News Reporter: Fact Checker: Lowlights of Trump's 26 hours of misinformation: A super flip-flop + 29 false/misleading claims

Friday 28 July 2017

Fact Checker: Lowlights of Trump's 26 hours of misinformation: A super flip-flop + 29 false/misleading claims

Democracy Dies in Darkness

The truth behind the rhetoric

Lowlights of Trump’s 26 hours of misinformation: A super flip-flop + 29 false/misleading claims

It’s been a busy year in Washington, but weeks like this one are especially hectic for political fact-checkers.

In a period of less than 26 hours — from 6:31 pm on July 24 to 8:09 PM on July 25 — President Trump made two fired-up speeches, held a news conference and tweeted with abandon, leaving a trail of misinformation in his wake. We found at least 29 false or misleading claims during that period. Here are some lowlights.

Trump’s cynical flip-flop on black youth employment

We've dubbed Trump the "king of flip-floppers." We know politicians may sincerely evolve on a policy stance, especially as new facts emerge or as their constituency forms a new opinion on an issue. But it’s important to acknowledge this shift; when they don’t, we issue Upside-Down Pinocchio ratings.

This week, we wished we had a Super Upside-Down Pinocchio rating.

As candidate, Trump repeatedly claimed 58 percent of African-American youth was unemployed. The official Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment rate for black youth at the time was about one-third of that: 19.2 percent.

Trump was counting students who are not looking for work as a part of the "unemployed" population. Technically, those students don't have jobs. But that does not fit the definition of "unemployed" and is especially problematic for this age group, because the number of people who aren't looking for jobs includes people who are in school full time. At the time, we gave Four Pinocchios.

The Trump campaign was very defensive about the figure, insisting it was much more accurate than the official unemployment rate. However, as president, Trump is now citing the unemployment rate for African Americans, bragging that it's the best since the turn of the century. It's all too convenient for Trump to embrace accurate statistics when they look good for him. It was such a cynical flip-flop.

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We compiled a round-up of his 29 suspect claims over 26 hours, and highlighted the most interesting or odd ones below. View the full round-up of 29 claims here.

"Lebanon is on the front lines in the fight against ISIS, Al Qaida and Hezbollah."

Trump made this comment at a joint news conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri. But Hariri is only in power because of a deal he struck with Michel Aoun, Hezbollah's main Christian ally, to make Aoun president. Hezbollah, the militant group, dominates the Lebanese cabinet and is more powerful than the official Lebanese army, recently launching an operation against a militant group in the eastern town of Arsal. So it's a bit odd for Trump to suggest the Lebanese government is fighting Hezbollah.

“And you know we have a tremendous disadvantage in the Electoral College — popular vote is much easier."

According to a tally by John Pitney of Claremont McKenna College, every Republican president since Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876 won a larger share of the electoral college votes than Trump, with the exception of George W. Bush (twice) and Nixon in 1968.

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"And very soon, Rick, we will be an energy exporter. Isn't that nice — an energy exporter? In other words, we'll be selling our energy instead of buying it from everybody all over the globe."

The United States is already exporting energy, and has exported more than it has imported since 2015. Led by the hydraulic fracturing techniques, the United States and the rest of the world have been in the midst of an energy revolution that began nearly 15 years ago. Saudi Arabia leads the world with one-fifth of the world's oil reserves.

"Since my election, we've added much more than 1 million jobs. Think of that."

It's unclear why Trump would give himself credit for jobs created in the last three months of President Barack Obama's term. In the five months since Trump took office, 863,000 jobs have been created — fewer than the last five months of Obama's second term. Indeed, Trump is falling behind on his promise to create 10 million jobs in his first term.

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"We have cut illegal immigration on our southern border by record numbers — 78 percent."

Trump's anti-illegal-immigration rhetoric has contributed to lower border crossings along the Southwestern border, experts say. Despite seasonal trends, apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border declined steadily since October 2016. In April 2017, apprehensions reached their lowest point since at least 2002. But since then, apprehensions are climbing again, more in line with seasonal trends.

The figure Trump uses is exaggerated; he is comparing data from November or December 2016 (before he was inaugurated) compared to the lowest point in April 2017. There was just an 8.1 percent decline from February 2017 (the first full month of data from his presidency) through June 2017 (the latest data available).

We’re always looking for fact-check suggestions. You can also reach us via email, Twitter (@myhlee, @GlennKesslerWP, @mmkelly22 or use #FactCheckThis), or Facebook (Fact Checker or myhlee). Read about our rating scale here, and sign up here for our weekly Fact Checker newsletter.