What mr. Trump said
“We have rebuilt the American manufacturing base, opened thousands of new factories and brought back the beautiful phrase ‘Made in the USA'”
It has no evidence. Employment rose by just under 500,000 before the pandemic, but by December it had fallen by more than 75,000. The production output also increased modestly before falling to lower than when Mr. Trump took office. The number of manufacturing companies under mr. Trump increased, but most of it employed five or fewer people.
What mr. Trump said
“We have passed VA Choice, VA liability, right to try, and the reform of criminal justice.”
This is misleading. The Veterans Choice health care program was created in 2014; Mr. Trump has signed an update to the law. Similarly, the 2018 Right to Try Act of 2018 terminally ill patients allows patients access to experimental medicines that have not yet been fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but a similar program has existed since the 1970s.
What mr. Trump said
‘NATO countries now pay hundreds of billions of dollars more than when I arrived there a few years ago. It was very unfair. We paid the world’s costs. ”
This is exaggerated. Four years in office, Mr. Trump’s misunderstanding and characterization of the military spending commitments of members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization does not change. Member countries make direct contributions to the relatively small central fund of the organization, based on national income, and also agree to spend at least 2 percent of the gross domestic product on defense.
Mr. Trump’s complaints prompted the alliance to reduce the United States’ contribution to the common fund, which covers headquarters operations and some joint exercises, to 16 percent of the total of 22 percent. However, the power of NATO comes from the military budgets of each member state. The number of countries complying with the 2 percent guideline has increased from five to ten in the past year. Mr. Trump may claim credit for increased spending, but it is noteworthy that in 2014, before taking office, countries promised to meet the target within a decade.
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