years.
Filed under:
Midterm election
"...and I went (to Georgia) and did a rally, and the real number was probably 55,000 people, cause, you know, were you there in Georgia?...Because we had a hangar, another hangar holding 18,000 at the top of the hangar. These are massive, like 747 hangars."
Source: Interview with the Daily Caller
in fact: There were nowhere close to 55,000 people at Trump's November rally in Macon, Georgia for Republican governor candidate Brian Kemp. As the Washington Post reported: "Kemp's campaign estimated that 10,000 people attended in total, and the Bibb County Sheriff's Office estimated 12,500 inside and nearly 6,000 outside, according to a fact-check by WMAZ. The overflow crowd sandwiched between the airport and the corporate office numbered in the "hundreds," according to Atlanta magazine. The most generous tally, 18,500, is a far cry from the 55,000 Trump claimed."
Filed under:
Crowds
Exaggeration
Trump has repeated this claim 2 times
"I specifically went, there was no senator running in Kentucky, it was Andy Barr, and he won nicely. And he was down 10 and he won his race."
Source: Interview with the Daily Caller
in fact: There is no indication Kentucky Republican congressman Andy Barr was ever "down 10" in his race against Democrat Amy McGrath. A New York Times poll in September put Barr up one point. Another New York Times poll in November showed a tie.
Filed under:
Midterm election
Polls
"I couldn't help too many congressmen because I don't have that much time. The only congressman I went for was Andy Barr and that was in Kentucky, Mitch was there but he wasn't running, and Rand Paul was there. Good guy, Rand Paul, by the way. And he was there, and the only congressman -- I specifically went, there was no senator running in Kentucky, it was Andy Barr, and he won nicely. And he was down 10 and he won his race."
Source: Interview with the Daily Caller
in fact: Andy Barr was not the "only congressman" Trump "went for." He campaigned for multiple members of Congress, most of whom won their races. In late October, for example, he held an Illinois rally for Rep. Mike Bost.
Filed under:
Midterm election
"In the history of politics nobody's ever gotten crowds like that or close because you were in those stadiums and those arenas, but outside you had many more times -- you know, in Houston we had 109,000 people sign up for 22,000 seats. We actually took ads saying, 'Please don't come.'"
Source: Interview with the Daily Caller
in fact: We have found no evidence of such ads. Ben Schreckinger of Politico said on Twitter, "I attended this rally and did not see or hear of any such ads." We will amend this item if we get additional information.
Filed under:
Crowds
"I think I did very well. Because if you look at -- Obama was 60-something odd House seats and lost seven Senate seats. So we picked up three or four Senate seats depending on how it all goes -- it's a big pickup. In fact, they say in 80 years I think the presidential party's only picked up two Senate seats, I picked up three...But we picked up -- I mean, it looked like we picked up five. But probably three. It's a lot."
Source: Interview with the Daily Caller
in fact: Trump's Republicans gained two Senate seats in the midterm elections, not "three or four." Obama's Democrats lost six Senate seats in his first midterm in 2020, not seven.
Filed under:
Midterm election
Trump has repeated this claim 2 times
Question: "Tucker Carlson had his house attacked, he had a mob outside of his house while his wife was home. They cracked the door -- what is this violence? Where does it come from? Do you have a message for Tucker and his family?" Trump: "I do, I spoke to Tucker and I think Tucker's a great guy and I think it's terrible, they were actually trying to break down the door."
Source: Interview with the Daily Caller
in fact: There is no evidence that anyone tried to break down the door of Fox host Tucker Carlson, though this is what Carlson claimed and what Trump's interviewer here, Fox's Chris Wallace, again suggested. The police report about the incident does not mention anything about an attempt to break down the door, or anything about the crack in the door Carlson had claimed. A journalist for the Washington Post went to the house and found no damage to the door. Alan Pyke, a journalist for the liberal website ThinkProgress, was on the scene, and he reported: "One of the protesters knocked firmly on Carlson's front door three times then trotted back down the steps to join the rest of the group in the street. This person did not throw their body against the door, as Carlson has claimed to newspapers."
Filed under:
Media
"But voter ID is a very important thing. If you look at what happened in New Hampshire, where thousands of people came up and voted from a very liberal part of Massachusetts and they came up in buses and they voted. I said, 'What's going on over here,' my people said, "You won New Hampshire easily except they have tremendous numbers of buses coming up. They're pouring up by the hundreds, buses of people getting out, voting. Then they're supposed to go back within 90 days. And of the people that are supposed to go back, almost none of them do. In other words, they go back after the vote is over...And so what do you do? Recall the election. Recall the election. I mean, there, you should be able to recall the election."
Source: Interview with the Daily Caller
in fact: Such fraud did not happen. New Hampshire's WMUR News 9 reported in May 2018: An exhaustive review by state election officials, including a first-time comparison of voter information shared with 27 other states, has turned up virtually no evidence of possible voter fraud in New Hampshire, those officials said Tuesday." Political organizations do rent buses to transport college students to their polling places, Associate Attorney General Anne Edwards explained, but there is nothing fraudulent about this, contrary to Trump's repeated claims. "Each time we have sent an investigator out to the polling place, they have been able to determine that the bus company is from Maine or Vermont or Massachusetts, but not the voters on the bus," Edwards said, according to WMUR.
Filed under:
Voter fraud
Election
Trump has repeated this claim 2 times
"The disgrace is that, voter ID. If you buy, you know, a box of cereal, if you do anything, you have a voter ID. Well, over here, the only thing you don't is if you're a voter of the United States. A voter in the United States of America. I think it's a disgrace what's going on. Really a disgrace."
Source: Interview with the Daily Caller
in fact: Americans do not need "voter ID," or photo identification of any kind, to buy a box of cereal.
Filed under:
Voter fraud
Trump has repeated this claim 2 times
"And I've seen it, I've had friends talk about it when people get in line that have absolutely no right to vote and they go around in circles. Sometimes they go to their car, put on a different hat, put on a different shirt, come in and vote again. Nobody takes anything. It's really a disgrace what's going on."
Source: Interview with the Daily Caller
in fact: There are no known cases in recent U.S. elections of people committing voter fraud by changing their clothing and voting a second time in disguise.
Filed under:
Voter fraud
"Now they're, I guess they were trying to take illegal voters but these are -- I've been saying, this is a problem all over the country, by the way. This is what I've been saying. This is a problem in California that's so bad of illegals voting. This is a California problem and if you notice, almost every race -- I was watching today -- out of like 11 races that are in question they're gonna win all of them. The Republicans don't win and that's because of potentially illegal votes, which is what I've been saying for a long time. I have no doubt about it."
Source: Interview with the Daily Caller
in fact: There is no evidence of illegal immigrants voting in significant numbers in California. At the time Trump spoke, there were no known cases of this occurring in the 2016 presidential election or the 2018 midterm.
Filed under:
Voter fraud
Immigration
Midterm election
Trump has repeated this claim 11 times
"Just like the witch hunt, the Mueller witch hunt. It's pure harassment. It's horrible. It's horrible that they're allowed to get away with it...You have 17 people -- half, many of them worked for Hillary Clinton, some on the Foundation. The Hillary Clinton Foundation."
Source: Interview with the Daily Caller
in fact: One lawyer on Mueller's team, Jeannie Rhee, is known to have represented the Clinton Foundation in its defense against a 2015 lawsuit. It is not true that "half" or "many" of Mueller's lawyers worked for Clinton or the foundation.
Filed under:
Robert Mueller
Hillary Clinton
Russian ties
"I think it's horrible what's happening and, you know, building the wall, it's in smaller stages, we can build it very quickly. I'm building the wall in smaller stages and we moved the military there, we put up barbed wire, we did all sorts of things."
Source: Interview with the Daily Caller
in fact: Trump's border wall is not under construction. Troops did erect some wire when Trump sent them to the border in supposed response to a caravan of asylum seekers, but this is not the same as the giant wall Trump has long talked about.
Filed under:
Immigration
In discussing with a friend about George H. W. Bush and his legacy, we recalled this remark he made about President Trump:
"I don't like him. I don't know much about him, but I know he's a blowhard. And I'm not too excited about him being a leader," said George Bush Sr, who was president between 1989 and 1993.
George Bush Sr calls Trump a 'blowhard'
And I agree with George H. W. Bush! And I agree with all that say President Trump is obnoxious. A braggart. A loud-mouth. All the adjectives the "sophisticated" politically adroit and politicians have said about Trump.
But they are missing the point.
Trump is not a politician. He is a boss. He wants things done and in many ways HIS way!
And all these sophisticates including GWB Sr and Jr. didn't get it.
Most of us don't like Trump personally BUT totally admire what he has accomplished in his two short years!
Tump’s list: 289 accomplishments in just 20 months, ‘relentless’ promise-keeping
Trump’s list: 289 accomplishments in just 20 months, ‘relentless’ promise-keeping
Again... most of us that have respect for the Presidency and the President have a deeper respect for people that
1) Love America...2) Love their families ..3) Respect law enforcement and 4) get things done!
And so Bush Sr,Jr.,Clintons, and hosts of other unsophisticated people that look at the packaging i.e. Trump and not the contents because that's what the MSM is doing...i.e. advertising the negatives about Trump which for a FACT:
Media Trump Hatred Shows In 92% Negative Coverage Of His Presidency: Study
Anti-Trump Media? 92% Of Coverage Of His Presidency Is Negative: Study | Investor's Business Daily
The FACT is the MSM et.al. Anti-Trumpers are just not sophisticated to look beyond the packaging and
are NOT seeing the results.
And that's OK! Trump is getting around them and most of us sophisticated people that agree...
President Trump is obnoxious. A braggart. A loud-mouth. All the adjectives the "sophisticated" politically adroit and politicians have said about Trump...BUT HE IS GETTING THINGS DONE!!!
US will hold off on raising China tariffs to 25% as Trump and Xi agree to a 90-day trade truce
US, China call a 90-day truce in trade war as Trump, Xi agree to continue wide ranging talks
- Xi Jinping and Donald Trump discussed a range of issues — among them the trade dispute that has left over $200 billion worth of goods hanging in the balance.
- "President Trump has agreed that on January 1, 2019, he will leave the tariffs on $200 billion worth of product at the 10 percent rate, and not raise it to 25 percent at this time," the White House said.
This is a start!
