politics
When former President Donald Trump accepted the Republican nomination for president on Thursday, he laid out his vision for leading the country. He painted a grim picture of the state of the United States and outlined a series of actions he planned to take. But his comments were marked by quite a lot of false and misleading information that distorted the facts about immigration, the U.S. economy and his past record.
Here are the facts.
TRUMP CARD: “The greatest invasion in history is taking place right here in our country – they're coming from every corner of the earth, not just South America, but Africa, Asia, the Middle East – they're coming from everywhere, and this government is doing nothing to stop them. They're coming from prisons and detention centers, mental institutions and asylums, and there are terrorists on a scale never seen before.”
THE FACTS: Trump spent an extended time in his speech on immigration and the mass influx of migrants into the United States, repeating several false and misleading claims, including that this has led to an increase in crime, citing recent spectacular and heinous crimes allegedly committed by people living within the country illegally as evidence.
But the notion that the influx has led to an increase in violent crime across the country will not be supported by facts. FBI statistics don’t separate crimes by the immigration status of the offender, and there isn’t a evidence of a rise in crime committed by migrants, either along the U.S.-Mexico border or in cities with the biggest influx of migrants, similar to New York. In fact, national statistics show that violent crime is declining.
Studies have found that individuals living within the country illegally are less more likely to be arrested for violent, drug and property crimes than native-born Americans. A 2020 study published by the National Academy of Sciences found that individuals living within the United States illegally make “significantly fewer felony arrests” than legal immigrants or native-born Americans.
There can also be no evidence that other countries send their murderers, drug traffickers and other criminals to the United States.
TRUMP CARD: “We had the best economy in world history.”
THE FACTS: This is much from true. The pandemic triggered an enormous recession during his presidency. The government borrowed $3.1 trillion in 2020 to stabilize the economy, and Trump left the White House with fewer jobs than when he took office.
But even factoring out the issues attributable to the pandemic, economic growth during Trump's first three years averaged 2.67%, which is pretty solid. But it doesn't come near the 4% average during Bill Clinton's two terms from 1993 to 2001, in line with the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In fact, growth has been stronger up to now under Biden than under Trump.
Under Trump, the unemployment rate fell to three.5% before the pandemic, however the labor force participation rate of 25- to 54-year-olds – the core of the US workforce – was higher under Clinton. The labor force participation rate was also higher under Biden than under Trump.
TRUMP CARD, on the US troops leaving Afghanistan: “We also left behind military equipment worth $85 billion.”
THE FACTS: According to reports from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), which oversees U.S. taxpayer money spent on the conflict, these figures are significantly inflated.
The $85 billion figure is analogous to a figure from a July 30 SIGAR quarterly report, which said the U.S. has invested about $83 billion in constructing, training and equipping Afghan security forces since 2001.
But that funding covered troop pay, training, operations and infrastructure, in addition to equipment and transportation over 20 years, in line with reports from SIGAR and Dan Grazier, a defense policy analyst on the Project on Government Oversight.
“We have spent well over $80 billion supporting Afghan security forces,” Grazier told AP in August 2021. “But that's not all the equipment costs.”
In fact, between 2002 and 2018, only about $18 billion of that quantity went into equipping the Afghan armed forces, in line with a June 2019 SIGAR report.
Another estimate from a 2017 Government Accountability Office report found that about 29% of the dollars spent on Afghan security forces between 2005 and 2016 were for equipment and transportation. Transportation included equipment in addition to commissioned pilots and aircraft to move officials to meetings.
If this percentage were to use over the complete two-decade period, the United States would have spent roughly $24 billion on equipment and transportation for Afghan forces since 2001.
But even when that's true, much of the military equipment could be obsolete after years of use, Grazier said. In addition, American troops have already scrapped equipment they not need and disabled dozens of Humvees and aircraft before leaving so that they couldn't be used again, said Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command.
Although the precise value of the US-supplied Afghan equipment seized by the Taliban is unknown, defense officials have confirmed that it’s of considerable value.
MIKE POMPEO, Secretary of State under Trump on the Americans held hostage by Hamas within the Gaza Strip: “President Biden is not even talking about the fact that Americans are still being held there by the Iranian regime.”
THE FACTS: President Joe Biden has spoken several times in regards to the Americans who were among the many 240 people taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023. Eight Americans are reportedly still in captivity, including three who were killed.
For example, three days after the attack that sparked the war between Israel and Hamas, Biden said: “We now know that there are American citizens among those arrested by Hamas.”
Shortly thereafter, on October 20, 2023, he said: “As I told the families of the Americans held captive by Hamas, we are pursuing all options to bring their loved ones home.”
Biden released a press release on January 14, 2024, calling the day “a devastating and tragic milestone – 100 days of captivity for the more than 100 innocent people, including up to six Americans, still held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.”
Just recently, on April 27, he wrote in a post on his official Facebook page: “I will not rest until every hostage like Abigail, separated from their families and held by Hamas, is back in the arms of their loved ones. You have my word. Their families have my word.”
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