The following email newsletter was sent by PolitiFact April 28, 2017:
President Donald Trump both played down and played up the importance of his 100th day in office, dismissing it as an arbitrary media creation while also taking a victory lap for what he described as his accomplishments.
We’re more than halfway through our 100 nonstop hour coverage, dedicated to sorting out the facts from fiction in the administration’s talking points — as well as the chatter on social media and cable news around the milestone.
All of the work below was done by our small team. We want to grow our staff and check more facts, but we can’t do it without your support. You’d be surprised at how far $10/month can go. Will you donate today?
Here is the running list of what we’ve covered so far:
WHOPPER WATCH Relive the seven biggest whoppers from Trump as president so far, from those unreported media attacks (Pants on Fire) to not knowing top adviser Steve Bannon before the campaign (same rating applies). Read more.
FLIP IT, REVERSE IT Golf, travel, China’s currency manipulation, NATO’s obsoletion, bombing Syria, Janet Yellen, the Export-Import Bank, Medicaid cuts, transparency, and Washington insiderdom. What do these things all have in common? Read more.
TWEET, TWEET Facing the prospect of a possible government shutdown, Trump blasted a series of tweets blaming Democrats for blocking miners’ health care and wanting to bail out Puerto Rico, among other claims. We explain what he was talking about (and the politics he left out). Read more.
NO THANKS, OBAMA Trump blamed what he sees as sluggish 2016 GDP growth on the trade deficit he inherited from his predecessor. But there’s little evidence to suggest that the trade deficit had much to do with it. Read more.
NUMBERS GAME Press secretary Sean Spicer countered the idea that Trump hasn’t accomplished very much by saying he had signed the most laws since Harry Truman. That’s right on the numbers — but none of the 28 laws are particularly significant. Read more.
CAN’T BECOMES WON’T Trump the candidate promised to release his tax returns, as is presidential custom, after an audit. Trump the president “has no intention” of doing so, said Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, moving this promise to Stalled on the Truth-O-Meter. Read more.
NO GOLD STAR There’s more on that. Mnuchin said Trump doesn’t need to release his tax returns because “he has given more financial disclosure than anyone else.” Wrong. Trump’s required financial disclosure doesn’t lay out Trump’s tax rate, the types of taxes he paid, and his charitable giving, as well as a better idea of his income-producing assets. But guess what would? Read more.
LET’S GET IT $TARTED The Trump administration announced a plan that would lower the rate from 35 percent to 15 percent. The outline lacks several details, and did not include Trump’s proposed $1 trillion infrastructure package or a border adjustment tax. It also doesn’t address loopholes or raising other taxes to make up for shortfalls. Read more.
NO MAGIC TRICK If Trump is counting on the cuts to pay for themselves, he probably shouldn’t. There’s no real evidence that that works. Read more.
ON SECOND THOUGHT After threatening this week to withdraw immediately from NAFTA, Trump talked with the presidents on Canada and Mexico and came to a different conclusion: He’s willing to negotiate after all. This promise is In the Works. Read more.
FAKEBOOK “Donald Trump to issue an executive order to ban Facebook across U.S,” read the headline. Gasp! But wait a minute — that’s fake news. One indicator might have been that the story samples a line from Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up. Read more.
LOOK AT THE JOBS Featured high on the White House’s list of feats is the creation of more than 500,000 new jobs, with a “surge” of jobs held by women. The problem? Trump’s taking credit for jobs gained in the month of January, before he was inaugurated, and it’s too soon to know whether a two-month jump in female jobs is a lasting achievement or just statistical noise. Read more.
NINTH CIRCUIT, REPRISE Trump again attacked the Ninth Circuit, this time because a district court judge upended Trump’s efforts to cut federal funding to so-called “sanctuary cities.” The Ninth Circuit has an overturned record “close to 80%,” Trump said as part of a series of early morning tweets April 26. The reality, however, is more complicated than 140-character can contain. Read more.
WHAT TRUMP HAS ACHIEVED PolitiFact’s Miriam Valverde looks back at Trump’s successes over his first 100 days in office, including triumphs in helping save jobs at a Carrier plant in Indiana, to his nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, to his executive orders aimed at curbing federal regulations. Read more.
WHERE TRUMP FELL SHORT That was the good news; PolitiFact’s Jon Greenberg has the flip side about Trump’s slow start on his Contract with the American Voter of 10 legislative priorities. So far, the only bill to appear in Congress has been the one to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, but it failed. What’s with the holdup? Read more.
WORDS IN HIS MOUTH A real-looking story contended that Trump conflated Native Americans with people actually from India, and wanted to deport them to the South Asian subcontinent. That ain’t happening, because it’s fake news. Read more.
PROMISE KEEPER? As Trump nears his 100th day in office, we’ve yet to find one promise he’s kept that required the support of Congress or an outside group. (And we’re tracking 103 of them, so we would know.) Read more.
A NEW LOW Trump’s website commemorating the 100-days milestone proudly proclaims illegal immigration is at a 17-year low. In terms of border apprehensions, that is accurate. It’s worth noting that apprehension rates have been declining since the recession, and significantly so since their peak of 1.6 million in 2000. Read more.
IT’S A TRAP There’s a story going around that claims Eric Trump said it won’t matter if his father releases his tax returns, because we’re going to cancel taxes for wealthy people anyway.” Don’t buy it. It’s fake news. Read more.
GUTEN TAG IVANKA At a meeting in Berlin focused on empowering women entrepreneurs, first daughter and presidential adviser Ivanka Trump said her father stood completely behind women in the workplace. She also claimed that child care is single largest expense for over half of American households. Only that’s incorrect.Read more.
TRUMP’S RED LINES We broke out the red pen to mark up Trump’s 100-day Contract with the American Voter with progress, or in many cases lack thereof, on signature policy issues. Read more.
TERRORISM NOT NEW Trump had a lot to say in his sprawling AP interview, including the nugget that “back when they did NATO, there was no such thing as terrorism.” By his literal words, that isn’t inaccurate. Directly rebutting Trump’s claim is the fact of widespread terrorism in 1949 when the alliance was born. Read more.
CABINET BATTLE The liberal Center for American Progress offered a lengthy Twitter critique of Trump’s first 100 days, including a claim that Trump’s Cabinet is more white and more male than any first Cabinet since President Ronald Reagan. That’s Mostly True, we found. Read more.