Mr. Trump’s statement that “it was I who crushed 100% of the ISIS caliphate” was also not true. About a third to half of the area previously owned by the Islamic State is, according to military and independent estimates, under Mr. Obama’s government reclaimed. And officials and experts have always expected the campaign, which began in 2014, long before Mr. Trump would take office would lead to the expulsion of the extremist group from its self-proclaimed caliphate.
Half truths and murky accusations
Three dozen tweets from the president occupied an actual gray zone. Some were typical examples of political twist, not entirely true and also not entirely wrong.
He has twice claimed that he prohibitiontravel from China and to do so ”before anyone thought it necessaryTo contain the spread of the coronavirus. These were exaggerations. The restrictions did not amount to a complete ban. They did not apply to U.S. citizens or green card holders, and they contained other exemptions. Numerous other countries have taken similar actions before Mr. Trump did it.
He misled the United States into doing 15 million coronavirus tests, ”by far the most in the world, “And the number of cases and deaths”going down all over the country. The raw number of tests, although accurate, does not reflect the fact that the United States is still lagging behind other countries with the per capita test. Cases and deaths have declined across the country, but not in some states.
Ten tweets were devoted to the announcement of grants to local transport agencies of the Department of Transportation. Unsurprisingly, these grants have been awarded regularly since the 2013 federal financial year, and in the first two years of his presidency, the proposed budgets of Mr. Trump called for the grants to be phased out.
Other tweets are ambiguously worded, making it difficult to check, even if it indicates a rogue activity.
Mr. Trump two times said that social media companies ‘tried’ and ‘failed’ in the 2016 election, but never specified what exactly the companies were trying to do. (In the past, he’s mischaracterized research to give an unfounded suggestion that Google ‘manipulated’ votes.)
Perhaps there is no better example of how Mr. Trump is trading in vague allegations as his repeated allegations of the “biggest political crime” or scandal in history, committed by the Obama administration to undermine his 2016 campaign and the beginning of his presidency. In four tweets, the president echo this but never specified what the crime was. In others, he simply referred to ‘Obamagate’.
Curious about the accuracy of a claim? Email [email protected].