Here’s a fact-check from Trump’s final speech



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Former President Donald J. Trump used his last tenure on Wednesday morning to repeat many of the same lies and exaggerations he has told over the past four years.

He falsely claimed, as he has done almost 300 times already, to have passed by far “the biggest tax cut and the biggest reform in the history of our country” despite the tax cut of 2017 ranking below several others.

Mr Trump also once again boasted of having presided over the “biggest economy”, with “numbers” that were “at a level no one has ever seen before.” Average annual growth, even before the coronavirus pandemic decimated the economy, was lower under Mr. Trump than under recent former presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan.

And he announced his legacy in transforming the judiciary, exaggerating the number of appointments to “nearly 300” and saying it was a “record.” In fact, Mr. Trump has appointed 229 judges, a significant sum for a single-term president but well below the total number of Presidents Barack Obama (320), George W. Bush (322) and Bill Clinton (322).

Mr Trump also used his last speech as president to once again take the wrong credit for creating the Veterans Choice healthcare program that was enacted by his predecessor in 2014. As a President, Mr. Trump signed a program modifying measure.

He also falsely claimed that the Department of Veterans Affairs could not lay off employees before he took office. In fact, Mr. Trump signed a law to encourage whistleblowing and facilitate the dismissal of bad employees in the department.

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