AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s alternate reality marks presidency
"There's been no first year like this," he told a
Were truer words ever spoken?
This
Other presidents have skewered the truth —
The president routinely presents his intended actions as achievements ("Obamacare" is dead, money is "pouring" into
Moreover, Trump often bypasses the vast information-gathering apparatus that reports to him in favor of getting his reality from TV, or just his gut.
Some trends and highlights in his misstatements since taking office:
THE ART OF THE BIGGEST BESTEST
Trump doesn't do big tax cuts. He does the biggest ever. He doesn't win an election. He scores a "landslide." He doesn't just make the
In fact:
—The December tax overhaul ranks behind
—His 2016 win ranks as the 13th closest of the 58 presidential elections in
—Despite his boasts that incompetent
MISSIONS UNACCOMPLISHED
Trump sees things the way he wants them to be and presents them as if that's how they are.
"You know, we have factories pouring back into our country. Did you ever think you would hear that?" ''I urged our
In fact:
—Factories are not pouring "back" into the country, nor are they sprouting up domestically in big numbers. When he made his claim, in December, spending on the construction of factories had dropped 14 percent over the past year, continuing a steady decline since the middle of 2015. As for jobs "pouring back into our country," Trump hopes his tax overhaul will make that happen, but it hasn't yet. The economy added about 170,000 new jobs a month during Trump's first year. That was slightly below the average of 185,000 in 2016.
Manufacturers stepped up hiring, adding 196,000 jobs in 2017, but they added more in 2011 and 2014.
—Money isn't pouring into the
THE APOCALYPSE
Trump makes the state of the union look better under his watch by making the past look as dark as can be. Before him, the
Actually:
—The
—Obamacare was covering about 20 million people when Trump described the numbers as "very few." The majority is from the law's Medicaid expansion. The other driver of coverage, plans sold in the subsidized individual insurance market, drew roughly 9 million signups for 2018 despite a much shorter enrollment season, and cuts in the ad budget and federal payments to insurers. The new tax law ends the Obamacare fine for lacking insurance, starting in 2019. That repeals a major component of Obama's law, but other critical parts of the law remain in place.
—Energy production was not imprisoned under previous administrations. It was unleashed, particularly during Obama's presidency, largely because of advances in hydraulic fracturing that made it economical to tap vast reserves of natural gas. Oil production also greatly increased, reducing imports. Before the 2016 presidential election, the
Despite Trump's rhetoric about
GOING WITH HIS GUT (and TV)
Trump forms instant impressions about what he sees on TV or otherwise hears about and shares those views, just as the average person does on social media or over coffee. The difference is that a president stands at a bully pulpit and his visceral reactions can change the world.
—Trump strained relations with
—The president puzzled plenty of people in February when he told a rally that immigration is spreading violence and extremism in
But he soon claimed vindication of his statement anyway, telling
That wasn't right, either. Two days after his rally, a riot broke out in a largely immigrant neighborhood after police arrested a drug crime suspect. Cars were set on fire and shops looted, but no one was killed. Attacks in the country related to extremism remain rare; the biggest surprise for many Swedes was that a police officer found it necessary to fire his gun.
—When an Amtrak train hurtled off the tracks in
Although he jumped to his conclusion within a few hours of the crash, it's taking investigators months to reach a conclusion that is informed by the facts. But this much was obvious right away: The train was making its inaugural run along a fast, new route, not a crumbling line of the type that would be a priority of a national infrastructure plan. And the train was going over twice the speed limit.
IT'S WHO YOU KNOW, AND DON'T
Trump has claimed to know certain people well, only to circle back to say he hardly knew them all. His familiarity with them has varied according to political circumstance.
So it was when
Trump said he had known him for "many years" when Bannon became his campaign chief in
Trump and Bannon had known each other for five years when the Republican candidate, a month after accepting the nomination, made him campaign chief.
Find AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd
EDITOR'S NOTE _ A look at the veracity of claims by political figures
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