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Trump's Fact-Checking Fiasco: A Collection of Dubious Claims

Strategic Insights

— 2 min read

President Donald Trump has a long history of making false claims in his speeches, and his recent remarks to US service members on an aircraft carrier stationed in Japan are no exception. Trump repeated his regular lie that he won the 2020 election, a claim that has been thoroughly debunked. He also made a series of other dubious claims about grocery prices, inflation, investment in the US, alleged drug boats, migration under Biden, and more.

Key Takeaways:

  • Trump repeated his false claim that he won the 2020 election, a claim that has been thoroughly debunked.
  • Trump made a series of false claims about grocery prices, saying they are "way down" when in fact they have increased since last August (0.3%), September 2024 (2.7%), and January 2025 (1.4%).
  • Trump falsely claimed that "inflation has been defeated," when in fact inflation has been worsening since May, reaching about 3% in September.
  • Trump claimed that no president has ever ended a war, but in fact, US presidents have played a major role in ending various wars by winning them, including World War I, World War II, and the Gulf War.
  • Trump repeated his false claim that there is "$17 trillion, trillion with a T, pouring into the United States of America from all over the world," a figure that is completely fictional.
  • Trump claimed that each alleged drug boat he has had the military attack kills "on average 25,000 people, American people, every single year," a claim that is absurd and lacks any semblance of reality.
  • Trump repeated his false claim that 25 million people poured into the US under the Biden administration, a figure that is wildly inaccurate.
  • Trump claimed that Biden falsely claimed to have been a pilot, when in fact there is no evidence of such a claim by Biden.
  • Trump said that he has named the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America and claimed that the US has "92% of the shoreline," a claim that is completely false and lacks any basis in reality.

Statistics:

  • Consumer Price Index figures for September showed average grocery prices increased since August (0.3%), September 2024 (2.7%), and January 2025 (1.4%).
  • Inflation, measured by the Consumer Price Index, reached about 3% in September, up from about 2.9% in August and near-identical to the roughly 3% rate in January.
  • The US inflation rate hit a 40-year high under Biden in June 2022, reaching 9.1%.
  • Through December 2024, the last full month under the Biden administration, the federal government had recorded under 11 million nationwide "encounters" with migrants during that administration.
  • The total number of US overdose deaths from all drugs in 2024 was about 82,000, according to provisional federal data.
  • The White House's own website says the "major investment announcements" this term total "$8.9 trillion," and even that is not actually money "pouring in" at present.

Sources:

  • "Fact check: 11 Trump claims from his recent speech to US service members", CNN (2022)
  • "Inflation under Biden", CNN (2022)
  • "Trump's false claim about 17 trillion in investment", CNN (2022)
  • "The absurd math behind Trump's claim about the drug boats", CNN (2022)
  • "False claim about 25 million migrants under Biden", CNN (2022)
  • "Biden didn't claim to be a pilot", CNN (2022)
  • "Trump's Gulf of America claim is completely false", CNN (2022)
  • "US coastline adds up to just under half of the Gulf's total", CNN (2022)

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