Correcting Trump speech falsehoods
President Donald Trump accepted the Republican Party’s nomination for president in a speech from the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday, the first president to do so since Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1940.
“I say very modestly that I have done more for the African American community than any president since Abraham Lincoln, our first Republican president,” Trump said. “I have done more in three years for the black community than Joe Biden has done in 47 years — and when I’m reelected, the best is yet to come.”
The claim overstates Trump’s own standing within history, historians say.
President Lyndon B. Johnson, a skilled legislator from his years in the Senate, deliberately crafted his civil rights agenda and pushed it through Congress with personal persuasion. President Harry Truman moved to desegregate the military, and even President Richard Nixon, who was captured on tape making racist remarks, advanced the desegregation of schools and affirmative action in employment.
It’s one of several examples where Trump was wrong or misleading about Democratic nominee Joe Biden or Trump’s own record.
“When asked if he supports cutting police funding, Joe Biden replied, ‘Yes, absolutely.’”
During discussions of defunding the police, this claim is missing context. Biden has said he would redirect some social-services responsibilities away from police departments and roll back investments in military gear, but he also wants to increase federal funding for community policing.
During an interview with Biden, liberal activist Ady Barkan said deadly police encounters with citizens could be reduced if some police funding were redirected to mental health counseling and other priorities.
Biden’s “absolutely” remark came during a discussion of the police using military equipment in their communities. Barkan interjected as Biden was talking about the military equipment: “But do we agree that we can redirect some of the funding?” Biden replied: “Yes. Absolutely.”
“Biden has promised to abolish the production of American oil, coal, shale, and natural gas – laying waste to the economies of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Colorado, and New Mexico.”
This is misleading. Biden’s climate plan aims to wean the country off oil, coal and natural gas, not abolish it outright.
Biden’s plan calls for a transition to clean energy over several years, with the U.S. reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. The plan includes energy efficient infrastructure investments and the creation of clean energy jobs.
“Biden also vowed to oppose school choice and close down charter schools, ripping away the ladder of opportunity for Black and Hispanic children.”
This is Mostly False. Biden’s policy platform backs several forms of school choice, including nonprofit charter schools, public magnet schools, and choice within school districts.
He opposes using public dollars to pay for private school tuition, and he opposes for-profit charter schools.
“Joe Biden recently raised his hand on the debate stage and promised he was going to give it away, your health care dollars to illegal immigrants, which is going to bring massive number of immigrants into our country.”
This is misleading. During a June 2019 Democratic primary debate, candidates were asked: “Raise your hand if your government plan would provide coverage for undocumented immigrants.” All candidates on stage, including Biden, raised their hands. They were not asked if that coverage would be free or subsidized.
Biden supports extending health care access to all immigrants, regardless of immigration status. A task force recommended that he allow immigrants illegally in the country to buy health insurance, without federal subsidies.
Biden “has pledged a $4 trillion tax hike on almost all American families.”
Yes and no. That’s an accurate estimate for Biden’s tax revenues over a decade, according to the Tax Policy Center.
But tax analysts say the impact on most American families would be small and largely due to the indirect effects of Biden’s raising the corporate tax rate. Biden’s proposed increases are heavily concentrated on corporations and the nation’s biggest earners. The Tax Policy Center estimated that more than 90% of the tax increases would be borne by the top 20% of earners.
Biden has vowed not to directly raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 per year.
The Obama-Biden administration “spied on my campaign and they got caught.”
False. Multiple independent investigations, including a series of bipartisan Senate reports, found no influence by the Obama administration over the FBI investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and contacts with the Trump campaign.
The FBI targeted four people with greater or lesser roles in the Trump campaign, but conducted that independently of the White House, a review by the Justice Department found.
Democrats “will demolish the suburbs.”
This is a False interpretation of Biden’s proposal to reinstate an Obama administration rule change related to discrimination in housing. The change required certain localities to work with Washington to identify barriers to fair housing and come up with strategies to fix them.
Experts said restoring that regulation would not force those jurisdictions to make zoning changes or build low-income housing. It certainly wouldn’t spell the end for the suburbs.
“We have already built 300 miles of border wall.”
This is wrong. Before Trump took office, the nearly 2,000-mile southern border had 654 miles of primary barriers (the first physical impediment a migrant may face).
More than three years into Trump’s presidency, that has increased by 5 miles.
Trump’s boast refers to the replacement of older barriers with new fences.
“When the anarchists started ripping down our statues and monuments, right outside, I signed an order immediately, 10 years in prison.”
This is overstating the law. The 10year penalty for damaging federal property is a maximum punishment, meaning it doesn’t apply to every violation.
The penalty also isn’t new. It was contained in a previous piece of U.S. Code.
“Over the past three months, we have gained over 9 million jobs, a new record.”
The 9 million gain in jobs was preceded by a loss of 22 million jobs due to the shutdown prompted by the coronavirus pandemic. In February, before the pandemic was declared, the United States had 152.4 million people employed in non-farm jobs. That number bottomed out at 130.3 million in April. By July, the number rose to 139.6 million. In other words, only about 40% of the jobs lost due to the downturn had been gained back
Daniel Funke, Jon Greenberg, Louis Jacobson, Noah Y. Kim, Bill McCarthy, Samantha Putterman, Amy Sherman, Miriam Valverde and Kaiser Health News reporter Victoria Knight contributed to this report. Photo from the Associated Press.