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President Donald Trump, who earned PolitiFact National’s 2017 Lie of the Year, also played an outsized role in the PolitiFact Wisconsin items that received the most online page views during the year.
Statements made by or about Trump accounted for six of the 10 most-clicked items.
And some had staying power: Two Trump items that got the most clicks in 2017 had been published in 2016 but gained more attention when those topics got back in the news.
Aside from Trump, our most popular topic, based on clicks, was Obamacare. Three of the top 10 items centered on statements about the Affordable Care Act.
Meanwhile, considering strictly fact checks among the top 10 items, two Wisconsin politicians tied for most items in the top 10, with two fact checks apiece: Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan and the House member who represents the district next to him, Republican Speaker Paul Ryan. Here’s a look back:
1. Reince Priebus: The seven nations identified in Donald Trump’s travel ban were “identified by the Obama administration as the seven most dangerous countries in the world in regard to harboring terrorists.”
Our rating: Half True. The statement was made by Wisconsinite Priebus when he was still Trump’s chief of staff. Prompted by concerns about terrorism, the Obama administration did put those seven countries — Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen — on a list that makes travel into the United States somewhat more difficult. But that list didn’t necessarily identify the seven as being the most dangerous.
2. Donald Trump: Says Hillary Clinton “gave up 20 percent of America’s uranium supply to Russia.”
Our rating: Mostly False. This fact check was published in September 2016. Trump’s reference was to Russia’s nuclear power agency buying a controlling interest in a Toronto-based company. That company has mines, mills and tracts of land in Wyoming, Utah and other U.S. states equal to about 20% of U.S. uranium production capacity (not produced uranium). Clinton was secretary of state at the time, but she didn’t have the power to approve or reject the deal. The State Department was only one of nine federal agencies that signed off on the deal, and only Obama had the power to veto it.
3. Is Donald Trump’s executive order a “Muslim ban”?
This was an article, not a fact check. The order did not specifically bar Muslims. It applied only to citizens of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. Those seven countries have only 12% of the world’s Muslims and Muslims from other countries can still enter the United States. But each of the seven is majority-Muslim. And the order followed not only repeated statements Trump made during his presidential campaign specifically calling for a Muslim ban, but subsequent statements he made about finding a legal means for the executive order. And although Trump said the order was aimed at protecting America from terrorism, and the seven targeted countries had been singled out for supporting terrorism, no one in the United States had been killed in a terrorist attack by someone from the seven countries.
4. Sean Duffy: Republicans have “won a thousand seats since Obamacare.”
Our rating: Mostly True. There were many reasons for the decline of Democrats beyond dissatisfaction with Obamacare, which became law in 2010, including frustration over Washington gridlock, voters’ fears over budget deficits, national security, immigration, tax reform, the global economy, wages and jobs. So, Obamacare was not the sole reason for the GOP seat gains, but one of many. But the “thousand seats” figure cited by the northern Wisconsin Republican congressman was accurate.
5. Mark Pocan: “There is no legal basis” for Donald Trump’s “missile strike against Syrian military assets.”
Our rating: False.
For limited military activities like the missile strike, presidents can send in forces without approval from Congress, despite the flat claim by the Madison-area Democrat.
6. Donald Trump repeats his Mostly False claim about Hillary Clinton, Russia and uranium.
This article reported on how Trump repeated in February 2017 the statement he had made that was fact checked in February 2016.
7. Paul Ryan: Obamacare “is in what the actuaries call a death spiral.”
Our rating: False.
A death spiral is a health industry term for a cycle with three components — shrinking enrollment, healthy people leaving the system and rising premiums. Despite the Janesville Republican’s claim, the latest data showed enrollment was increasing slightly and younger (typically healthier) people were signing up at the same rate as last year. And while premiums were increasing, that wasn’t affecting the cost to most consumers due to built-in subsidies.
8. Ron Johnson: The GOP’s Obamacare replacement would reduce subsidies that help lower-income people buy health insurance, but also “expand the entitlement” by giving subsidies to higher-income people “that Obamacare never helped.”
The Republican plan, as Wisconsin’s GOP U.S. senator said, did offer subsidies, known as refundable tax credits, that were smaller for lower-income people than under Obamacare. And it did offer the credits to people with higher incomes than Obamacare does.
Our rating: True.
9. Paul Ryan: “We got to a point that our Air Force pilots were going to museums to find spare parts over the last eight years” under Barack Obama. Our rating: Pants on Fire. It was a broad claim, but Ryan’s office cited only one news article that quoted an Air Force captain as saying parts for seven planes were obtained from “museum aircraft.” Meanwhile, defense experts told us that Ryan’s claim was highly misleading, in that any such museum scrounging, if it had ever occurred, was isolated. Indeed, the Air Force operates a base whose main functions include storing thousands of planes to be available for spare parts. The experts also agreed that even as defense spending dropped under Obama, the Air Force had sufficient funding to prevent the need for pilots to hunt for airplane parts in museums.
10. Mark Pocan: Says Donald Trump’s first 17 Cabinet appointments “have a net worth of more than a third of America.”
Our rating: Mostly True. This fact check was published in December 2016. Onethird of American households had a combined net worth of roughly zero. The combined net worth of Trump Cabinet members was greater, but so was that of any American who had a net worth of more than zero.
Email: tkertscher@journalsentinel.com; Twitter: @Politi FactWisc; Facebook: Facebook.com/PolitiFactWisconsin