Fact-checking Trump’s Nashville speech
The good news about President Donald Trump’s speech in Nashville last night was that he didn’t mention Roseanne Barr, which could have made that controversy much, much worse. The bad news? Try all of the false, misleading and dishonest claims he made.
“[There’s] never been an administration — and even some of our enemies are admitting it — that has done what we’ve done in the first year and a half. Think of it”
The tax law has been Trump’s only major legislative achievement, and he ranks behind other past presidents in bills signed into law.
“We’ve created 3.3 million new jobs since Election Day. If we would have said that before the election — I’m going to create 3.3 million new jobs — would never have [survived the] onslaught from fake news. Wouldn’t have accepted it, said no way you can do that”
While there have indeed been 3.3 million jobs created in the 18 months since Election Day 2016 (Nov. 2016-April 2018), there were 3.9 million jobs created in the 18 months before Election Day (May 2015-Oct. 2016) — when Trump was criticizing the state of the U.S. economy.
“Wages for the first time in many years are finally going up”
That is false; wages also increased during the final years of Obama’s presidency, per PolitiFact.
“[Nancy Pelosi] loves MS-13”
Pelosi was objecting to Trump calling undocumented immigrants “animals”; the White House says he was referring to MS-13 in his “animals” remarks. Pelosi never said she loved MS-13.
“So how do you like the fact they had people infiltrating our campaign? Can you imagine? Can you imagine?”
“Mexico, I don’t want to cause a problem. But in the end, Mexico’s going to pay for the wall”
Mexico once again said it wasn’t paying for Trump’s wall. Here’s Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto: “President @realDonaldTrump: NO. Mexico will NEVER pay for a wall. Not now, not ever. Sincerely, Mexico (all of us).”
“We passed largest tax cuts and reform in American history”
For an even more thorough account on Trump’s claims from last night, check out the feed from the Toronto Star’s Daniel Dale.
[NBC News]
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