Trump's border wall is (still) not being built President Trump has said some variation of "the wall is being built — it's going up rapidly" more than 190 times since taking office. He doubled down again after the Defense Department announced it would be reprogramming $3.6 billion in funds Congress appropriated for military projects to fund 175 miles of fencing and barriers along the southern border. Trump told reporters, "We're building very large sections of wall. ... We're building different sections simultaneously. And we think by the end of next year — which will be sometime right after the election, actually — but we think we're going to have close to 500 miles of wall which will be complete." Except, that isn't the case. So far, only 64 miles of new or replacement fencing have been built under this administration. Trump wants to build around 500 miles by the end of 2020, but only 110 to 165 miles of that would be new fencing or barriers where none existed before. But that is still not Trump's promised concrete wall. Plus, it only happens if he wins an ongoing court battle over whether he can redirect the funds Congress already appropriated. All of that is a long way of saying: Despite what the president says or what you may have heard, the border wall has not been built. Replacement barriers and fencing, yes. The wall, no. We reaffirmed our previous Three Pinocchio ruling for his ongoing claim.  Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this e-mail was forwarded to you, sign up here. Hear something fact-checkable? Send it here, we'll check it out. A short history of campaign ads There's the doom-and-gloom music, the deep ominous voice, the dark cloudy sky, and of course, the factual exaggerations. But campaign ads weren't always like this. Television ads were not a priority for candidates until the 1950s, and even then they were mostly testimonials or speeches featuring the occasional cartoon. Dwight D. Eisenhower and his opponents in 1952 and 1956 mostly ran video testimonials or speeches. It wasn't until a small girl picking daises in a 1964 ad for Lyndon B. Johnson that political advertising changed. The earliest version of what we now think of as the negative campaign ad was Johnson's "Peace, Little Girl" ad, known more commonly as the "Daisy" commercial. Over the next three decades, common themes emerged. If it's an incumbent running, their ads will encourage voters to stay the course — especially if the economy is good — while challengers will preach change. Republicans would say Democrats will raise taxes. Democrats would say Republicans will destroy Social Security or Medicare. This day and age, the widespread prominence of internet video has brought another evolution in campaign ads — and we put together a visual guide. Videos can be manipulated to make it seem as though politicians said things they never said. Political ads use actors to suggest a candidate has support from certain groups, when they don't. Whether or not the barrage of political advertising leads to changes in voting behavior is debatable. That said, don't be shy if you see something that seems a bit off. Send it our way and we'll look into it.  We're always looking for fact-check suggestions. You can also reach us via email, Twitter (@GlennKesslerWP, @mmkelly22, @rizzoTK or use #FactCheckThis), or Facebook (Fact Checker). Read about our rating scale here, and sign up for the newsletter here. Scroll down for this week's Pinocchio roundup. | 
Email
No comments:
Post a Comment