Biden's tricky claim on 'mom-and-pop' businesses How would you define a "mom-and-pop" business? Up to 10 employees? Fifty? One hundred or more? Without a clear definition to go by, it's the kind of term that can be molded to the occasion. Enter President Biden. Days before his inauguration this week, Biden's transition team released a video conversation he had with the owner of a fledgling empanadas business in Miami. Biden: "We are going to push very hard because the single biggest driver of employment are mom-and-pop small businesses; they employ more people in America than the big corporations do." The Small Business Administration, using 2013 Census data, says that 48 percent of private-sector workers are at small businesses, defined as those with 499 employees or fewer. That means 52 percent would work at companies of 500 or more. Using this data set, Biden is wrong. Using a different data set, the numbers narrowly flip. The Biden transition team pointed to 2020 Bureau of Labor Statistics data, which show that businesses with fewer than 500 people account for 52 percent of employment, compared with 48 percent for companies with more than 500 people. In any case, the empanadas entrepreneur in Biden's video mentioned a business of 10 people or fewer. The SBA fact sheet says 17 percent of workers are at companies with fewer than 20 people. But Biden also mentioned employment at "big corporations," providing another data point that made his comment more accurate. Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this email was forwarded to you, sign up here. Did you hear something fact-checkable? Send it here; we'll check it out. Closing the book on Trump The final count is in: Former president Donald Trump uttered, proclaimed or tweeted 30,573 false or misleading claims during four years in office. Thirty thousand, five hundred and seventy-three. If they each stood one foot tall and were stacked up like a tower, airplanes would be crashing into it. If they each took one minute to read, it would take three straight weeks with no meals or sleep or bathroom breaks. Trump went out the same way he came in, boasting of fake accomplishments, revising recent history to toot his own horn and promoting conspiracy theories — though, in the end, Trump couldn't tweet, as he was banned from many social media platforms after inciting a deadly riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Make sure to check back next week, when we will unveil a final graphic visualization of the 30,573 claims. (The fact checks themselves are all online already.) For old times' sake, we fact-checked Trump's so-called farewell address, which his staff sent out this week as a video message. (It should be noted that the term "farewell address" turned out to be false, as Trump then gave a relatively brief, campaign-style speech just before departing to Florida on Jan. 20.) Trump: "The world respects us again. Please don't lose that respect." Surveys show that in many developed countries, favorable opinions of the United States tanked under Trump, especially regarding the country's management of the coronavirus. "For instance, just 41% in the United Kingdom express a favorable opinion of the U.S., the lowest percentage registered in any Pew Research Center survey there," according to the Pew Research Center, which has been polling several countries on this question for years. "In France, only 31% see the U.S. positively, matching the grim ratings from March 2003, at the height of U.S.-France tensions over the Iraq War. Germans give the U.S. particularly low marks on the survey: 26% rate the U.S. favorably, similar to the 25% in the same March 2003 poll." We're always looking for fact-check suggestions. You can reach us via email, Twitter (@GlennKesslerWP, @rizzoTK, @mmkelly22) or Facebook. Read about our process and rating scale here, and sign up for the newsletter here. Scroll down for this week's Pinocchio roundup. | 
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