AP FACT CHECK: Trump exaggerates record while abroad

tommyjo

New Member
More Trump BS. Naturally, every one of you believes the crap that spews forth from our President. This guy is really something...he takes credit for EVERYTHING and the blame for NOTHING. You think he will make any attempt to learn the basics of how our government works before he quits or gets tossed out (either by legal problems or voted out)?


WASHINGTON (AP) — Here’s a new U.S. export: President Donald Trump’s exaggerations about his record.

In his speech in Saudi Arabia on Sunday during his first foreign trip as president, Trump claimed to have accomplished record spending on the armed forces, even though Congress has yet to pass a budget that reflects his plans and promises. Trump releases a detailed budget proposal Tuesday after having come up only with an outline before, and nothing is achieved until and unless Congress passes something.

Trump often takes credit for accomplishments that have yet to be realized or that were the work of his predecessor, as he did last week when boasting about a Coast Guard icebreaker that the Obama administration started. But it was his first opportunity to do so abroad.

Trump’s foreign trip came as something of a break from the storm over the investigation into his 2016 campaign’s relationship with Russia. That episode prompted a number of questionable statements by the president and his aides. Here’s a review of claims on various matters over the past week:

TRUMP: “In just a few months, we have created almost a million new jobs ... and made record investments in our military.” — speech in Riyadh on Sunday

THE FACTS: He’s getting ahead of developments on military spending, with no budget passed. He also not proposing a record increase in military spending as his remarks might imply.

The 10 percent increase he called for in his March budget outline has been exceeded three times in recent history — the base military budget went up by 14.3 percent, in 2002, 11.3 percent in 2003 and 10.9 percent in 2008, according to the Pentagon. Looked at another way and deeper into history, military spending consumed 43 percent of the economy in 1944, during World War II, and 15 percent in 1952, during the Korean War. It was 3.3 percent in 2015, says the World Bank.

Trump’s claim that almost 1 million jobs have been added is in the ballpark, though it’s taken more than a “few months” and Barack Obama was president for most of one of them, January.

Job creation has averaged 185,000 a month from January through April. But that is the same pace of hiring as occurred in 2016, when Obama was president, and slower than in 2014 and 2015, when more than 225,000 jobs a month were added, on average.

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TRUMP: “I’m proud to say that under my administration, as you just heard, we will be building the first new heavy icebreakers the United States has seen in over 40 years.” — Coast Guard Academy speech Wednesday

THE FACTS: Trump is claiming credit for something that started under his predecessor. Obama’s homeland security secretary, Jeh Johnson, spoke about modernization of the Coast Guard fleet and design work on a new heavy polar icebreaker a year ago in a speech to graduating Coast Guard cadets.

___

TRUMP, on his decision to fire FBI Director James Comey: “I actually thought when I made that decision — and I also got a very, very strong recommendation, as you know, from the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein.” — news conference Thursday with his Colombian counterpart, Juan Manuel Santos.

THE FACTS: The recommendation he cites came after Trump decided to fire Comey, according to Rosenstein and to Trump’s own previous statement taking sole ownership of the decision.

In an interview with NBC two days after the May 9 Comey dismissal, Trump said he had been planning to fire Comey for months, and linked it with the FBI’s Russia investigation. “In fact when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.’”

On Thursday, Rosenstein told senators in a closed-door briefing that he had been informed of Trump’s decision to fire Comey before he wrote his memo providing a rationale for that act, said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

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TRUMP: “Even my enemies have said there is no collusion.” — Thursday news conference

THE FACTS: Democrats have not absolved Trump on whether his campaign and Russian officials coordinated efforts last year to disadvantage his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Several have said they have not seen evidence of collusion, but that’s not to say they are satisfied it did not happen.

Trump has cited James Clapper, the director of national intelligence until Trump took office Jan. 20, among others, as being “convinced” there was no collusion.

Clapper said this past week that while a report he issued in January did not uncover collusion, he did not know at the time that the FBI was digging deeply into “potential political collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians” and he was unaware of what the bureau might have found. The FBI inquiry continues, as do congressional investigations and, now, one by the special counsel.

___

TRUMP: “Obamacare is collapsing. It’s dead. It’s gone. There’s nothing to compare anything to because we don’t have health care in this country. You just look at what’s happening. Aetna just pulled out. Other insurance companies are pulling out. We don’t have health care. Obamacare is a fallacy. It’s gone.” — Thursday news conference

THE FACTS: He’s venting and not to be taken literally. Obama’s health care law remains in effect and people are using it. As of last count 12.2 million signed up for private health plans through HealthCare.gov and state markets that offer federally subsidized coverage. Separately another estimated 12 million were made eligible for Medicaid through the law’s expansion of that program. It’s true that many people who buy their own health insurance are facing another year of big premium increases and shrinking choices.

Trump worked with House Republicans to pass a bill that would roll back much of the health law and the Senate is considering the legislation.

___

TRUMP, speaking of the MS-13 gang presence in the U.S.: “A horrible, horrible large group of gangs that have been let into our country over a fairly short period of time. ... They’ve literally taken over towns and cities of the United States.” — Thursday news conference.

THE FACTS: His depiction of the gang as a foreign one “let into” the U.S. is not accurate.

The gang actually began in Los Angeles, according to a fact sheet from Trump’s own Justice Department, and “spread quickly across the country.” And it started not recently, but in the 1980s, according to that same fact sheet.

The department indirectly credits the Obama administration, in its early years, with helping to rein in the group, largely made up of first-generation Salvadoran-Americans and Salvadoran nationals. It said: “Through the combined efforts of federal, state and local law enforcement, great progress was made diminishing or severely (disrupting) the gang within certain targeted areas of the U.S. by 2009 and 2010.”

The U.S. carried out record deportations during the Obama administration and, on MS-13 specifically, took the unprecedented action of labeling the street gang a transnational criminal organization and announcing a freeze on its U.S. assets. Such actions were not enough to bring down the group and the Trump administration says it will do more.

___

TRUMP: “I won’t talk about how much I saved you on the F-35 fighter jet. I won’t even talk about it.” — Coast Guard Academy speech

THE FACTS: He shouldn’t. Trump has repeatedly taken credit for cost savings that began before his presidency on this jet. Pentagon officials took steps before the election to reduce costs on the Lockheed contract and announced savings Dec. 19, a month before Trump was sworn in.

https://apnews.com/a73dcf675b074a86a65ade115dfb3b65
 

Gilligan

#*! boat!
PREMO Member
Hey stupid...why don't you just post the entire piece and forget about the link altogether?
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
TRUMP, speaking of the MS-13 gang presence in the U.S.: “A horrible, horrible large group of gangs that have been let into our country over a fairly short period of time. ... They’ve literally taken over towns and cities of the United States.” — Thursday news conference.

THE FACTS: His depiction of the gang as a foreign one “let into” the U.S. is not accurate.

it is not inaccurate either ....... it has been published, Obama [administration] let in dozens of known MS-13 members as 'teen agers'


TRUMP: “Obamacare is collapsing. It’s dead. It’s gone. There’s nothing to compare anything to because we don’t have health care in this country. You just look at what’s happening. Aetna just pulled out. Other insurance companies are pulling out. We don’t have health care. Obamacare is a fallacy. It’s gone.” — Thursday news conference



how many companies have dropped out now ? I'd call that collapsing and dying
 

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
Obamacare IS dead - and I am not sure that wasn't the plan all along. Blue Cross Blue Shield is in the process of dropping out.

Geez, who is still IN? Humana, Aetna - now BC/BS (for some states and probably all, eventually).

This is why I can't see why people are complaining about the AHCA - it's like the Titanic sinking, and complaining that the lifeboat doesn't look sturdy enough.
 

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
Hey stupid...why don't you just post the entire piece and forget about the link altogether?

Because in TJ's twisted logic - aside from the forum policy of NOT posting the entire piece - you won't READ it all unless it's all there.

I don't need to read it all. When a source habitually finds fault with EVERYTHING a person does, I can't ever expect them to be honest and accurate.
NO ONE is wrong all the time.
 

itsbob

I bowl overhand
Where is ToeJoe's response to the report of Trump insulting the German Prime Minister in a closed meeting.. and the EU President telling the press.. "IT didn't happen!!" fake news..
 

Chris0nllyn

Well-Known Member
It's pretty amazing watching you gobble up lies and spin, then accusing any one else of "head in the sand".

In particular, the hub-bub about AP being a lying rag piece and Obamacare dying.

AP acknowledged that, but unless they specifically say "Obamacare is a failing mess of a legislation" (as if the Republicans have a better plan), it's all "fake news"!

Everything casting Trump in a bad light is "fake news".
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
Everything casting Trump in a bad light is "fake news".

No, many times it's biased and spun news that only presents the negatives or spins a positive to sound like a negative.

But hey, you keep watching those polls if that's what makes you feel smort.
 

Chris0nllyn

Well-Known Member
No, many times it's biased and spun news that only presents the negatives or spins a positive to sound like a negative.

But hey, you keep watching those polls if that's what makes you feel smort.

These same sources and news agencies were used to point to Obama's failures as a President just a few months ago, now they're a left wing puppet hell bent on removing Trump from office? I'm sure Trump is completely innocent in everything he does and it's the fault of the media he's a ####ing idiot.

What polls? The same polls that said Hillary would win? No thanks.
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
It's the preffered term. You wouldn't call the PM of the UK "Chancellor".

It seems insignificant, sure, but it's an iomportant distinction nonetheless.

That was amazingly nitpicked and I thank you for sharing with us. Perhaps you want to spellcheck while you're at it? That will surely distract from the topic, that you don't seem to want to discuss.
 
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