Oddbean

Fact-checking Donald Trump's RNC speech on immigration, the economy, world affairs and more ========== Former President Donald Trump closed out the final night of the 2024 Republican National Convention with a 92-minute speech that addressed a host of issues on Americans' minds; Trump claimed there was "a massive invasion at our southern border that has spread misery, crime, poverty, disease and destruction to communities all across our land," which is false as there is no evidence of a major surge in crime caused by recent arrivals and crime is down across the country overall; Trump also claimed he would end the immigration crisis "by closing our border and finishing the wall, most of which I have already built," which is false as he had actually implemented roughly 450 miles of barriers, much of which was just upgrading existing barriers that already existed; Trump argued dangerous criminals "are coming from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums, and terrorists at levels never seen before," which needs context as he was likely referring to the latest statistics released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Trump said his administration "ended all catch-and-release," which is false as migrants were more likely to be "released" through this process under Trump compared to Biden; Trump claimed the tax legislation passed during his presidency was the largest tax cut ever, which needs more explanation as it was the fourth-largest since 1940 in inflation-adjusted dollars and ranked seventh as a percentage of GDP; Trump said the U.S. had the best economy in the history of our country, "no inflation" and soaring incomes, which is false as unemployment rates matched or exceeded those levels under Joe Biden, GDP growth under Trump was well below that of previous presidents, wage growth increased but did not soar, and inflation was not zero but low; Trump said he would reverse government regulations to encourage the development of electric vehicles, saying he’d be "saving the U.S. auto industry from complete obliteration, which is happening right now," which is false as employment in auto and parts manufacturing had risen by 127,800 jobs through December 2023 under Biden's presidency; Trump claimed credit for the war and defeating ISIS, the great economy, the biggest tax cuts ever, the biggest regulation cuts ever, the creation of Space Force, and the rebuilding of the military, which needs context as he rightly gets credit for shrinking the territory ISIS controlled but it’s wrong to say ISIS was or is defeated; Trump claimed the U.S. left behind $85 billion worth of military equipment in Afghanistan, which is false as the United States spent $88.6 billion in Afghanistan providing security assistance over the course of two decades, and only a fraction of it was for hardware; Trump claimed he's leading in Nevada by 14 points, which is false as he leads Biden by only 6 points in the Silver State; Trump said, "We’ve had the worst inflation we’ve ever had under this person [Biden]," which is false as the overall rate is nowhere near a record; Trump said of Biden's administration, "This is the only administration that said we're going to raise your taxes by four times what you're paying now," which is false as Biden proposes a tax increase of roughly 7% over the next decade, not 300%, and about 83% of the proposed Biden tax increase would be borne by the top 1% of taxpayers. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fact-checking-donald-trumps-rnc-speech-immigration-economy/story?id=112091019