Tag: Trump lies

President Trump’s claim that illegal immigration went up under past administrations

The following article by Michelle Ye Hee Lee was posted on the Washington Post website August 1, 2017:

“As you know, the border was a tremendous problem and now close to 80 percent stoppage.”
— President Trump, remarks at a Cabinet meeting, July 31, 2017

“You know, the border’s down 78 percent. Under past administrations, the border didn’t go down, it went up. But if it went down 1 percent, there was like this was a great thing. Down 78 percent.”
— Trump, speech in New York, July 28, 2017

Curbing illegal immigration is a major promise by President Trump, and he frequently touts successes in doing so. While Southwest border crossings have, indeed, declined as a result of Trump’s rhetoric, it’s not nearly as dramatic as 78 or 80 percent. Moreover, Trump now says illegal immigration went up under previous administrations — which is false.

Let’s dig in. Continue reading “President Trump’s claim that illegal immigration went up under past administrations”

Lowlights of Trump’s 26 hours of misinformation: A super flip-flop + 29 false/misleading claims

The following articleby Michelle Ye Hee Lee  is from the Washington Post’s Fact Checker email update received July 28, 2017:

It’s been a busy year in Washington, but weeks like this one are especially hectic for political fact-checkers.

In a period of less than 26 hours — from 6:31 pm on July 24 to 8:09 PM on July 25 — President Trump made two fired-up speeches, held a news conference and tweeted with abandon, leaving a trail of misinformation in his wake. We found at least 29 false or misleading claims during that period. Here are some lowlights. Continue reading “Lowlights of Trump’s 26 hours of misinformation: A super flip-flop + 29 false/misleading claims”

White House video misleads on CBO health-care estimates

The following article by Glenn Kessler was posted on the Washington Post website July 24, 2017:

“The Congressional Budget Office’s math doesn’t add up. Faulty Numbers = Faulty Results.”
— Tweet by the White House Twitter account, July 12, 2017

The venerable Congressional Budget Office is under attack. Established in 1975 by Congress to provide independent analyses of legislation, the nonpartisan agency is under fire for its estimates of the effect of Republican proposals to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

This is not a new position for the agency. The CBO’s refusal to credit much budget savings to Hillary Clinton’s 1993 health-care plan is one of the factors that killed her effort during the Bill Clinton administration. But the rhetoric attacking it this time around certainly seems sharper. All eight previous CBO directors issued a joint letter last week to congressional leadership “to express our strong objection to recent attacks on the integrity and professionalism of the agency and on the agency’s role in the legislative process.” Continue reading “White House video misleads on CBO health-care estimates”

Trump Made Several Misleading Claims in Times Interview

The following article by Linda Qiu was posted on the New York Times website July 20, 2017:

WASHINGTON — In a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times on Wednesday, President Trump made a number of misleading and false claims, including statements on health insurance, the biography of his deputy attorney general and French history.

Here’s an assessment.

He misrepresented how health insurance works.

“You’re 21 years old, you start working and you’re paying $12 a year for insurance, and by the time you’re 70, you get a nice plan,” Mr. Trump said. “Here’s something where you walk up and say, ‘I want my insurance.’” Continue reading “Trump Made Several Misleading Claims in Times Interview”

President Trump’s first six months: The fact-check tally

The following article by Glenn Kessler, Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Meg Kelly was posted on the Washington Post website July 20, 2017:

Six months into President Trump’s term, he has made 836 misleading claims, averaging 4.6 per day. (Video: Meg Kelly/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Shortly before reaching the six-month mark of his presidency, President Trump made an assertion and then paused that perhaps he should not be so definitive. “I better say ‘think,’ otherwise they’ll give you a Pinocchio. And I don’t like those — I don’t like Pinocchios.”

As it turned out, the president’s claim — that he has signed more bills (42) at this point than “any president ever” — was completely wrong. Just among recent presidents, he’s behind Jimmy Carter (70 bills signed), George H.W. Bush (55) and Bill Clinton (50). Continue reading “President Trump’s first six months: The fact-check tally”

Trump has repeatedly broken his core campaign promise

The following article by Philip Bump was posted on the Washington Post website July 18, 2017:

While campaigning for the presidency, Donald Trump talks to the media after arriving by helicopter on Aug. 15, 2015, in Des Moines. (Charlie Riedel/AP)

It’s not just that Donald Trump ran for president with a lack of interest in the details of policy or legislating, though both of those things were apparent from the outset of his campaign. Standing next to his helicopter near the Iowa State Fairgrounds in August 2015, Trump dismissed policy statements as something the press cared more about than voters. When asked how he would get legislation passed in Congress, a much different task than running a company, he waved away such pedestrian concerns. He’d twist their arms the way he forced permits through the New York City Council.

But, again, it wasn’t just that he was uninterested in the traditional systems by which laws were passed in Washington. It was that he embraced that disinterest as a solution. He was an Outsider, coming to D.C. without the encumbrances of having done this before. This was framed by his supporters as though he was the new sheriff in town, prepared to think outside the box. Others framed it less generously, as though a tourist had wandered onto an aircraft carrier and decided he was going to shoot down some MiGs. Continue reading “Trump has repeatedly broken his core campaign promise”

Departing Ethics Chief: U.S. Is ‘Close to a Laughingstock’

The following article by Eric Lipton and Nicholas Fandos was posted on the New York Times website July 17, 2017:

As director of the Office of Government Ethics, Walter M. Shaub Jr. has often gone head-to-head with the Trump administration over conflicts of interest. Credit Vanessa Vick for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Actions by President Trump and his administration have created a historic ethics crisis, the departing head of the Office of Government Ethics said. He called for major changes in federal law to expand the power and reach of the oversight office and combat the threat.

Walter M. Shaub Jr., who is resigning as the federal government’s top ethics watchdog on Tuesday, said the Trump administration had flouted or directly challenged long-accepted norms in a way that threatened to undermine the United States’ ethical standards, which have been admired around the world.

“It’s hard for the United States to pursue international anticorruption and ethics initiatives when we’re not even keeping our own side of the street clean. It affects our credibility,” Mr. Shaub said in a two-hour interview this past weekend — a weekend Mr. Trump let the world know he was spending at a family-owned golf club that was being paid to host the U.S. Women’s Open tournament. “I think we are pretty close to a laughingstock at this point.”

Continue reading “Departing Ethics Chief: U.S. Is ‘Close to a Laughingstock’”

‘Lie after lie after lie’: Fox News’s Shepard Smith has a Cronkite moment on Russia

The following article by Aaron Blake was posted on the Washington Post website July 14, 2017:

Leanne Naramore @LeanneNaramore

Shep Smith: “The deception, Chris, is mind-boggling…why are we getting told all these lies?”

Chris Wallace: “I don’t know what to say”

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Between its “Fox and Friends” morning show and Sean Hannity at night, Fox News has become a haven for those who think this whole Russia thing is nonsense. On Friday morning, Steve Doocy even declared that “the Russia story is starting to fall apart.” Continue reading “‘Lie after lie after lie’: Fox News’s Shepard Smith has a Cronkite moment on Russia”

President Trump’s claim ‘billions and billions’ are ‘pouring into NATO’ because of his administration

The following article by Michelle Ye Hee Lee was posted on the Washington Post website July 12, 2017:

“Americans know that a strong alliance of free, sovereign and independent nations is the best defense for our freedoms and for our interests. That is why my administration has demanded that all members of NATO finally meet their full and fair financial obligation. As a result of this insistence, billions of dollars more have begun to pour into NATO. In fact, people are shocked. But billions and billions of dollars more coming in from countries that, in my opinion, would not have been paying so quickly.”
–President Trump, speech in Warsaw, July 6, 2017

Whenever we delve into Trump’s rhetoric on the funding of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, we find that he fundamentally mischaracterizes the way NATO works. This was true of candidate Trump, who received Three Pinocchios for a series of misleading claims about NATO funding, and of President Trump, who received an updated rating of Four Pinocchios for his failure to correct his talking points. Continue reading “President Trump’s claim ‘billions and billions’ are ‘pouring into NATO’ because of his administration”

Morning Joe hosts say Trump tried to blackmail them with National Enquirer hit-piece

The following article by Aaron Rupar was posted on the ThinkProgres.org website June 30, 2017:

Top White House aides promised the story would go away if they apologized to the President

Source: MSNBC Screen Grab

The Washington Post op-ed Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough penned in response to the sexist tweets President Trump posted Thursday morning mocking Brzezinski’s appearance contains a bombshell allegation: that Trump tried to blackmail them with a National Enquirer hit-piece.

“This year, top White House staff members warned that the National Enquirer was planning to publish a negative article about us unless we begged the president to have the story spiked,” they write. “We ignored their desperate pleas.”

During their show on Friday morning, the Morning Joe hosts provided more details. Continue reading “Morning Joe hosts say Trump tried to blackmail them with National Enquirer hit-piece”