Tag: Trump lies

These 3 charts show how Trump’s ‘blue collar boom’ is more of a bust for US workers

AlterNet logoIf you thought workers’ hourly pay was finally rising, think again.

At first glance, the latest data – which came out on Feb. 7 – look pretty good. They show nominal hourly earnings rose 3.1% in January from a year earlier.

But the operative word here is nominal, which means not adjusted for changes in the cost of living. Once you factor in inflation, the picture changes drastically. And far from representing a “blue collar boom” – as the president put it in his State of the Union address – the real, inflation-adjusted data show most U.S. workers have not benefited from the growing economy. Continue reading.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom Dings Trump’s $3 Trillion Pricetag For His ‘Booming’ Economy

The president is piling on debt for U.S. taxpayers, while California has a surplus, Newsom crows.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom stacked up his state’s financials against America’s and mocked Donald Trump for racking up an extra $3 trillion in debt for what the president characterizes as a “booming” national economy.

Trump promised to balance the budget when he was campaigning, but the national debt has now reached a record of more than $23 trillion. (“Who the hell cares about the budget?” Trump asked donors at a fundraiser last month.)

California, meanwhile, is reporting “record surpluses,” low unemployment and high job growth, the Democratic governor tweeted Thursday. “Progressive policies and economic growth DO go hand-in-hand.”

Trump is a brazen liar about Social Security

AlterNet logoIn his State of the Union address, Donald Trump claimed that “we will always protect your Social Security.” But just two weeks ago, Trump said just the opposite. He was in Davos, hobnobbing with Wall Street billionaires. While there, he sat for an interview with CNBC’s Joe Kernen, who asked him if “entitlements” would “ever be on your plate.”

“At some point, they will be,” Trump replied.

The word “entitlement” is how Washington elites refer to Social Security, as well as Medicare and Medicaid. Having “entitlements” “on your plate” is Washington insider-code for cutting these vital programs. Insider code is necessary because cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid is not only terrible policy but also deeply unpopular even with Trump’s base. Continue reading.

Wrong: Trump Claims Unprecedented ‘Victory’ In Iowa’s GOP Caucus

Donald Trump claimed on Tuesday that his successful performance in Monday’s Iowa caucus was somehow historic, but that isn’t true. President Barack Obama outperformed Trump when he ran for reelection in 2012.

“I had the largest re-election vote in the history of that great state, by far, beating President Obama’s previous record by a lot,” Trump tweeted. “Also, 97 percent Plus of the vote! Thank you Iowa!”

The Iowa Republican Party’s official results show that Trump received 97.15 percent of the vote. Former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh received 1.08 percent of the vote on Monday night, and William Weld, a former governor of Massachusetts, received 1.31 percent of the vote. Another 0.47 percent of the vote went to “other.” Continue reading.

Democrats tear into Trump’s speech: It was a ‘MAGA rally’

The Hill logoDemocrats were exasperated over what they called a raucous campaign-style speech from President Trump on Tuesday night as the president made his case for reelection during the annual State of the Union address.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) appeared disgusted during much of Trump’s third State of the Union address. By the end of it, she ripped up his speech and set it aside while her political nemesis was still standing on the House dais.

“I tore it up,” Pelosi replied when asked by reporters what she thought of the speech. Continue reading.

Trump touts his economy as ‘the best it has ever been.’ The data doesn’t show that.

Washington Post logoThe U.S. economy is doing well, but these are not unprecedented times.

President Trump’s State of the Union address had a lengthy section celebrating the U.S. economy, which has been growing for 11 straight years, the longest expansion in U.S. history.

Trump claimed the U.S. economy is “roaring” and “the best it has ever been.” He went as far as to say the nation is “moving forward” at an “unimaginable” pace, a claim not backed up by the data.

The broad consensus among economists is that the U.S. economy is doing well, but these are not unprecedented times. Continue reading.

Fact Sheet: Trump Says One Thing and Does Another on Criminal Justice

Center for American Progress logoPresident Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed ownership of criminal reform because he signed the FIRST STEP Act—a bipartisan federal sentencing and prison reform bill. A month after signing the bill, he proclaimed, “I did criminal justice reform, nobody else. I did it. Without me, you don’t have criminal justice reform.” In fall 2019, he again declared, “I did criminal justice reform, which President Obama could not get approved—which the media never talks about. If President Obama got criminal justice reform done, it would be front-page stories all over the place. I got it done.”1 But these claims fly in the face of nearly every action this administration has taken, most of which are antithetical to reform efforts.

Too often, the full context of the Trump administration’s record on criminal justice reform is obscured by photo ops and public events.2 However, behind the scenes, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) regularly contravenes the efforts of the criminal justice reform movement. Collected here are a list of those anti-reform actions to date: Continue reading.

Trump’s Economy: 7 Broken Promises to Working Americans

Center for American Progress logoIn 2016, Donald Trump vowed to champion forgotten Americans and take on the entrenched interests that he blamed for hollowing out the middle class. He categorically promised “no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid,” and he said he would stop Wall Street from “getting away with murder”; end the outsourcing of American jobs; insure everyone with lower health care costs; and close tax loopholes for people like himself and to focus tax relief on the middle class. Trump promised to “drain the swamp” in Washington.

In office, however, President Trump’s administration has broken each of these promises, betraying the people he said he would fight for. In virtually every policy sphere, his administration has favored powerful corporations and the wealthy at the expense of middle- and working-class Americans. Trump’s broken promises have had real-life consequences for American families: less economic security; lower wages; more expensive health care; greater threats to Social Security and Medicare; and a widening gap between working Americans and the wealthy and powerful.

As President Trump prepares to give his third State of the Union address, here are seven ways his administration has broken his core economic promises and how they have let down ordinary Americans.

Trump says he cares about migrant trafficking. His policy tells a different story.

Washington Post logoFRIDAY’S WHITE HOUSE summit on human trafficking, marking the 20th anniversary of landmark legislation intended to protect victims, is a master class in political cynicism. Take an unimaginably vulnerable population, pretend to champion their cause on humanitarian grounds, and meanwhile, in the real world, subject them to a minefield of new monetary, bureaucratic and legal risks, up to and including deportation. That’s the Trump administration’s approach to the trafficking of noncitizens exploited for sex and labor in the United States.

President Trump has made the cause of migrant trafficking victims a go-to rhetorical device in his arsenal of justifications for building a border wall; never mind that most exploited migrants enter the country with valid visas through legal ports of entry, according to their advocates. His daughter and aide, Ivanka Trump, has presented herself as the administration’s leading patron of such victims, writing op-eds, touring shelters and making statements on their behalf. To hear the president and Ms. Trump tell it, migrant trafficking victims have never had more forceful advocates in the White House.

The facts of administration policy tell a far different story. Continue reading.

Pentagon Now Says 50 Troops Suffered Brain Injuries After Iran’s Missile Strike

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Tuesday raised to 50 the number of U.S. service members who suffered traumatic brain injuries in Iran’s missile strike earlier this month on an Iraqi air base, the third time the number of injuries has been increased.

The new casualty total belies President Donald Trump’s initial claim that no Americans were harmed. Days after the attack, the military said 11 service members were injured. Last week, the Pentagon said that 34 U.S. service members were hurt.

Lt. Col. Thomas Campbell, a Pentagon spokesman, said Tuesday that 16 additional service members were diagnosed with traumatic brain injury. Of the 50, Campbell said, 31 service members had returned to duty. Continue reading.