Trump repeated some of his favorite fakes in both his farewell video address, which was released on Tuesday, and in his last speech Wednesday morning at Joint Base Andrews.
Here’s another fact check.
In the video address, Trump said he has appointed “nearly 300 federal judges.” In his last speech, Trump also said he “got nearly 300 federal judges and three major justices from the Supreme Court.” He added in the speech: “This is a record number.”
Facts first: Trump was wrong, both with his number and with his claim that he set a record. He has confirmed 234 judges in the high court, district courts and appellate courts, according to figures from Brookings Institution visiting Russell Wheeler; even if you move around generously, it does not qualify as nearly 300. And President Jimmy Carter appointed 261 total judges, according to Wheeler – 39% of the ratings available at the time compared to Trump’s 27%.
Veterane Choice
Trump has claimed in the video address for more than the 160th time as president that he is the one responsible for creating the Veterans Choice health care program: “We have passed VA Choice.” (He made a less explicit version of the claim in his last speech.)
Facts first: Trump was wrong again. Former President Barack Obama has signed the Veterans Choice program in 2014. What Trump signed was a 2018 law, the VA MISSION Act, which adapted and expanded the criteria for the Choice program.
The law Obama signed in 2014, which allows certain veterans to be covered by the government for health care provided by doctors outside the VA system, was a two-pronged initiative led by two senators who repeatedly criticized Trump, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and the late John McCain of Arizona. .
We mention Trump’s claim that he got Veterans Choice one of his 15 most important lies in office.
Oil and gas production
Trump claims in the video address: “We have also unlocked our energy resources and become by far the world’s number 1 producer of oil and natural gas.”
Facts first: While US energy production has indeed done Increase under Trump, Trump does not deserve the honor of making the U.S. the number one spot in overall energy production. The US actually became the world’s largest total producer of oil and natural gas under President Barack Obama in 2012, according to data published by the government’s energy information administration. It was especially crude oil in which the US became the largest producer in the world during Trump’s tenure.
“The United States has been the largest producer of natural gas in the world since 2009, when US natural gas production surpassed that of Russia, and since 2013 the largest producer of petroleum hydrocarbons, when its production surpassed Saudi Arabia.” Information administration says.
The boundary wall
Trump claims in the video address that the US has built “more than 450 miles of powerful new wall” under him.
Facts first: It needs context. It’s true that more than 450 kilometers of border barriers have been built under Trump – 453 miles as of January 8, 2021, according to official US statistics on customs and border protection to CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez. Only 47 of these 453 miles were erected where no obstacles existed before.
Of the other 406 miles: 351 miles have replaced pre-existing primary barriers that the government describes as dilapidated or outdated; 22 miles replaces pre-existing dilapidated or obsolete secondary barriers; 33 miles were new secondary barriers where previously there were only primary barriers.
We should not reject the importance of even replacing barriers, as many of the barriers in the Trump era are significant
bigger, more expensive and more controversial than the barriers they replaced. But it is noteworthy that Trump has not placed 450-mile barriers on sites that previously had no defense at all.
Trump’s total of 2020
Trump claimed in his last speech that “we only got 75 million votes”, a record for a sitting president.
Facts first: This is another small exaggeration. Trump receives 74.2 million votes in the 2020 election, which does not amount to 75 million. Trump’s total is indeed a record for a sitting president, but Trump also did not admit that Joe Biden received more than 7 million more votes than he did.
– Tara Subramaniam
Unemployment rates
Trump boasts in the video address that he “achieved record low unemployment for African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, women …”
Facts first: There are two inaccuracies here. First, the unemployment rate for women has never reached a record low under Trump. (Before the coronavirus pandemic, it was among the lowest in U.S. history, but not the lowest.) Second, the unemployment rate for all of these groups is no longer near record levels; Trump’s fame ignores the fact that unemployment rates skyrocketed early in the pandemic and remain high today.
The December 2020 unemployment rate for African Americans was 9.9%. This is well above the 8.0% of Trump’s first full month, February 2017, and the record of 5.2% in August 2019.
The December 2020 unemployment rate for Hispanic Americans was 9.3%. This is well above the 5.6% of February 2017 and the record of 4.0% in September 2019.
The December 2020 unemployment rate for women was 6.7%. This is well above the 4.6% of February 2017 and the record of 2.7% in May 1953.
The December 2020 unemployment rate for Asian Americans was 5.8%. (This rate is not seasonally adjusted; the rates for the other groups in this fact check are seasonally adjusted.) This is well above the 3.5% of February 2017 and the record of 2.0% of May 2018.
Trump’s work record
In his last speech, Trump boasted about his record of posts, saying that we “had such good – and had – such good job numbers. The job numbers were absolutely incredible.” He added: “If we had not been hit by the pandemic, we would have had numbers that would never have been seen – our numbers are already the best ever.”
Facts first: Trump’s grammar makes this assertion a little difficult to verify – he seems to go back and forth from fame over the past to fame over the present – but he obviously does not have “the best” record of any president . In fact, thanks to the heavy job losses in the pandemic era, he leaves office in the USA about 3 million fewer jobs than when he took office. No other president in the era after World War II, the period for which we have good official data, had a negative work record.
Trump’s record of job creation lagged behind several other presidents even before the pandemic.
Trump’s tax cuts
Trump claimed in both the farewell video and his last speech that he had passed the largest tax cuts in U.S. history.
Facts first: Trump’s tax cuts in 2017 were not the largest in U.S. history. Tax cuts were bigger, whether you measure inflation-adjusted dollars or as part of the national economy.
Tax cuts in 1981, 2010 and 2013 were larger, either in inflation-adjusted dollars or as part of the economy. As part of the economy, there were even others that were larger, according to the Committee on a Responsible Federal Budget, a think tank focused on fiscal policy.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed under Trump in 2017, provided for reductions that are the largest in nominal terms, but even then they are still smaller than tax cuts passed in 2013.
– Katie Lobosco
