[ad_1]
Trump made at least eight false claims, seven of which he had made before. (The new one was an odd claim about Melania Trump and Kim Jong Un.) And he made at least five claims that we’ll call misleading, questionable or lacking in context.
“The first lady has gotten to know Kim Jong Un, and I think she would agree with me he is a man with a country that has tremendous potential,” Trump said.
Facts First: Melania Trump was not present for any of Trump’s three meetings with Kim Jong Un, and there is no evidence she has ever spoken to Kim.
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement later Monday: “President Trump confides in his wife on many issues including the detailed elements of his strong relationship with Chairman Kim — and while the First Lady hasn’t met him, the President feels like she’s gotten to know him too.”
We’re still calling the statement false. Trump’s phrasing, “gotten to know,” clearly suggested some level of personal interaction between Melania Trump and Kim.
The Iran deal and money
Trump said, of the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, that “we gave them $150 billion.”
The expiration of the Iran deal
Trump said the nuclear agreement is “almost expiring, if you think about it.”
The trade deficit with the European Union
Trump said: “The EU is another one: we’ve been losing $180 billion a year for many years.”
The trade deficit with China
Trump said that China had been “taking” $500 billion from the US for “many, many years” and “every single year.”
We’ll ignore Trump’s description of the trade deficit as China “taking” money out of the US, which is rejected by most economists.
Revenue from tariffs on China
Trump said of China: “We have billions and billions coming in.” He also said: “The United States, which has never collected 10 cents from China, will in a fairly short period of time be over $100 billion in tariffs.”
Asian American unemployment
Trump claimed again that unemployment for Asian Americans is at the lowest rate “ever.”
Energy production
“I feel that the United States has tremendous wealth. The wealth is under its feet. I’ve made that wealth come alive. We will soon be one of the — we will soon be exporting — in fact, we’re actually doing it now. Exporting. But we are now the number one energy producer in the world and soon it will be by far, with a couple of pipelines that have not been able to get approved for many, many years,” Trump said.
Misleading, questionable or lacking-in-context claims
Environmental impact statements
“I’m an environmentalist. A lot of people don’t understand that. I have done more environmental impact statements probably than anybody that — I guess I can say definitely, because I’ve done many, many, many of them. More than anybody that’s ever been president or vice president or anything even close to president,” Trump said.
Trump is the first president or vice president to be a major commercial real estate developer, so it is likely true that he has been involved in more environmental impact statements than the others. But this certainly does not make him the foremost environmentalist in the bunch.
Ireland and the UK
Asked about trade relations with the United Kingdom, Trump said: “I love the UK. I own great property in the UK. I love the UK. I have no idea how my property is doing because I don’t care. But I own Turnberry and I own in Aberdeen and I own in Ireland as you know, Doonbeg.”
Facts First: Ireland, where Trump’s Doonbeg golf club is located, is not part of the United Kingdom.
His wealth
The magazine estimates that his fortune has fallen from $4.5 billion in 2015 to $3.1 billion.
Russia, Crimea and Obama
Trump repeated his claim that Russia was suspended from the G8 because of Barack Obama’s personal embarrassment about being “outsmarted” by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea.
“It was sort of taken away from President Obama. Not taken away from President Trump, taken away from President Obama. President Obama was not happy that this happened because it was embarrassing to him, right? It was very embarrassing to him. And he wanted Russia to be out of the — what was called the G8. And that was his determination. He was outsmarted by Putin. He was outsmarted,” Trump said.
Russia’s ouster was endorsed by not only Obama, but the leaders of Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy.
Trade dealings with China
Trump said of his relationship with China: “We’ve had many calls. Secretary Mnuchin is here, and you’ve had many calls over the last 24 hours, but certainly over the last 48 hours. We’ve had many calls, not just one. These are high-level calls.”
[ad_2]
Source link