Fact check Trump's Orlando rally featured more than 15 false claims over 76 minutes

https://parg.co/RPCFact-checking Trump's Orlando rally - CNNPolitics


Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump kicked off his formal reelection campaign Tuesday night with a rally in Orlando. His 76-minute speech featured more than 15 false statements, many of them ones that he's repeated frequently in the past.

Here's a fact check:

Energy

Trump boasted about his administration's energy policies.

"And we've ended the last administration's cruel and heartless law on American energy. What they were doing to our energy should never be forgotten. The United States is now the number-one producer of oil and natural gas anywhere in the world."

"We are, by the way, the number-one producer of energy in the world because of what we've done right now."

Facts First: The US was the world's number-one energy producer before Trump took office — since 2012, under the very president Trump accused of waging the heartless war.

Russia

Trump suggested the Russian investigation was illegal and criticized the amount of money it had cost.

"We accomplished more than any other president has in the first two and a half years of a presidency, and under circumstances that no president has had to deal with before, because we did, in the middle of the great and illegal witch hunt, things that nobody have been able to accomplish, not even close."

Facts First: There is simply no evidence that the investigation into the Trump campaign's relationship with Russia was illegal.

The Wall

Trump claimed Democrats had previously voted for a border wall.

"And you know we couldn't get the wall approved by the Democrats, even though they voted for it four years ago and six years ago and didn't get built, but they voted for it. All of a sudden, Trump is president, 'We don't want a wall.'"

Facts First: Some Democrats — notably excluding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — voted in 2006 for the Secure Fence Act, which authorized 700 miles of border fencing. But the fencing was different than the Trump campaign proposal the Democrats opposed 10 years later, which was for a giant concrete wall.

Environment

Trump suggested the environment has improved under his administration.

"Our air and water are the cleanest they've ever been by far."

Facts First: After a prolonged period of improvement, US air quality is now getting worse, according to the American Lung Association, which has produced an annual data report on the subject for 20 years.

Clinton's emails

Trump went after former Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton and her use of a private email server.

"Thirty-three thousand emails deleted, think of it. I keep mentioning, you know, there was a lot of corruption on the other side. But you know, the simplest thing: they get a subpoena from the United States Congress and they decide that they're not going to give it. So, Lindsey Graham, they did delete and they acid wash, which is very expensive. Nobody does it. They acid wash those emails, never to be seen again. But we may find them somewhere deep in the State Department."

Facts First: A server company working for Hillary Clinton deleted these emails using a free software program called BleachBit. BleachBit is not expensive. It involves neither actual bleach nor acid.


China

Trump made numerous false statements related to China and the tariffs his administration has implemented.

"As you know, you may have read a couple of things about China. I spoke to President Xi, terrific president, a great leader of China, spoke to him this morning at length. And we'll see what happens. But we're either going to have a good deal and a fair deal or we're not going to have a deal at all. And that's OK, too. Because we are taking in billions and billions of dollars into our treasury and companies are leaving China because they want to avoid paying these large tariffs. And, by the way, when the fake news tells you that you're paying — in the case of China, they devalue their currency, that helps them. And do you know what else they are doing? They are subsidizing those companies, and you're not paying very much if you're paying anything at all, the case of China. And we are taking billions and billions of dollars in."

Facts First: Trump was wrong that Americans are not paying for his tariffs on imported Chinese goods. American importers are the ones who make the actual tariff payments to the government, and numerous American businesses have publicly said that they have been hit with higher costs they are passing costs on to consumers.

Trump also appeared to misrepresent the US trade deficit with China.

"We would lose $500 billion a year with China. We rebuilt China. They have done a great job, but they took us for suckers. And that includes Obama and Biden. They took us for suckers. Five hundred billion, $500 billion. Somebody said you mean $500 million, that's a lot too, right? No, $500 billion. It's actually more than that I don't want to be too specific: 507."

Facts First: The general "$500 billion" and the specific "$507 billion" figures are both false: the US has never had a $500 billion trade deficit with China. The deficit was $381 billion in 2018, $337 billion in 2017.

Trump did not specify this time that he was talking about the trade deficit, but he has done so more than 100 times in the past when he used the "$500 billion" or "$507 billion" figures.

"And we are taking billions and billions of dollars in, and, remember this, and you know it as well as I do: we have never taken in 10 cents from China."

Facts First: The U.S. government has been charging tariffs on imported Chinese goods for more than two centuries, and it took in hefty sums from such tariffs long before Trump's own tariffs.

The Treasury received $14 billion from tariffs on China in 2014, to look at one pre-Trump year. (Again, it is US importers, not China, who have paid these tariffs.)

Unemployment and wages

"And if you take a look at the African-American community, how much progress has been made: the lowest unemployment numbers in the history of our country."

Facts First: If you're starting the count in the early 1970s, when the government began using its current methodology for calculating African-American unemployment, Trump is correct that the unemployment rate for African-Americans has hit a new low during his presidency, though it has increased slightly since hitting that low in May 2018.

African-American unemployment was 6.2% in May 2019, up from 5.9% a year prior.

Much of the progress, however, happened during the Obama administration. The African-American unemployment rate dropped from 12.7% in January 2009, when Obama took office, to 7.9% in December 2016, Obama's last full month in office. It has fallen from 7.9% to 6.2% during Trump's tenure.

 

VA Choice

"...And our amazing veterans are no longer left to languish and die on endless waiting lists, standing on line, waiting for a doctor. We passed VA Choice so they could see their doctor. Our veterans were waiting on line for two days, seven days, three weeks, five weeks. You had veterans waiting on line that could have easily been taken care of. They waited so long they became terminally ill in many cases. The stories are horrible. We passed VA Choice. You go out now, you get a doctor, you fix yourself up, the doctor sends us the bill, we pay for it. And you know what? It doesn't matter because the life and the veteran is more important. But we also happen to save a lot of money doing that. Can you believe it? VA Choice for the veterans. They've been trying to get that passed also for about 44 years."

Facts First: Trump did not get the Veterans Choice program passed: the program was signed into law by Obama in 2014. (Two senators Trump has frequently criticized, the late Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, were two of the key legislators behind the bill Obama signed.)

What Trump signed in 2018 was the VA MISSION Act, which modified and expanded the Choice program. Even after that modification, it is not true that veterans are no longer waiting in lines for "two days, seven days, three weeks": veterans are now permitted to be reimbursed for seeing a non-VA doctor if they are facing a wait of 20 days or more for a VA doctor (or if their drive to the VA is 30 minutes or more). In other words, a veteran who lives near a VA facility but is facing a wait of two weeks cannot go to a non-VA doctor.

Democrats' position on border security

"On no issue are Democrats more extreme and more depraved than when it comes to border security. The Democrat agenda of open borders is morally reprehensible. It's the greatest betrayal of the American middle class and, frankly, American life."

Facts First: Democratic congressional leaders and the candidates in the party's presidential primary do not endorse "open borders" or unrestricted migration. The Democratic congressional caucus has repeatedly endorsed billions in spending on various border security measures, including improved technology and additional Border Patrol staff. (Trump sometimes uses this "open borders" phrase as non-literal political rhetoric, but he sometimes says or suggests that the Democrats literally want the borders open.)

Pre-existing conditions

"And we will always protect patients with pre-existing conditions. Always, always."

Facts First: We can't fact-check what Trump might do in the future, but he has not protected patients with pre-existing conditions in the Republican health care bills he has supported so far.

The unsuccessful Republican health care legislation he supported would have weakened Obamacare's safeguards for people with pre-existing conditions, allowing states to apply for waivers that would allow insurers to impose higher prices on people with health problems.

And as part of an ongoing Republican lawsuit seeking to get Obamacare overturned, Trump's administration has argued that the law's protections for people with pre-existing conditions are unconstitutional and should be struck down. He has not explained how he would protect patients if the courts actually heed his call.

He has promised a new health care plan soon, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said there are no plans to take up health care reform until after the 2020 election.

Healthcare

Trump criticized a key feature of Obamacare, the individual mandate

"We got rid of the individual mandate. Right? How many people are happy? They no longer have to pay for the privilege of not paying for bad health insurance. How many people are happy? Bad health care. So every time you don't have to make out a check in order not to have health care, think of that, think of that. This is the only country you pay for the very distinct privilege of not having to pay. But you have to pay a lot. Now you don't have to pay anymore. You don't want it, you don't have to pay."

Facts First: The US is not the only country that has had a financial penalty on people who do not obtain compulsory health insurance. The Netherlands and Australia, among others, require payments from people who do not meet certain mandatory coverage requirements.

 

Then there's nothing to support his claim that it was "the great and illegal witch hunt."