From migrant caravan to birthright citizenship: How Trump distorts facts

As he barnstorms the country trying to help Republican allies, President Trump has offered voters this fall a litany of misleading statements and falsehoods that exaggerate even legitimate accomplishments and distort opponents’ views beyond the typical bounds of political spin.

In the past couple of weeks alone, the president has spoken of riots that have not happened, claimed deals that have not been reached, cited jobs that have not been created and spun dark conspiracies that have no apparent basis in reality. He has pulled figures seemingly out of thin air, rewritten history and contradicted his own past comments.

The catalog of inaccurate claims ranges from the weighty to the head-scratching.

He has asserted that construction has begun on his border wall (it has not), that he is one of the most popular American presidents in history (he is not), that he “always” opposed the Iraq war (he did not), that the stock market reopened the day after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 (it did not), that his tax cut was the largest in history (it was not) and that the United States is the only country that guarantees citizenship to those born here (it is not).

As he embarks on a final eight-state, 11-rally blitz before Tuesday’s midterm elections, Trump has hammered Democrats — not just for their actual policy positions but for some they have not taken. He accused them, without proof, of helping to orchestrate a caravan of Central American migrants; complained that Democrats had opposed opioid legislation when in fact they universally voted for it; and asserted that they would not protect patients with pre-existing conditions — even though that was the heart of President Barack Obama’s health care program.

Trump’s penchant for prevarication has been a well-documented hallmark of his presidency. He dismisses journalists who point out his falsehoods as nit-pickers who do not understand that he is speaking a larger truth that resonates with many Americans. Supporters at his rallies across the country tell reporters that they understand he may not be strictly accurate in his roaring stump speeches, but they see him as a champion of their values.

Still, even some in Trump’s orbit acknowledge that this campaign season has brought out a torrent of untruths that, they worry, distracts from a record he should be proud to outline factually. “If you want me to say he’s a liar, I’m happy to say he’s a liar,” said Anthony Scaramucci, who served a highly abbreviated 11-day stint as White House communications director last year and says he remains an enthusiastic supporter.

Speaking on CNN last week as he promoted a new book, Mr. Scaramucci was invited to offer his advice directly to the camera as if he were addressing Trump. “You should probably dial down the lying,” Mr. Scaramucci said, “because you don’t need to do it. You’re doing a great job for the country.”

Mr. Scaramucci said the president created his own truth for the purposes of storytelling. “He definitely has a reality distortion field around himself where he curves facts toward himself,” Mr. Scaramucci said on NBC’s “Today” show. “He’s living in that bubble.”

Here are 15 of Trump’s most egregious falsehoods since Oct. 22, fact-checked by category.

Immigration

What Trump said

We’re the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States ... with all of those benefits.

False.

At least 30 other countries, including Mexico and Canada, grant automatic birthright citizenship, according to studies from the Center for Immigration Studies and Numbers USA, two groups that support restricting immigration.

What Trump said

There’s a town in California where they actually tried to take over the town council. All illegal aliens running the town council.

False.

While there are a few examples of unauthorized immigrants participating in local government in California, there are no cities governed by them, nor do any hold elective office in the state.

“I can’t think of any such place in California and am unaware of any place in California where you could even vote for city council as a noncitizen, not to speak of serving in elected office,” said Taeku Lee, a professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley. “Seems like another made-up fact intended to stoke the fears of the president’s base.”

Els de Graauw, a professor of political science at the City University of New York, agreed. “I know that requirements can vary across offices and levels of government, but I cannot think of a municipality where noncitizens can run for public office,” she said.

In 2015, two undocumented immigrants were appointed to city advisory boards in Huntington Park, Calif. Earlier this year, the California State Senate appointed Lizbeth Mateo, an unauthorized immigrant and well-known immigration activist, to an advisory committee that helps increase college attendance among low-income students. None of these immigrants were elected to city councils.

Gov. Jerry Brown of California recently vetoed a bill that sought to allow undocumented immigrants and legal residents who are not American citizens to sit on state boards and commissions that have more than an advisory role.

What Trump said

Trump: They say it happens all the time from the Middle East. But that’s not even saying bad or good. But some real bad ones. But they intercept...

Reporter: But no — no proof that they’re in the caravan now?

Trump: Well, they could very well be.

Reporter: But there’s no proof?

Trump: There’s no proof of anything. There’s no proof of anything. But they could very well be — if you look at what that was building.

This lacks evidence.

Reporters traveling with the caravan have denied Trump’s baseless suggestion that there are Middle Eastern terrorists in the caravan. The Department of Homeland Security said citizens from “countries in the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and elsewhere are currently traveling through Mexico toward the U.S.” without offering any proof.

Counterterrorism officials told The Times that there was no credible threat that terrorist groups were trying to infiltrate the border. Government data shows that citizens from the Middle East made up less than 1 percent of people apprehended at the border in the 2017 fiscal year.

What Trump said

Do you know how the caravan started? Does everybody know what this means? I think the Democrats had something to do with it.

This lacks evidence.

For the past couple of weeks, Trump has repeatedly accused Democrats of supporting or even financing the migrant caravan. He has yet to offer proof of these claims.

The Times has reported that the caravan apparently started out as a small group in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, but swelled amid publicity from Honduran television as migrants joined it to escape poverty and violence. Although Democrats (and some Republicans) have opposed some Trump administration border policies, Democrats have supported legislation to improve border security.

What Trump said

Trump: You shouldn’t have — take a look. They want to get out of sanctuary cities. Many places in California want to get out of sanctuary cities.

Reporter: But that’s not rioting, sir, right?

Trump: Yeah, it is rioting in some cases. 

Reporter: Where are the riots, sir?

This lacks evidence.

A few locales in California, including Orange County and San Diego County, have voted to support a Trump administration lawsuit against California’s so-called sanctuary city laws, under which local law enforcement authorities must limit their cooperation with federal immigration enforcement officials.

But there is no evidence that these laws have led to riots anywhere. The California Police Chiefs Association told PolitiFact that it was unaware of any riots, and Trump did not respond when asked to specify the location of the riots he cited.

His Own Record

What Trump said

You know, many presidents don’t get a chance to put a Supreme Court justice on. Here we are, less than two years, we’ve put two of them on. Right?

False.

All but four American presidents have appointed justices to the Supreme Court, according to the Congressional Research Service. No vacancies occurred on the court during the presidencies of William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor and Jimmy Carter. (Mr. Harrison was president for just a month before dying in office, and Mr. Taylor was in the White House for 16 months.)

President Andrew Johnson also nominated one justice, but was thwarted by Congress, which lowered the number of jurists allowed to be seated on the court.

What Trump said

And I was always critical of President Bush for attacking Iraq.

False.
 

Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly and falsely claimed to have opposed the Iraq war from the beginning. In 2002, asked if he supported an invasion, Trump responded, “Yeah, I guess so.” Trump spoke out against the war in 2004, a year after it began. It did not stop him from supporting President George W. Bush in the 2004 election.

What Trump said

I went to Saudi Arabia on the basis that they would buy hundreds of billions — many billions of dollars’ worth of things. And the ultimate number is around $450 billion, $110 for military. $450 billion. I think that’s over a million jobs. A million to over a million jobs.

False.

Trump has celebrated an arms deal that was reached with Saudi Arabia last year, but his figures are wildly inflated.

The Times reported last year that the $110 billion refers to the value of military capabilities offered to Saudi Arabia, characterized by the government as “intended sales.” The State Department estimated that, as of Oct. 16, the agreement has resulted in $14.5 billion in implemented deals.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency lists about $17 billion in total approved sales since Trump’s trip in May 2017, and that figures includes a $15 billion missile defense system that has since stalled.

Last year, the Trump administration also trumpeted $270 billion in possible commercial deals, which double-counts some of the agreements in the arms package. It is unclear what Trump is referring to with the $450 billion figure.

As for “over a million jobs” — an increase over the “hundreds of thousands of jobs” Trump claimed last year — that figure also is suspect. Almost all of the jobs announced as a result of the potential sales were in Saudi Arabia, not the United States.

What Trump said

But I’m one of the most popular presidents in this country, and that’s good. That’s just good.

False.

Several polls show the opposite: Trump is among the least popular presidents in American history.

A CNN poll gave Trump a 40 percent favorable rating, compared with 61 percent for Mr. Bush and 66 percent for Mr. Obama, as of January. A February poll by the University of Virginia and Ipsos gave Trump the third-lowest rating of the 12 most recent presidents.

Health Care and the Environment

What Trump said

The total amount of opioids being prescribed has decreased by nearly 20 percent in a very short period of time. I’m very proud of that.

This requires context.

Trump cited the 20 percent decrease as one of his administration’s accomplishments “over the past 20 months.” But according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the opioid prescribing rate dropped by more than 19 percent between 2006 and 2017 — so Trump did not preside over that almost 20 percent decline.

CDC data shows there was an 11 percent drop in the total number of prescriptions between 2016 and 2017.

Dr. Andrew Kolodny, a co-director of opioid policy research at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, said overprescriptions of all medicinal drugs had been falling steadily since 2011. A further drop has been widely credited to Center for Disease Control guidance that was issued in 2016 and aimed at reducing the rate of prescriptions.

On the campaign trail in October, Trump has said legislation to combat opioid abuse with $6 billion in funding was approved by the Senate with “very little Democrat support.” In fact, support for the legislation was nearly unanimous; the only vote against it was cast by Senator Mike Lee of Utah, a Republican.

What Trump said

Republicans will totally protect people with Pre-Existing Conditions, Democrats will not! Vote Republican.

False.

Legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act last year was widely supported by Trump and Republicans in Congress, and opposed by Democrats. Most of the repeal plans would have undermined protections for patients with pre-existing conditions.

In August, Republican senators announced legislation to preserve protections for pre-existing condition if the Affordable Care Act was dissolved. Even so, the bill would allow insurers to refuse to cover certain illnesses.

This spring, the Justice Department told a federal court that it would no longer defend provisions in the health law that protect people with pre-existing conditions. By October, the Trump administration released new guidance allowing states to offer subsidies to patients, as provided by the Affordable Care Act. The guidance encourages buying cheaper plans that offer fewer benefits and can exclude coverage for pre-existing conditions.

What Trump said

“America: the Cleanest Air in the World — BY FAR!”

False.

The map Trump shared in his tweet appeared to be an altered version of a map from a World Health Organization report on exposure to air pollution. While the image does show Americans breathing relatively healthy air, nowhere in the report does it say that the United States has the cleanest air in the world.

The World Health Organization’s database on air pollution shows that eight countries — Canada, Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, New Zealand, Australia and Brunei — have cleaner air than the United States.

Trade and the Economy

What Trump said

We don’t even have tariffs. I’m using tariffs to negotiate. I mean, other than some tariffs on steel — which is actually small, what do we have?

False.

In addition to steel, Trump has imposed tariffs on washing machines, solar panels, aluminum, Canadian lumber and $250 billion worth of goods from China. His administration also placed tariffs on Canadian newsprint, but those were overturned in August by the United States International Trade Commission. Trump has also threatened to impose tariffs on cars, uranium and an additional $267 billion in Chinese goods.

What Trump said

They wouldn’t meet with Obama, the European Union. Japan wouldn’t meet with Obama. And they wouldn’t meet with us either.

False.
 

From 2013 to 2016, the European Union and the United States engaged in 14 rounds of talks over a trade agreement known as the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, a deal that was never signed. Mr. Obama personally and repeatedly met with European Union leaders during the negotiations.

Additionally, the United States and Japan were both signatories to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade deal negotiated by the Obama administration and 12 Pacific Rim nations. Trump abandoned the deal early in his presidency.

What Trump said

I remember Dick Grasso, a friend of mine, great guy. He headed up the New York Stock Exchange on Sept. 11. And the New York Stock Exchange was open the following day.

False.

The New York Stock Exchange, blocks from the World Trade Center, did not open the day after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It reopened on Sept. 17, 2001. Mr. Grasso attended the opening ceremony, along with Rudolph W. Giuliani, the mayor of New York at the time and now Trump’s personal lawyer.
© 2018 The New York Times News Service