U.S. President Donald Trump held a rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Thursday, where he made many claims — some were truthful, while others required more scrutiny.
The rally came following the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, which did not find evidence that members of Trump’s campaign had co-ordinated with Russia during the 2016 election.
WATCH: Trump lambasts Democrats, media over Mueller investigation
Trump didn’t exactly characterize the report’s findings accurately, however.
Here are a series of claims that Trump made at his rally in Grand Rapids:
CLAIM: “We’re bringing a lot of these car companies back. Remember, I told you they’re coming back in!”
FACT CHECK: Fiat Chrysler announced last month a $4.5-billion expansion of its production capacity in Michigan in an effort to “meet growing demand for its Jeep and Ram brands.”
However, the company had plans to do this before Trump became president. And it’s the only carmaker that has announced plans to reopen in the state.
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GM, for instance, has announced plans to close two factories in Michigan this year so the president can hardly claim that his administration is “bringing a lot of these car companies back.”
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CLAIM: “The ISIS caliphate is defeated, 100 per cent.”
FACT CHECK: ISIS has indeed lost all its territory, but its “caliph,” or leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is still on the run alongside some other senior commanders.
That doesn’t mean ISIS’ threat has been neutralized. Members of the organization continue to belong to cells located around the world.
CLAIM: “The special counsel completed its report and found no collusion and no obstruction. I could have told you that two and a half years ago very easily: total exoneration, complete vindication.”
FACT CHECK: Mueller’s investigation found no evidence to suggest that Trump colluded with Russia when it came to interference in the 2016 election, but the president didn’t accurately reflect what’s publicly known about the probe.
Mueller did not make any conclusions about whether Trump obstructed justice, but his report also “does not exonerate him,” according to a letter that Attorney General William Barr wrote to lawmakers summarizing the investigation.
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CLAIM: “They just got great ratings. By the way, their ratings dropped through the floor last night, did you see that?”
FACT CHECK: Ratings for certain networks have dropped following the release of the Mueller report.
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MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow saw her audience decline by about 19 per cent on Monday compared to her average this year before viewership fell again on Tuesday, according to the Nielsen company.
Prime-time hosts on CNN have also seen their audience numbers fall.
Certain hosts on Fox News, however, have seen their ratings increase. Sean Hannity’s audience jumped to four million on Monday, representing a 32 per cent increase compared to his average, though that number fell to 3.57 million on Tuesday.
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CLAIM: “We do not abuse the law enforcement and intelligence power to target our political opponents. They spied on me, they spied on our campaign. Who would think that’s possible?”
FACT CHECK: In 2018, Trump reportedly told the White House counsel that he wanted the Justice Department to investigate ex-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and former FBI director James Comey, according to the New York Times.
Former White House counsel John Dean said Richard Nixon — who kept enemies lists — would suggest that this was going too far.
CLAIM: On the border wall — “We’re building it and we’re building it a lot faster than anyone — and better!”
FACT CHECK: Sections of barrier along America’s southwest border are indeed being upgraded, Vox reported last month.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had begun work close to San Diego on 14 miles of border structures at that time, and work was set to begin on a new section of border wall stretching for six miles.
However, these were approved in congressional appropriations bills that did not permit Trump to order the construction of any of the prototypes for a border wall that he had previously shown off in San Diego.
More recently, the Pentagon announced it would divert $1 billion to help the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and CBP to plan and build 57 miles worth of fencing in El Paso, Texas, and Yuma, Ariz. That money will also help to build roads and install lighting.
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CLAIM: “Our country has never done better economically.”
FACT CHECK: The United States has seen consistent economic growth throughout Trump’s presidency, but it’s not the best it’s ever been.
While America’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 2.9 per cent in 2018 — short of Trump’s three per cent goal — the metric has topped that mark in numerous years.
In 1984, for example, America’s GDP grew by over seven per cent, according to World Bank data.
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CLAIM: “Since our election win, the stock market is up almost 50 per cent. You’re looking like geniuses with your 401(k)s!”
FACT CHECK: The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) has grown by 35 per cent since Trump became president.
The S&P 500 has also grown during Trump’s time in office — but by just over 30 per cent, not 50 per cent.
CLAIM: “We’ve created 5.5 million new jobs, including… 600,000 brand-new manufacturing jobs.”
FACT CHECK: While the United States has seen strong job growth since Trump became president, it’s generally continued a trend that began before he was in office, Aaron Sojourner, a former labour economist with the Council of Economic Advisors, noted in January.
As Sojourner noted, jobs numbers started growing around 2010 and have hardly abated since.
Trump, he said, repeatedly dismissed jobs gains as “phony numbers” but later embraced them when he became president.
CLAIM: “Importantly, African-American unemployment, Hispanic-American employment, Asian-American unemployment and unemployment among the disabled have all reached the lowest rates in the history of our country.”
FACT CHECK: Unemployment has hit historically low levels, but that, too, comes as part of a trend that began well before Trump entered the White House.
The unemployment rate was 3.8 per cent in February, the lowest it’s been since April 2000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
It’s also true that African-American, Hispanic-American and Asian-American unemployment as well as unemployment for people with disabilities, is lower than it has been in the past, but this also represents a continuation of long-term trends.
The unemployment rate for African Americans was seven per cent in February, nearly double the rate for the U.S. civilian population. For people with disabilities, it was 9.1 per cent.
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FACT CHECK: The Green New Deal does not stipulate that there will be no more airplanes or cars.
The attack, however, likely originates from an early draft of the Green New Deal, which described a project to “totally overhaul transportation by massively expanding electric vehicle manufacturing, build charging stations everywhere, build out high-speed rail at a scale where air travel stops becoming necessary, create public transit available to all, with (a) goal to replace every combustion-engine vehicle,” as recounted by FactCheck.org.
However, the actual Green New Deal resolution doesn’t say that.
The deal calls for the overhaul of transportation systems to “remove pollution and greenhouse gas emissions” through investment in areas such as zero-emission vehicle manufacturing and infrastructure, clean public transit and high-speed rail.
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CLAIM: “We’re on track for a million illegal aliens trying to rush our borders. It is an invasion, you know that?”
FACT CHECK: There may, eventually, be one million migrants approaching the U.S. border. But it’s not currently on pace for that.
The U.S. southwest border has seen apprehensions at a monthly average of 53,600 persons in the 2019 fiscal year.
If that continues, a total of over 643,000 will have been apprehended there.
That’s up from just under 400,000 in fiscal year 2018, but it’s still lower than the numbers seen in 2007 and 2008.
Nevertheless, the number of people apprehended at the southwest border was higher last month than it’s been at any point in the last six years.
—With files from Reuters and the Associated Press
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