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Former President Donald J. Trump, in his first public appearance since leaving the White House, launched inaccurate attacks on his successor and rekindled familiar lies in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference on Sunday .
In a speech filled with false and misleading claims, Mr. Trump once again repeated the lie that he won the 2020 election, mistakenly claiming that President Biden and the Democrats “just lost the White House.”
Here’s a fact check.
What Mr. Trump said
“We have taken illegal crossings to historically low levels.”
False. The apprehensions of unauthorized migrants are the best indicator of illegal border crossings. Under Mr. Trump, there were 200,000 apprehensions at the southern border in FY2020; just over 850,000 in 2019; just under 400,000 in 2018; and around 300,000 in 2017. None of these numbers are unprecedented.
The figure for fiscal 2020 – in which a pandemic began – was the lowest since the 1970s, while figures for Mr. Trump’s first two years in office were comparable to those for President Barack Obama.
what Mr. Trump said
“First Fauci said you don’t need masks, no masks, no good. Then all of a sudden he now wants double masks.
This is misleading / exaggerated. Initial government guidelines on mask wearing were unclear, but health agencies promoted the practice long before Mr Biden took office.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in the early days of the pandemic that it did not recommend the general public to wear masks. Dr Anthony S. Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease specialist, said last March that “there is no reason to walk around with a mask” as it could lead to shortages of health workers, but he was “not against” training it.
But in April, when the virus had spread more rapidly across the country, Dr Fauci and the CDC had started encouraging the wearing of cloth masks. (Mr. Trump, meanwhile, avoided wearing a mask and mocked Mr. Biden for doing so in the fall.)
Dr Fauci has previously said Mr Trump twisted his words, noting that he had constantly ‘begged’ people to wear masks for months.
what Mr. Trump said
“He effectively ordered the closure of ICE, stopping virtually all evictions. Everyone, the murderers, everyone.
False. The Biden administration ordered a 100-day hiatus on evictions, but that didn’t apply to “murderers” and everyone. In a February memo, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it would “focus the agency’s civilian immigration enforcement and removal resources on threats to national security, border security and public security”. This would include anyone found guilty of an aggravated crime, such as murder.
Moreover, the expulsion of immigrants is not the only function of the agency. While ICE scaled back its withdrawal operations, it continued to investigate other illegal activities.
what Mr. Trump said
“Border security is just one of the many issues the new administration has already betrayed the American people on. He didn’t talk about it. I debated him. He wasn’t talking about that. He wasn’t – what he signed with these decrees was not things that was discussed.
It is misleading. Immigration policy was briefly discussed during the second presidential debate. Mr. Biden was not interviewed and did not mention most of his proposals, but Mr. Trump is wrong to say that Mr. Biden’s immigration orders come as a surprise. In fact, Mr. Trump has explicitly criticized and broadcast advertisements attacking these same proposals.
Mr Trump has repeatedly warned – and often misinterpreted – of Mr Biden’s plans to increase refugee admissions, put in place a moratorium on deportations and create a pathway to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants.
what Mr. Trump said
“And when I asked the questions on television, on the debate, Chris Wallace in this matter and others refused to let him answer.
It is misleading. During the first presidential debate, Mr. Trump repeatedly interrupted Mr. Wallace, the Fox News presenter and moderator, to ask Mr. Biden questions, then repeatedly interrupted Mr. Biden as he attempted answer them – which prompted Mr. Wallace to intervene in several proceedings. But none of these questions were about immigration policy.
Mr. Trump interrupted to question Mr. Biden about Roe v. Wade; whether he agreed with Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont on health care; whether he was “in favor of law and order”; and on the preparation of the Supreme Court, the H1N1 influenza pandemic and his son Hunter. Mr. Biden has attempted to answer all of these questions.
what Mr. Trump said
“With me at the top of the table, not a single Republican member of Congress has lost their race for the first time in decades.”
False. While no incumbent Republican in the House lost their race to a Democrat, incumbent Republican senators lost two Senate seats in the November election as Mr. Trump ran for president. Arizona’s Martha McSally and Colorado’s Cory Gardner lost their re-election candidacy to Mark Kelly and John Hickenlooper.
Other complaints
Mr. Trump repeated a number of claims the New York Times had already debunked:
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He falsely said that “nobody knows anything about” refugees and “we don’t have criminal records, we don’t have health records” for them. (Refugee background checks take one to two years.)
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He said the Keystone XL pipeline has created “42,000 well-paying jobs”. (This is an estimate of the temporary jobs the pipeline would support in two years.)
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He falsely claimed that Mr. Biden reversed his stance of opposing fracking during the Democratic primary by saying “we love fracking” in the general election. (Mr. Biden has always said he opposed hydraulic fracturing on public lands.)
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He falsely blamed “the windmill calamity” for the power outages in Texas and criticized the windmills for killing birds. (Wind energy is not the main reason for power outages, and birds die much more frequently from collisions with buildings and cars than from windmills.)
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He falsely claimed that the United States became the first “energy superpower on earth” under his leadership. (The United States became the world’s largest oil producer in 2013 and overtook Russia as the world’s largest gas producer as early as 2009.)
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He falsely claimed credit for “the strongest economy in the history of the world.” (The metrics showed no historical records.)
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He has distorted the tariffs as “taking billions and billions of dollars from China.” (Tariffs are paid by U.S. consumers, not China.)
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He claimed that “we are losing a $ 504 billion trade deficit with China.” (This was a reference to the goods trade deficit – which does not include services and is not a “loss” – with China, which grew to $ 538 billion under his leadership.)
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He falsely claimed that undocumented immigrants and the dead vote in “large” numbers. (There is no proof of this.)
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He falsely claimed there were “more votes than people” in Detroit and Pennsylvania. (This is not true for either of the two places.)
Curious about the accuracy of a claim? E-mail [email protected].
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