https://parg.co/RPC[URL="https://parg.co/RPC"]Fact-checking Trump's Orlando rally - CNNPolitics[/URL]
Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump kicked off his formal reelection campaign Tuesday night with a rally in Orlando. His 76-minute speech featured more than 15 false statements, many of them ones that he's repeated frequently in the past.
Here's a fact check:
Energy
Trump boasted about his administration's energy policies.
"And we've ended the last administration's cruel and heartless law on American energy. What they were doing to our energy should never be forgotten. The United States is now the number-one producer of oil and natural gas anywhere in the world."
"We are, by the way, the number-one producer of energy in the world because of what we've done right now."
Facts First: The US was the world's number-one energy producer before Trump took office — since 2012, under the very president Trump accused of waging the heartless war.
Russia
Trump suggested the Russian investigation was illegal and criticized the amount of money it had cost.
"We accomplished more than any other president has in the first two and a half years of a presidency, and under circumstances that no president has had to deal with before, because we did, in the middle of the great and illegal witch hunt, things that nobody have been able to accomplish, not even close."
Facts First: There is simply no evidence that the investigation into the Trump campaign's relationship with Russia was illegal.
The Wall
Trump claimed Democrats had previously voted for a border wall.
"And you know we couldn't get the wall approved by the Democrats, even though they voted for it four years ago and six years ago and didn't get built, but they voted for it. All of a sudden, Trump is president, 'We don't want a wall.'"
Facts First: Some Democrats — notably excluding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — voted in 2006 for the Secure Fence Act, which authorized 700 miles of border fencing. But the fencing was different than the Trump campaign proposal the Democrats opposed 10 years later, which was for a giant concrete wall.
Environment
Trump suggested the environment has improved under his administration.
"Our air and water are the cleanest they've ever been by far."
Facts First: After a prolonged period of improvement, US air quality is now getting worse, according to the American Lung Association, which has produced an annual data report on the subject for 20 years.
Clinton's emails
Trump went after former Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton and her use of a private email server.
"Thirty-three thousand emails deleted, think of it. I keep mentioning, you know, there was a lot of corruption on the other side. But you know, the simplest thing: they get a subpoena from the United States Congress and they decide that they're not going to give it. So, Lindsey Graham, they did delete and they acid wash, which is very expensive. Nobody does it. They acid wash those emails, never to be seen again. But we may find them somewhere deep in the State Department."
Facts First: A server company working for Hillary Clinton deleted these emails using a free software program called BleachBit. BleachBit is not expensive. It involves neither actual bleach nor acid.
China
Trump made numerous false statements related to China and the tariffs his administration has implemented.
"As you know, you may have read a couple of things about China. I spoke to President Xi, terrific president, a great leader of China, spoke to him this morning at length. And we'll see what happens. But we're either going to have a good deal and a fair deal or we're not going to have a deal at all. And that's OK, too. Because we are taking in billions and billions of dollars into our treasury and companies are leaving China because they want to avoid paying these large tariffs. And, by the way, when the fake news tells you that you're paying — in the case of China, they devalue their currency, that helps them. And do you know what else they are doing? They are subsidizing those companies, and you're not paying very much if you're paying anything at all, the case of China. And we are taking billions and billions of dollars in."
Facts First: Trump was wrong that Americans are not paying for his tariffs on imported Chinese goods. American importers are the ones who make the actual tariff payments to the government, and numerous American businesses have publicly said that they have been hit with higher costs they are passing costs on to consumers.
Trump also appeared to misrepresent the US trade deficit with China.
"We would lose $500 billion a year with China. We rebuilt China. They have done a great job, but they took us for suckers. And that includes Obama and Biden. They took us for suckers. Five hundred billion, $500 billion. Somebody said you mean $500 million, that's a lot too, right? No, $500 billion. It's actually more than that I don't want to be too specific: 507."
Facts First: The general "$500 billion" and the specific "$507 billion" figures are both false: the US has never had a $500 billion trade deficit with China. The deficit was $381 billion in 2018, $337 billion in 2017.
Trump did not specify this time that he was talking about the trade deficit, but he has done so more than 100 times in the past when he used the "$500 billion" or "$507 billion" figures.
"And we are taking billions and billions of dollars in, and, remember this, and you know it as well as I do: we have never taken in 10 cents from China."
Facts First: The U.S. government has been charging tariffs on imported Chinese goods for more than two centuries, and it took in hefty sums from such tariffs long before Trump's own tariffs.
The Treasury received $14 billion from tariffs on China in 2014, to look at one pre-Trump year. (Again, it is US importers, not China, who have paid these tariffs.)
Unemployment and wages
"And if you take a look at the African-American community, how much progress has been made: the lowest unemployment numbers in the history of our country."
Facts First: If you're starting the count in the early 1970s, when the government began using its current methodology for calculating African-American unemployment, Trump is correct that the unemployment rate for African-Americans has hit a new low during his presidency, though it has increased slightly since hitting that low in May 2018.
African-American unemployment was 6.2% in May 2019, up from 5.9% a year prior.
Much of the progress, however, happened during the Obama administration. The African-American unemployment rate dropped from 12.7% in January 2009, when Obama took office, to 7.9% in December 2016, Obama's last full month in office. It has fallen from 7.9% to 6.2% during Trump's tenure.
Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump kicked off his formal reelection campaign Tuesday night with a rally in Orlando. His 76-minute speech featured more than 15 false statements, many of them ones that he's repeated frequently in the past.
Here's a fact check:
Energy
Trump boasted about his administration's energy policies.
"And we've ended the last administration's cruel and heartless law on American energy. What they were doing to our energy should never be forgotten. The United States is now the number-one producer of oil and natural gas anywhere in the world."
"We are, by the way, the number-one producer of energy in the world because of what we've done right now."
Facts First: The US was the world's number-one energy producer before Trump took office — since 2012, under the very president Trump accused of waging the heartless war.
Russia
Trump suggested the Russian investigation was illegal and criticized the amount of money it had cost.
"We accomplished more than any other president has in the first two and a half years of a presidency, and under circumstances that no president has had to deal with before, because we did, in the middle of the great and illegal witch hunt, things that nobody have been able to accomplish, not even close."
Facts First: There is simply no evidence that the investigation into the Trump campaign's relationship with Russia was illegal.
The Wall
Trump claimed Democrats had previously voted for a border wall.
"And you know we couldn't get the wall approved by the Democrats, even though they voted for it four years ago and six years ago and didn't get built, but they voted for it. All of a sudden, Trump is president, 'We don't want a wall.'"
Facts First: Some Democrats — notably excluding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — voted in 2006 for the Secure Fence Act, which authorized 700 miles of border fencing. But the fencing was different than the Trump campaign proposal the Democrats opposed 10 years later, which was for a giant concrete wall.
Environment
Trump suggested the environment has improved under his administration.
"Our air and water are the cleanest they've ever been by far."
Facts First: After a prolonged period of improvement, US air quality is now getting worse, according to the American Lung Association, which has produced an annual data report on the subject for 20 years.
Clinton's emails
Trump went after former Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton and her use of a private email server.
"Thirty-three thousand emails deleted, think of it. I keep mentioning, you know, there was a lot of corruption on the other side. But you know, the simplest thing: they get a subpoena from the United States Congress and they decide that they're not going to give it. So, Lindsey Graham, they did delete and they acid wash, which is very expensive. Nobody does it. They acid wash those emails, never to be seen again. But we may find them somewhere deep in the State Department."
Facts First: A server company working for Hillary Clinton deleted these emails using a free software program called BleachBit. BleachBit is not expensive. It involves neither actual bleach nor acid.
China
Trump made numerous false statements related to China and the tariffs his administration has implemented.
"As you know, you may have read a couple of things about China. I spoke to President Xi, terrific president, a great leader of China, spoke to him this morning at length. And we'll see what happens. But we're either going to have a good deal and a fair deal or we're not going to have a deal at all. And that's OK, too. Because we are taking in billions and billions of dollars into our treasury and companies are leaving China because they want to avoid paying these large tariffs. And, by the way, when the fake news tells you that you're paying — in the case of China, they devalue their currency, that helps them. And do you know what else they are doing? They are subsidizing those companies, and you're not paying very much if you're paying anything at all, the case of China. And we are taking billions and billions of dollars in."
Facts First: Trump was wrong that Americans are not paying for his tariffs on imported Chinese goods. American importers are the ones who make the actual tariff payments to the government, and numerous American businesses have publicly said that they have been hit with higher costs they are passing costs on to consumers.
Trump also appeared to misrepresent the US trade deficit with China.
"We would lose $500 billion a year with China. We rebuilt China. They have done a great job, but they took us for suckers. And that includes Obama and Biden. They took us for suckers. Five hundred billion, $500 billion. Somebody said you mean $500 million, that's a lot too, right? No, $500 billion. It's actually more than that I don't want to be too specific: 507."
Facts First: The general "$500 billion" and the specific "$507 billion" figures are both false: the US has never had a $500 billion trade deficit with China. The deficit was $381 billion in 2018, $337 billion in 2017.
Trump did not specify this time that he was talking about the trade deficit, but he has done so more than 100 times in the past when he used the "$500 billion" or "$507 billion" figures.
"And we are taking billions and billions of dollars in, and, remember this, and you know it as well as I do: we have never taken in 10 cents from China."
Facts First: The U.S. government has been charging tariffs on imported Chinese goods for more than two centuries, and it took in hefty sums from such tariffs long before Trump's own tariffs.
The Treasury received $14 billion from tariffs on China in 2014, to look at one pre-Trump year. (Again, it is US importers, not China, who have paid these tariffs.)
Unemployment and wages
"And if you take a look at the African-American community, how much progress has been made: the lowest unemployment numbers in the history of our country."
Facts First: If you're starting the count in the early 1970s, when the government began using its current methodology for calculating African-American unemployment, Trump is correct that the unemployment rate for African-Americans has hit a new low during his presidency, though it has increased slightly since hitting that low in May 2018.
African-American unemployment was 6.2% in May 2019, up from 5.9% a year prior.
Much of the progress, however, happened during the Obama administration. The African-American unemployment rate dropped from 12.7% in January 2009, when Obama took office, to 7.9% in December 2016, Obama's last full month in office. It has fallen from 7.9% to 6.2% during Trump's tenure.
