Donald Trump is a moron. So are his ignorant supporters oblivious to the damages he is doing right now. Make your own post if you're butt hurt by this
🙄
26-30, F
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FORMERLYbatovn · 61-69, M
whats really quite humorous here, is that not once has there been a FACTUAL legitimate and verifiable issue raised in this thread. I have no objection to someone not liking ANY specific politician or musician or whatever, but if your only response are insults and name calling and immature responses, i wonder if you even are upset about anything but not getting your way? perhaps you should call George Soros and see when your paycheck will be ready. Now, before you get butt hurt, if you have reasons or facts....PLEASE, share your wisdom with the rest of us.................we would love to hear them.
Dainbramadge · 56-60, M
Spideranneswifeyman · 26-30, F
American Politics amuse me, so are most Americans. It's fun stirring the shit pot.
bijouxbroussard · F
Allow me. (Good to see you again, Batovn)
99. Feb. 24, 2017 — Speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference
The claim: “Maybe they are just bad at polling or maybe they’re not legit, but it’s one or the other, look at how inaccurate — look at CBS, look at ABC, also, look at NBC, take a look at some of these polls.”
In fact: These organizations’ election polls were quite accurate. Hillary Clinton won the national popular vote by three points. CBS’s final poll had her winning by four. ABC’s had her winning by three. NBC’s was the worst, with Clinton up by five, but the result was still within the poll’s margin of error.
98. Feb. 24, 2017 — Speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference
The repeated claim: “Ford and Fiat Chrysler, General Motors, Sprint, Intel, and so many others are now, because of the election result, making major investments in the United States, expanding production and hiring more workers.”
In fact:GM did not offer any indication that it made its new investment of $1 billion because of Trump, and independent automotive analysts said it was unlikely Trump was a major factor; GM invested $2.9 billion last year, before Trump was elected. The parent company of Chrysler said Trump had no influence on its newly announced $1 billion investment in Michigan and Ohio, telling ThinkProgress, “This plan was in the works back in 2015.”
97. Feb. 24, 2017 — Speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference
The claim: “By the way, you folks are in here — this place is packed, there are lines that go back six blocks and I tell you that because you won’t read about it, OK. But there are lines that go back six blocks.”
In fact: There was no line at all.
96. Feb. 24, 2017 — Speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference
The claim: “Obamacare covers very few people — and remember, deduct from the number all of the people that had great health care that they loved that was taken away from them.”
In fact: By no objective measure does Obamacare cover “very few” people. Twenty million people have gained coverage under the law. One study estimated that 2.6 million people initially received notices that their coverage was being cancelled; the number that actually did was likely far lower. Even if it wasn’t, the coverage gains would far exceed the coverage losses.
95. Feb. 24, 2017 — Speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference
The repeated claim: “We have authorized the construction, one day, of the Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines.”
In fact: Trump has not actually approved construction of Keystone XL. His executive order merely invited TransCanada to reapply for approval.
94. Feb. 24, 2017 — Speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference
The claim: “Our Border Patrol, I’ll tell you what they do, they came and endorsed me, ICE came and endorsed me. They never endorsed a presidential candidate before, they might not even be allowed to.
In fact: Indeed, these two government bodies are not allowed to endorse candidates — and they didn’t. Trump was endorsed by unions of Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) employees, not the government bodies themselves.
93. Feb. 24, 2017 — Speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference
The claim: “In fact, in covering my comments, the dishonest media did not explain that I called the fake news the enemy of the people. The fake news. They dropped off the word ‘fake.’ And all of a sudden the story became the media is the enemy. They take the word ‘fake’ out.”
In front of a roaring crowd, Trump again calls the media the ‘enemy of the people’
In fact: This is a strange one. The media accurately reported that Trump tweeted: “The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!” Reports did not take the word “fake” out. Trump uses “fake news” to refer to media coverage broadly, and broadly mentioned five specific outlets, so there was nothing dishonest about reporting that he had attacked the media here.
92. Feb. 24, 2017 — Speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference
The claim: “Because they have no sources, they just make ’em up when there are none. I saw one story recently where they said, ‘Nine people have confirmed.’ There’re no nine people.”
In fact: The Washington Post did not make up its sources: its story, about national security adviser Michael Flynn allegedly discussing U.S. sanctions with Russia’s ambassador before the election, resulted in Trump firing Flynn.
91. Feb. 23, 2017 — White House meeting with manufacturing CEOs
The claim: “Gary, as you know — you all know Gary from Goldman, Gary Cohn. And we’re really happy — just paid $200 million in tax in order to take this job, by the way. Which is very much unlike Gary. But he’s great.”
In fact: Cohn, Trump’s National Economic Council director, did not pay $200 million in tax to take the job. In fact, he did perhaps the exact opposite — sell stock worth more than $200 million. According to Bloomberg, Cohn, formerly president of Goldman Sachs, was preparing to divest “roughly $220 million of Goldman equity he already held or was awaiting, as well as stakes in company-run investment funds”; he also got an additional $65 million payout. Also relevant: he might not have to pay any tax on the sales for a long while. White House appointees who are forced to sell stock to avoid conflicts of interests are allowed to defer capital gains taxes if they plow their proceeds into several kinds of approved investments.
90. Feb. 23, 2017 — White House meeting with manufacturing CEOs
The claim: “We don’t have any good deals. In fact, I’m trying to find a country where we actually have a surplus of trade as opposed to — everything is a deficit.”
In fact: The U.S. has surpluses with more than half of all countries in merchandise trade, figures from the U.S. International Trade Commission show — and merchandise trade is a measure that doesn’t count the services trade at which the U.S. excels. Major countries with which the U.S. has a surplus in merchandise trade include Australia, Brazil, the Netherlands, Argentina, and the United Kingdom.
89. Feb. 23, 2017 — White House meeting with manufacturing CEOs
The claim: “With Mexico, we have $70 billion in deficits, trade deficits, and it’s unsustainable. We’re not going to let it happen. Can’t let it happen. We’re going to have a good relationship with Mexico, I hope. And if we don’t, we don’t. But we can’t let that happen — $70 billion in trade deficits.”
In fact: The US trade deficit with Mexico was $63 billion in 2016, U.S. government figures show, counting only trade in goods. It is always billions smaller when trade in services is included.
88. Feb. 23, 2017 — White House meeting with manufacturing CEOs
The claim: “With China, we have close to a $500 billion trade deficit.”
In fact: The U.S. trade deficit with China was $347 billion in 2016, U.S. government figures show, counting only trade in goods. It is always billions smaller when trade in services is included.
87. Feb. 18, 2017 — Campaign rally in Melbourne, Fla.
The claim: “By the way, do you think that one media group back there, one network will show this crowd. Not one. Not one. They won’t show the crowd.”
In fact: CNN, Fox News and NBC all televised wide shots showing the size of the crowd at the rally.
86. Feb. 18, 2017 — Campaign rally in Melbourne, Fla.
The claim: “By the way, we did very well with women. You know, my wife said when some of these phoney polls were put out, the CNN poll was so far off, the phoney polls. When some of these, she said, what’s wrong with you and women.”
In fact: The final CNN poll of the campaign came close to nailing Trump’s showing with women. The poll had Clinton up 52 per cent to 39 per cent, a 13-point lead; exit polls from the actual voting that Clinton had won with women 54 per cent to 41 per cent — 13 points.
85. Feb. 18, 2017 — Campaign rally in Melbourne, Fla.
The claim: “We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden.”
In fact: No security incident of note happened the previous night in Sweden.
84. Feb. 18, 2017 — Campaign rally in Melbourne, Fla.
The repeated claim: “We’ve allowed thousands and thousands of people into our country and there was no way to vet those people. There was no documentation. There was no nothing.” Added: “Tens of thousands of people into our country, and we don’t know anything about those people.”
In fact: Refugees to the U.S. are rigorously vetted. The process includes multiple kinds of background and security checks and at least two interviews with U.S. representatives. Regardless of their paperwork situation — some have detailed documents, some do not — the U.S. knows far more than nothing about the refugees it approves.
83.Feb. 18, 2017 — Campaign rally in Melbourne, Fla.
The claim: “Ford, General Motors, Fiat-Chrysler are bringing in and bringing back thousands of jobs, investing billions of dollars because of the new business climate that we are creating in our country. In Arizona, Intel, great company, just announced it will open a new plant that will create at least 10,000 brand new beautiful American jobs.”
In fact: GM did not offer any indication that it made its new investment of $1 billion because of Trump, and independent automotive analysts said it was unlikely Trump was a major factor; GM invested $2.9 billion last year, before Trump was elected. The parent company of Chrysler said Trump had no influence on its newly announced $1 billion investment in Michigan and Ohio, telling ThinkProgress, “This plan was in the works back in 2015.” Intel says its new plant, on which it began and then halted work under Barack Obama, will employ up to 3,000 people; the 10,000 figure is an estimate of how many will be created “indirectly.”
82.Feb. 18, 2017 — Campaign rally in Melbourne, Fla.
The claim: “Jobs are already starting to pour back in. They’re coming back in like you haven’t seen in a long time.”
In fact: There is no evidence of jobs returning to the U.S. at levels unseen in a “long time.” Even if we give Trump credit for the good January jobs report — calculated while Barack Obama was still in office — there is no sign of a boom that is without recent precedent. The U.S. economy added 227,000 jobs in January. It did better than that during 11 months out of the last two years. For example, it added 233,000 in February 2016, 275,000 in July 2016 and 271,000 in December 2015.
81.Feb. 18, 2017 — Campaign rally in Melbourne, Fla.
The repeated claim about the F-35 fighter plane: “I also got Boeing in. I said do me a favour, give me a competing offer. And now they’re competing and fighting and we’ve gotten hundreds of millions of dollars off the price of a plane that was going to be ordered … So they’re going to make plenty of money, but it’s going to be a lot less than they would have made without Trump.”
In fact: Trump did not personally secure these savings: Lockheed Martin had been moving to cut the price well before Trump was elected, multiple aviation and defence experts say. Just a week after Trump’s election, the head of the F-35 program announced a reduction of 6 to 7 per cent — in the $600 million to $700 million range.
“Trump’s claimed $600 million cut is right in the ballpark of what the price reduction was going to be all along,” wrote Popular Mechanics. “Bottom line: Trump appears to be taking credit for years of work by the Pentagon and Lockheed,” Aviation Week reported, per the Washington Post.
80. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim: “I guess it was the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan.”
In fact: George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama all earned bigger margins in the electoral college than Trump did.
79. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim about former campaign manager Paul Manafort: “He said that he has absolutely nothing to do and never has with Russia. He said that very forcefully. I saw his statement. He said it forcefully. Most of the papers do not print it because it’s not good for their stories.”
The 5 other front page stories the Star could run after Trump’s wild presser
In fact: The New York Times story Trump was criticizing included Manafort’s denial, in which he said he never “knowingly” had contact with Russian intelligence officers. Other major outlets that followed up on the story also printed a denial from Manafort.
78. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim: “I will say that I never get phone calls from the media. How do they write a story like that in the Wall Street Journal without asking me or how do they write a story in the New York Times put it on the front page.”
In fact: Media outlets almost always call his administration for comment on major stories. The Journal, in its story about U.S. intelligence declining to share some information with Trump, prominently quoted a denial from an anonymous administration official. The Times also sought comment for its story, but the administration declined to provide one.
77. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim: “Remember, I used to give you a news conference every time I made a speech, which was like every day. OK?”
In fact: This is not even close to true. Trump indeed gave near-daily speeches during the campaign, but he did not do a single news conference over the last three months of the campaign.
76. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim: “We had a very smooth rollout of the travel ban.”
In fact: We don’t usually fact-check claims like “smooth” — it’s vague, and it’s a matter of opinion — but the rollout of the travel ban was so obviously not smooth that we’re making an exception here. The implementation of the ban resulted in mass confusion among U.S. allies like Canada, caused travel problems for thousands of visa-holders and permanent residents, necessitated a series of clarifications and reversals by U.S. officials, and appeared so hasty that a federal appeals court has found that the administration may have violated residents’ constitutional right to due process.
75. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim: “That’s the other thing that was wrong with the travel ban. You had Delta with a massive problem with their computer system at the airports.”
In fact: The Delta outage had nothing to do with the chaos created by the travel ban. The travel ban caused mass confusion on a Saturday; the Delta outage occurred more than a day and a half later, on a Sunday night.
74. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim about labour secretary nominee Alex Acosta: “He’s a member and has been a member of the National Labor Relations Board.”
In fact: Acosta is not currently a member of the board. He served on it from 2002 to 2003.
73. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim about the news media: “I mean, you have a lower approval rate than Congress. I think that’s right.”
In fact: The media is unpopular with Americans, but Congress has consistently been even less popular. Last year, Gallup found that just 9 per cent had confidence in Congress; 20 per cent had confidence in newspapers, 21 per cent in television news. While the new Congress is now up to a 28 per cent approval rating, Gallup found in September that 32 per cent said they had trust in the media.
72. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim: “Now, when WikiLeaks, which I had nothing to do with, comes out and happens to give, they’re not giving classified information.”
In fact: Trump may have been attempting to refer specifically to WikiLeaks release of emails related to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, which were not classified. But he ended up wrongly suggesting that WikiLeaks does not provide classified information at all. The organization made its name releasing hundreds of thousands of pages of classified U.S. material.
71. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim: “The failing New York Times wrote a big, long front-page story yesterday. And it was very much discredited, as you know.”
In fact: The article, headlined “Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence,” has not been discredited.
70. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim: “And the people mentioned in the story, I notice they were on television today saying they never even spoke to Russia.”
In fact: One of the people mentioned in the New York Times story, Trump associate Roger Stone, went on television to deny having any contact with any Russians. But the other people mentioned in the story did not issue such categorical denials in any medium. Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, told the New York Times that he never “knowingly” had contact with Russian intelligence officers, adding that such people do not “wear badges.” Former Trump adviser Carter Page he had only “said hello to a few Russian officials over the course of the last year or so”; he also gave a speech in Moscow.
69. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim about the 9th Circuit appeals court: “In fact, we had to go quicker than we thought because of the bad decision we received from a circuit that has been overturned at a record number. I have heard 80 per cent — I find that hard to believe; that’s just a number I heard — that they’re overturned 80 per cent of the time.”
In fact: This statement is false in one way, possibly misleading in another. It is false that the 9th Circuit is overturned by the Supreme Court at a “record number.” Even in the study conservatives usually cite in criticizing the 9th Circuit, the court had the second-highest reversal rate between 1999 and 2008. Between 2010 and 2015, it was third-highest. In the most recent court term for which complete data is readily available, the 9th Circuit was again in second place.
It may be misleading to discuss reversal rates this way at all. The Supreme Court overturns a majority of cases it agrees to hear — but those cases represent a tiny fraction of total cases decided by a circuit court. So even if 80 per cent of 9th Circuit cases that reach the Supreme Court are overturned, that still means more than 99 per cent of the circuit’s total decisions are not overturned.
68. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim about the 9th Circuit appeals court: “I think that circuit is — that circuit is in chaos and that circuit is frankly in turmoil.”
In fact: The court is functioning as normal. There is no sign of chaos or turmoil.
67. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim: “We had Hillary Clinton give Russia 20 per cent of the uranium in our country.” Added: “Hillary Clinton gave them 20 per cent of our uranium.”
In fact: Clinton didn’t personally give Russia uranium. The State Department, which Clinton led as secretary of state, was one of nine government entities that reviewed the Russian purchase of the Toronto-based firm Uranium One, which controlled the rights to about 20 per cent of U.S. uranium capacity. There is no evidence Clinton was personally involved in the process in any way. Further, only the president could have made the decision to block the deal; Clinton did not have final authority either way.
66. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim: “This administration is running like a fine- tuned machine, despite the fact that I can’t get my cabinet approved. And they’re outstanding people like Senator Dan Coats who’s there, one of the most respected men of the Senate. He can’t get approved. How do you not approve him?”
In
99. Feb. 24, 2017 — Speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference
The claim: “Maybe they are just bad at polling or maybe they’re not legit, but it’s one or the other, look at how inaccurate — look at CBS, look at ABC, also, look at NBC, take a look at some of these polls.”
In fact: These organizations’ election polls were quite accurate. Hillary Clinton won the national popular vote by three points. CBS’s final poll had her winning by four. ABC’s had her winning by three. NBC’s was the worst, with Clinton up by five, but the result was still within the poll’s margin of error.
98. Feb. 24, 2017 — Speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference
The repeated claim: “Ford and Fiat Chrysler, General Motors, Sprint, Intel, and so many others are now, because of the election result, making major investments in the United States, expanding production and hiring more workers.”
In fact:GM did not offer any indication that it made its new investment of $1 billion because of Trump, and independent automotive analysts said it was unlikely Trump was a major factor; GM invested $2.9 billion last year, before Trump was elected. The parent company of Chrysler said Trump had no influence on its newly announced $1 billion investment in Michigan and Ohio, telling ThinkProgress, “This plan was in the works back in 2015.”
97. Feb. 24, 2017 — Speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference
The claim: “By the way, you folks are in here — this place is packed, there are lines that go back six blocks and I tell you that because you won’t read about it, OK. But there are lines that go back six blocks.”
In fact: There was no line at all.
96. Feb. 24, 2017 — Speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference
The claim: “Obamacare covers very few people — and remember, deduct from the number all of the people that had great health care that they loved that was taken away from them.”
In fact: By no objective measure does Obamacare cover “very few” people. Twenty million people have gained coverage under the law. One study estimated that 2.6 million people initially received notices that their coverage was being cancelled; the number that actually did was likely far lower. Even if it wasn’t, the coverage gains would far exceed the coverage losses.
95. Feb. 24, 2017 — Speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference
The repeated claim: “We have authorized the construction, one day, of the Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines.”
In fact: Trump has not actually approved construction of Keystone XL. His executive order merely invited TransCanada to reapply for approval.
94. Feb. 24, 2017 — Speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference
The claim: “Our Border Patrol, I’ll tell you what they do, they came and endorsed me, ICE came and endorsed me. They never endorsed a presidential candidate before, they might not even be allowed to.
In fact: Indeed, these two government bodies are not allowed to endorse candidates — and they didn’t. Trump was endorsed by unions of Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) employees, not the government bodies themselves.
93. Feb. 24, 2017 — Speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference
The claim: “In fact, in covering my comments, the dishonest media did not explain that I called the fake news the enemy of the people. The fake news. They dropped off the word ‘fake.’ And all of a sudden the story became the media is the enemy. They take the word ‘fake’ out.”
In front of a roaring crowd, Trump again calls the media the ‘enemy of the people’
In fact: This is a strange one. The media accurately reported that Trump tweeted: “The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!” Reports did not take the word “fake” out. Trump uses “fake news” to refer to media coverage broadly, and broadly mentioned five specific outlets, so there was nothing dishonest about reporting that he had attacked the media here.
92. Feb. 24, 2017 — Speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference
The claim: “Because they have no sources, they just make ’em up when there are none. I saw one story recently where they said, ‘Nine people have confirmed.’ There’re no nine people.”
In fact: The Washington Post did not make up its sources: its story, about national security adviser Michael Flynn allegedly discussing U.S. sanctions with Russia’s ambassador before the election, resulted in Trump firing Flynn.
91. Feb. 23, 2017 — White House meeting with manufacturing CEOs
The claim: “Gary, as you know — you all know Gary from Goldman, Gary Cohn. And we’re really happy — just paid $200 million in tax in order to take this job, by the way. Which is very much unlike Gary. But he’s great.”
In fact: Cohn, Trump’s National Economic Council director, did not pay $200 million in tax to take the job. In fact, he did perhaps the exact opposite — sell stock worth more than $200 million. According to Bloomberg, Cohn, formerly president of Goldman Sachs, was preparing to divest “roughly $220 million of Goldman equity he already held or was awaiting, as well as stakes in company-run investment funds”; he also got an additional $65 million payout. Also relevant: he might not have to pay any tax on the sales for a long while. White House appointees who are forced to sell stock to avoid conflicts of interests are allowed to defer capital gains taxes if they plow their proceeds into several kinds of approved investments.
90. Feb. 23, 2017 — White House meeting with manufacturing CEOs
The claim: “We don’t have any good deals. In fact, I’m trying to find a country where we actually have a surplus of trade as opposed to — everything is a deficit.”
In fact: The U.S. has surpluses with more than half of all countries in merchandise trade, figures from the U.S. International Trade Commission show — and merchandise trade is a measure that doesn’t count the services trade at which the U.S. excels. Major countries with which the U.S. has a surplus in merchandise trade include Australia, Brazil, the Netherlands, Argentina, and the United Kingdom.
89. Feb. 23, 2017 — White House meeting with manufacturing CEOs
The claim: “With Mexico, we have $70 billion in deficits, trade deficits, and it’s unsustainable. We’re not going to let it happen. Can’t let it happen. We’re going to have a good relationship with Mexico, I hope. And if we don’t, we don’t. But we can’t let that happen — $70 billion in trade deficits.”
In fact: The US trade deficit with Mexico was $63 billion in 2016, U.S. government figures show, counting only trade in goods. It is always billions smaller when trade in services is included.
88. Feb. 23, 2017 — White House meeting with manufacturing CEOs
The claim: “With China, we have close to a $500 billion trade deficit.”
In fact: The U.S. trade deficit with China was $347 billion in 2016, U.S. government figures show, counting only trade in goods. It is always billions smaller when trade in services is included.
87. Feb. 18, 2017 — Campaign rally in Melbourne, Fla.
The claim: “By the way, do you think that one media group back there, one network will show this crowd. Not one. Not one. They won’t show the crowd.”
In fact: CNN, Fox News and NBC all televised wide shots showing the size of the crowd at the rally.
86. Feb. 18, 2017 — Campaign rally in Melbourne, Fla.
The claim: “By the way, we did very well with women. You know, my wife said when some of these phoney polls were put out, the CNN poll was so far off, the phoney polls. When some of these, she said, what’s wrong with you and women.”
In fact: The final CNN poll of the campaign came close to nailing Trump’s showing with women. The poll had Clinton up 52 per cent to 39 per cent, a 13-point lead; exit polls from the actual voting that Clinton had won with women 54 per cent to 41 per cent — 13 points.
85. Feb. 18, 2017 — Campaign rally in Melbourne, Fla.
The claim: “We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden.”
In fact: No security incident of note happened the previous night in Sweden.
84. Feb. 18, 2017 — Campaign rally in Melbourne, Fla.
The repeated claim: “We’ve allowed thousands and thousands of people into our country and there was no way to vet those people. There was no documentation. There was no nothing.” Added: “Tens of thousands of people into our country, and we don’t know anything about those people.”
In fact: Refugees to the U.S. are rigorously vetted. The process includes multiple kinds of background and security checks and at least two interviews with U.S. representatives. Regardless of their paperwork situation — some have detailed documents, some do not — the U.S. knows far more than nothing about the refugees it approves.
83.Feb. 18, 2017 — Campaign rally in Melbourne, Fla.
The claim: “Ford, General Motors, Fiat-Chrysler are bringing in and bringing back thousands of jobs, investing billions of dollars because of the new business climate that we are creating in our country. In Arizona, Intel, great company, just announced it will open a new plant that will create at least 10,000 brand new beautiful American jobs.”
In fact: GM did not offer any indication that it made its new investment of $1 billion because of Trump, and independent automotive analysts said it was unlikely Trump was a major factor; GM invested $2.9 billion last year, before Trump was elected. The parent company of Chrysler said Trump had no influence on its newly announced $1 billion investment in Michigan and Ohio, telling ThinkProgress, “This plan was in the works back in 2015.” Intel says its new plant, on which it began and then halted work under Barack Obama, will employ up to 3,000 people; the 10,000 figure is an estimate of how many will be created “indirectly.”
82.Feb. 18, 2017 — Campaign rally in Melbourne, Fla.
The claim: “Jobs are already starting to pour back in. They’re coming back in like you haven’t seen in a long time.”
In fact: There is no evidence of jobs returning to the U.S. at levels unseen in a “long time.” Even if we give Trump credit for the good January jobs report — calculated while Barack Obama was still in office — there is no sign of a boom that is without recent precedent. The U.S. economy added 227,000 jobs in January. It did better than that during 11 months out of the last two years. For example, it added 233,000 in February 2016, 275,000 in July 2016 and 271,000 in December 2015.
81.Feb. 18, 2017 — Campaign rally in Melbourne, Fla.
The repeated claim about the F-35 fighter plane: “I also got Boeing in. I said do me a favour, give me a competing offer. And now they’re competing and fighting and we’ve gotten hundreds of millions of dollars off the price of a plane that was going to be ordered … So they’re going to make plenty of money, but it’s going to be a lot less than they would have made without Trump.”
In fact: Trump did not personally secure these savings: Lockheed Martin had been moving to cut the price well before Trump was elected, multiple aviation and defence experts say. Just a week after Trump’s election, the head of the F-35 program announced a reduction of 6 to 7 per cent — in the $600 million to $700 million range.
“Trump’s claimed $600 million cut is right in the ballpark of what the price reduction was going to be all along,” wrote Popular Mechanics. “Bottom line: Trump appears to be taking credit for years of work by the Pentagon and Lockheed,” Aviation Week reported, per the Washington Post.
80. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim: “I guess it was the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan.”
In fact: George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama all earned bigger margins in the electoral college than Trump did.
79. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim about former campaign manager Paul Manafort: “He said that he has absolutely nothing to do and never has with Russia. He said that very forcefully. I saw his statement. He said it forcefully. Most of the papers do not print it because it’s not good for their stories.”
The 5 other front page stories the Star could run after Trump’s wild presser
In fact: The New York Times story Trump was criticizing included Manafort’s denial, in which he said he never “knowingly” had contact with Russian intelligence officers. Other major outlets that followed up on the story also printed a denial from Manafort.
78. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim: “I will say that I never get phone calls from the media. How do they write a story like that in the Wall Street Journal without asking me or how do they write a story in the New York Times put it on the front page.”
In fact: Media outlets almost always call his administration for comment on major stories. The Journal, in its story about U.S. intelligence declining to share some information with Trump, prominently quoted a denial from an anonymous administration official. The Times also sought comment for its story, but the administration declined to provide one.
77. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim: “Remember, I used to give you a news conference every time I made a speech, which was like every day. OK?”
In fact: This is not even close to true. Trump indeed gave near-daily speeches during the campaign, but he did not do a single news conference over the last three months of the campaign.
76. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim: “We had a very smooth rollout of the travel ban.”
In fact: We don’t usually fact-check claims like “smooth” — it’s vague, and it’s a matter of opinion — but the rollout of the travel ban was so obviously not smooth that we’re making an exception here. The implementation of the ban resulted in mass confusion among U.S. allies like Canada, caused travel problems for thousands of visa-holders and permanent residents, necessitated a series of clarifications and reversals by U.S. officials, and appeared so hasty that a federal appeals court has found that the administration may have violated residents’ constitutional right to due process.
75. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim: “That’s the other thing that was wrong with the travel ban. You had Delta with a massive problem with their computer system at the airports.”
In fact: The Delta outage had nothing to do with the chaos created by the travel ban. The travel ban caused mass confusion on a Saturday; the Delta outage occurred more than a day and a half later, on a Sunday night.
74. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim about labour secretary nominee Alex Acosta: “He’s a member and has been a member of the National Labor Relations Board.”
In fact: Acosta is not currently a member of the board. He served on it from 2002 to 2003.
73. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim about the news media: “I mean, you have a lower approval rate than Congress. I think that’s right.”
In fact: The media is unpopular with Americans, but Congress has consistently been even less popular. Last year, Gallup found that just 9 per cent had confidence in Congress; 20 per cent had confidence in newspapers, 21 per cent in television news. While the new Congress is now up to a 28 per cent approval rating, Gallup found in September that 32 per cent said they had trust in the media.
72. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim: “Now, when WikiLeaks, which I had nothing to do with, comes out and happens to give, they’re not giving classified information.”
In fact: Trump may have been attempting to refer specifically to WikiLeaks release of emails related to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, which were not classified. But he ended up wrongly suggesting that WikiLeaks does not provide classified information at all. The organization made its name releasing hundreds of thousands of pages of classified U.S. material.
71. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim: “The failing New York Times wrote a big, long front-page story yesterday. And it was very much discredited, as you know.”
In fact: The article, headlined “Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence,” has not been discredited.
70. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim: “And the people mentioned in the story, I notice they were on television today saying they never even spoke to Russia.”
In fact: One of the people mentioned in the New York Times story, Trump associate Roger Stone, went on television to deny having any contact with any Russians. But the other people mentioned in the story did not issue such categorical denials in any medium. Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, told the New York Times that he never “knowingly” had contact with Russian intelligence officers, adding that such people do not “wear badges.” Former Trump adviser Carter Page he had only “said hello to a few Russian officials over the course of the last year or so”; he also gave a speech in Moscow.
69. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim about the 9th Circuit appeals court: “In fact, we had to go quicker than we thought because of the bad decision we received from a circuit that has been overturned at a record number. I have heard 80 per cent — I find that hard to believe; that’s just a number I heard — that they’re overturned 80 per cent of the time.”
In fact: This statement is false in one way, possibly misleading in another. It is false that the 9th Circuit is overturned by the Supreme Court at a “record number.” Even in the study conservatives usually cite in criticizing the 9th Circuit, the court had the second-highest reversal rate between 1999 and 2008. Between 2010 and 2015, it was third-highest. In the most recent court term for which complete data is readily available, the 9th Circuit was again in second place.
It may be misleading to discuss reversal rates this way at all. The Supreme Court overturns a majority of cases it agrees to hear — but those cases represent a tiny fraction of total cases decided by a circuit court. So even if 80 per cent of 9th Circuit cases that reach the Supreme Court are overturned, that still means more than 99 per cent of the circuit’s total decisions are not overturned.
68. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim about the 9th Circuit appeals court: “I think that circuit is — that circuit is in chaos and that circuit is frankly in turmoil.”
In fact: The court is functioning as normal. There is no sign of chaos or turmoil.
67. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim: “We had Hillary Clinton give Russia 20 per cent of the uranium in our country.” Added: “Hillary Clinton gave them 20 per cent of our uranium.”
In fact: Clinton didn’t personally give Russia uranium. The State Department, which Clinton led as secretary of state, was one of nine government entities that reviewed the Russian purchase of the Toronto-based firm Uranium One, which controlled the rights to about 20 per cent of U.S. uranium capacity. There is no evidence Clinton was personally involved in the process in any way. Further, only the president could have made the decision to block the deal; Clinton did not have final authority either way.
66. Feb. 16, 2017 — White House press conference
The claim: “This administration is running like a fine- tuned machine, despite the fact that I can’t get my cabinet approved. And they’re outstanding people like Senator Dan Coats who’s there, one of the most respected men of the Senate. He can’t get approved. How do you not approve him?”
In
Dainbramadge · 56-60, M
FORMERLYbatovn · 61-69, M
@bijouxbroussard: NOW those are things that back up a reason to be concerned. I am not defending or accusing Trump or anyone of all or even any answers, and there will obviously be bumps in the road. There always is, but i feel like we see where things go and in 4 years, if we arent happy, we make adjustments, THAT is what the system is designed to do. I appreciate your response, and its good to see you too!!
Spideranneswifeyman · 26-30, F