Washington
CNN
—
Former President Donald Trump held a news conference Thursday in which he continued to be extremely dishonest — repeating more than 20 false claims he made in Monday’s conversation with Elon Musk.
Trump’s false Thursday claims have been debunked for years. But some of them are relatively new. At one point, he said that his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, had a California policy of allowing people to rob stores.
“They had a recent article, I don’t know this, but you’re allowed to rob a store as long as it’s not over $950. Everybody ever heard of that? You can rob a store, and these thieves have calculators inside the stores to calculate how much. Because if it’s less than $950 they can rob it and Can’t charge. She did it,” Trump said.
Facts first: This claim is false in two significant ways.
First, theft under $950 is illegal in California; It is an offense punishable with imprisonment of up to six months. It’s certainly true that some misdemeanor cases were never prosecuted, but Trump at least opened up the impression that the government — and Harris himself — had legalized theft under $950.
Second, Harris wasn’t the one who “did it.” In 2010, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Republican governor of California, Signed a law It increased the dollar threshold to trigger grand larceny New $950 from previous condition $400. Then, in 2014, California voters voted down the $950 limit (and Created a new offense of shoplifting) was approved with nearly 60% support as part of a referendum that reduced penalties for various nonviolent crimes.
Harris didn’t do Take a public stance In the referendum, he decided to stay neutral in his role as state attorney general.
Some critics of Harris and the ballot proposition known as Proposition 47 argued He implicitly supported the proposal by having his office write a voting summary in favor of the proposal. Regardless, it’s a far cry from Trump’s claim.
Here’s a fact-check on some of Trump’s false claims Thursday.
Walls and bathrooms: Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walls, “signed a bill that says boys’ bathrooms — all boys’ bathrooms in Minnesota — will have tampons,” Trump said. But there is PolitiFact reportedThe bill Walls signed in 2023 did not say tampons would be in “all boys’ bathrooms.”
Instead, the bill calls for tampons to be provided to “all menstruating students” in fourth through 12th grade in bathrooms regularly used by students — and school districts must decide how to enforce that. For example, districts can provide tampons to transgender people by placing the items in unisex bathrooms. A spokesman for the state’s largest school district told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis Earlier this month the newspaper announced that tampons would no longer be provided in boys’ bathrooms, instead providing them through “non-bathrooms,” women’s bathrooms and sanitary workers.
Supreme Court injunction: Trump said, “You know, the Supreme Court recently ruled on immunity, and I’m exempt from all the things they charged me with.”
wrong The Supreme Court did not grant Trump blanket immunity against “all” of the charges Trump faces, even specifically in his federal election tampering case; The court ruled that he enjoys immunity for “official acts” taken while he is president, but “the President enjoys no immunity for his non-official acts, and not everything the President does is official.” Trump’s own lawyer admitted in court that some of the actions at issue in the case were not official.
The case now goes to a federal district court judge to determine how the Supreme Court’s impeachment ruling applies to specific charges against Trump.
“Lock her up” chants: Trump, complaining that Democrats want to imprison him and falsely saying he encouraged his supporters’ “lock her up” chants about Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign, said he would respond with “easy, easy.” In fact, Trump sometimes said “lock her up,” sometimes used different language to call for Clinton to be jailed, and several times paused his speeches to allow chants to continue.
American Energy: “We don’t have the energy,” Trump said. Even if he refers only to fossil fuel production, it is wrong. The United States produces more crude oil than any other country.
Mortgage rates: Trump said mortgage rates are “10% right now.” A fixed, 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.49% in the week ended Aug. 15, mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac said Thursday.
Inflation under Trump: Trump said he had entrusted Harris and President Joe Biden with an “inflation-free” economy. That is not true either. Inflation was about 1.4% In the month since Trump left office, it has been low but non-existent and overall inflation under Trump has been around 8%.
His civil fraud case: Trump repeated a false claim about his civil fraud trial, saying he “won the case” in an appeals court, but a lower court judge said he would have to pay an even bigger fine. He was unsuccessful in the Court of Appeal.
Harris’s immigration role: Trump called Harris a “border czar” when he was his vice president. Indeed, Harris was given a more limited immigration-related task, leading diplomacy with Central American countries in an effort to address the “root causes” of their citizens’ migration; Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorgas has been in charge of border security during the Biden administration.
Awareness of Harris: Harris’s support Arguing that her support will wane as Americans get to know her better, Trump repeated an earlier claim that “nobody” even knows her last name is Harris. This is plain nonsense.
2020 Presidential Election: Trump said he won 10 to 12 million votes in the 2020 election, which is more accurate than he lost in the 2016 election (which is about 11.2 million more votes) — but then added, “That’s not including the other votes, we’ll talk about that another day.” There are no legitimate “other votes” that aren’t included in Trump’s total.
Foreign Governments and Immigration: Trump repeated his usual baseless claim that foreign countries are intentionally “inviting” criminals and people “from mental institutions and insane asylums” into the United States as immigrants. Trump’s own campaign has been unable to confirm these claims, and experts say they have found no evidence for them.
China, Iran and Hamas: During his presidency, Trump repeated a routine claim that “Hamas doesn’t have money because Iran doesn’t have money,” as he successfully pressured China and others to stop buying oil from Iran. Indeed, Iran’s funding of Hamas and other terrorist groups never stopped during his presidency, although it declined, and China never stopped buying oil from Iran, although its purchases declined before resurging during his presidency.
Nord Stream 2: “I’m done with Nord Stream 2. The pipeline is dead,” Trump lied. He didn’t kill the pipeline. He signed sanctions on the project about 3 years into his presidency, with the pipeline already 90% complete, the state-owned Russian company behind the project. declared That construction resumed in December 2020.
Military equipment and Afghanistan: Trump repeated his familiar exaggeration that the US left $85 billion in military equipment to the Taliban after the Biden-era withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Department of Defense estimates that this equipment is worth about $7.1 billion — part of about $18.6 billion worth of equipment delivered to Afghan forces between 2005 and 2021.
Money from Russia: Trump reiterated his baseless claim that Biden received $3.5 million from the wife of a former Moscow mayor. The money was sent to a company linked to Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, his former business partner He testified that it was for him And not Hunter Biden; Regardless, it didn’t go to Joe Biden.
Chris Wallace and this money from Russia: During a 2020 presidential debate hosted by Wallace, Trump repeated his false claim that Chris Wallace, now a CNN and former Fox News journalist, tried to stop him from talking about this money from Russia. That.” Wallace never said that; as per the transcript showsWallace interrupted during the debate exchange to allow Trump to answer a question about money, which Trump did not block from asking.
Tariffs on China: Trump said he received “hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes from China” and that no previous president had taken “10 cents” of tariffs on China. Both statements are false. Study after study It found that Americans paid the bulk of Trump’s bills, and America Before Trump took office, China was making billions a year in revenue from tariffs.
Trump’s trade deal with China: During his presidency, Trump said China was “bound” by the terms of a trade deal he struck that required China to buy tens of billions worth of additional American exports. China is no closer to complying with its purchase commitments.
Deportation to Central America under Obama: Trump repeated his usual false story about how the Obama administration could not deport violent criminals to Central American countries; He did not name the countries this time, but told the same story on Monday about Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. In 2016, the last calendar year of Obama’s administration, these three countries had none list Countries that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deems “non-cooperative” (non-cooperative) in accepting the return of their citizens from the United States.
