Presidential Debate - Trump Fact Check - Part One
A comprehensive breakdown of all of the lies and misleading statement Donald J. Trump made during the Presidential Debate on 6/27/24
Donald J. Trump lied, exaggerated or said something misleading for every single answer he gave during the debate. The only responses I didn’t fact check in this article were Trump’s comments about his golf game and his final statement - which was just a repeat of falsehoods he’d made earlier in the debate.
Biden performed poorly and said some inaccurate things, but he didn’t lie nearly as often as Trump did so I’m not even going to bother fact checking him.
At the bottom of this exhaustive list of corrections I’ll include links to fact checks from various publications - all of them fact checked Biden’s statements to a degree.
Trump tends to combine multiple lies about different topics in a single statement. I’ve separated everything by category to make it easier to follow.
Economy
“We had the greatest economy in the history of our country.”
FALSE - Economies are measured by several different metrics - GDP growth, inflation, employment, trade, interest rates, etc. Some presidents who had stronger economies than Trump were - Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson and Bill Clinton. (Washington Post)
Jobs
“The only jobs he created are for illegal immigrants and bounce back jobs and bounce back from the Covid.”
FALSE - Since Biden took office in 2021 the economy gained 5.6 million jobs that went to foreign born Americans. Native-born Americans also gained 7.4 million jobs. The category of foreign-born Americans includes immigrants that are in the United States legally - many have lived here for decades. Midway through 2022 Biden surpassed the pre-pandemic level of jobs and has since added 6.2 million new jobs. (Politifact)
Black Jobs?
“The fact is that his big kill on the black people is the millions of people that he's allowed to come in through the border. They're taking Black jobs now, and it could be 18. It could be 19 and even 20 million people, they're taking black jobs and they're taking Hispanic jobs. And you haven't seen it yet, but you're going to see something that's going to be the worst in our history.”
FALSE - Trump repeats the lie that 18 million to 20 million undocumented immigrants have entered the country since Biden took office. He then coins the phrase, “Black jobs,” and “Hispanic jobs,” to describe jobs that migrants are allegedly taking from U.S. citizens.
Trump is implying that only Black and Latino Americans would have the type of jobs where undocumented workers could replace them which is incredibly racist.
Some undocumented immigrants are well educated and highly skilled but most are fleeing desperate situations and end up in low-wage jobs where employers sometimes exploit them.
HBCU - Historically Black Colleges and Universities
“But when they see what I did for criminal justice reform and for the historically black colleges and universities where I funded them and got them all funded.”
MISLEADING - Trump signed the FUTURE Act which Congress passed in 2019. The legislation made permanent $255 million in annual STEM funding for minority-serving colleges, including roughly $85 million specifically allocated to HBCUs.
One co-sponsor for the bill said that the only thing Trump contributed to the legislation was his signature.
“He's lost much of the black population because he's done a horrible job for black people.”
FALSE - Absolutely no one has voted in the 2024 presidential election yet. Some polls show Donald J. Trump making gains with Black voters but it would be a complete exaggeration to say that ‘much of the Black population,” won’t vote for Joe Biden.
Black unemployment - lowest rate recorded:
Trump - 5.3%
Biden - 4.8%
The record low in the official poverty rate for Black individuals, 17.1%, was set under Biden in 2022, the most recent year for which the data is available. Under Trump, the lowest official poverty rate for Black individuals was a then-record 18.8% in 2019. (CNN)
Inflation
“Inflation is killing our country. It is absolutely killing us.”
“Inflation. He's blaming inflation. And he's right. It's been very bad. He caused the inflation.”
FALSE - This is an exaggeration. Inflation has dramatically cooled from its post-pandemic spike of 9.1% in June 2022. After the inflation rate hit 9.1% it dropped nearly every month.
It has since settled around 3.1% to 3.5% with some movement up and down month to month. Most economists think the ideal rate is 2%.
The annual inflation rate for the United States was 3.3% for the 12 months ending May, compared to the previous rate of 3.4%, according to U.S. Labor Department data published on June 12, 2024.
The United States has had much longer periods with higher rates of inflation and higher interest rates than we are currently experiencing.
There is debate over the cause of inflation, but it was not unique to the United States. Inflation rates were much higher in other countries when the rate peaked at 9.1% in the U.S.
Many have argued that inflation was caused by governments infusing their economies with cash to prevent an economic collapse during the pandemic, increased energy costs and supply chain problems caused by shutdowns during COVID-19.
During the pandemic energy production slowed to a crawl during shutdowns and refineries reduced their output. Near the end of the pandemic energy prices shot up after demand for fuel dramatically increased as economies were coming back to life and energy companies couldn’t keep up which increased prices.
Wages have also outpaced the rate of inflation for the past 12 months.
Food Costs
“You look at the cost of food where it's doubled and tripled and quadrupled.”
FALSE - This is wildly exaggerated. Food costs have increased during Biden’s presidency largely caused by post-pandemic related inflation. The U.S. also experienced one of the worst bouts of Avian flu that caused the price of poultry and eggs to fluctuate dramatically.
The cost of food has increased 21% since Biden took office but if broken down by year the annual increase is closer to 6%. Wages have also increased during this time and have outpace inflation for the past 12 months.
If food prices quadrupled as Trump claimed they have consumers would see a 300% increase in prices. Trump’s exaggeration is over 10 times the actual increase in food prices. (Politifact)
Tariffs
Jake Tapper asked Trump about his plan to impose a tariff of 10% to all imports and if he thought the tariffs would drive prices even higher.
“That'll going to drive them higher. It's just going to cause countries that have been ripping us off for years, like China and many others. In all fairness to China. It's going to just force them to pay us a lot of money, reduce our deficit tremendously, and give us a lot of power for other things.”
FALSE - Trump misrepresents how tariffs work. In most cases foreign governments do not pay tariffs. A tariff is a type of tax that is charged to an importer in the United States who then pays the U.S. government.
The importer will then pass the increased price of whatever they imported on to U.S. consumers.
For example:
Widget - cost $1.00 + 10% tariff = new cost of item $1.10
Ten cents goes to the U.S. government
Importer now sells the widget for $1.10 plus a markup for profit to another retailer or wholesaler increasing the cost of the product.
In theory a tariff is supposed to make domestically produced goods more competitive and attractive for wholesalers and retailers. Many items imported from low wage countries do not have any competing goods that are manufactured in the United States.
The U.S. is known for making high quality big ticket items like tractors, heavy machinery, transportation equipment, computers, electronics, vehicles, medical equipment and commercial aircraft parts.
Lower wage countries export cheaply made plastic goods along with electric storage batteries, textile products, appliances, parts for computers, and electronics.
Since the wages are dramatically higher in the U.S. most manufacturers are not going to make plastic toys that can be made for a fraction of the cost in a lower wage country. It makes more sense for U.S. manufacturers to sell high-end products that require skilled labor like a John Deere tractor.
In many cases the goods U.S. importers buy from lower wage countries have no or few competitors in the United States. In those cases, a tariff does nothing but increase the cost of the imported product to U.S. consumers.
Taxes
“I gave you the largest tax cut in history.”
FALSE - Ronald Reagan’s tax cut in 1981 amounted to 2.89% of the GDP. Trump’s tax cut was nearly 0.9% of the GDP. Trump’s tax cut was the eighth largest in the past century but smaller than two tax cuts passed during the Obama administration. (Washington Post)
Trump’s tax cut also favored the wealthiest Americans and corporations. According to the Tax Policy Center, households with incomes in the top 1% will receive an average tax cut of more than $60,000 in 2025, compared to an average tax cut of less than $500 for households in the bottom 60%.
“When we cut the taxes as an example, the corporate tax was cut down to 21% from 39% plus. Beyond that, we took in more revenue with much less tax. And companies were bringing back trillions of dollars back into our country.”
PARTLY FALSE - According to reporting by the New York Times, Trump’s tax cut did increase investment in the U.S. economy and did help provide a modest pay increase for workers.
The tax cuts didn’t pay for themselves. They directly added more than $100 billion a year to the $34 trillion national debt which rose by almost $7.8 trillion during Trump’s time in office
Trump promised that his tax cuts would increase wages from $4000 to $9000 per worker but the average was closer to $750 per year over time.
“He wants to raise your taxes by four times. He wants to raise everybody's taxes by four times.”
FALSE - If Trump’s numbers were accurate this would mean a 300% tax increase. Joe Biden has proposed a 7% tax increase over the next decade.
About 83% of Biden’s tax increases would apply to the top 1% of taxpayers or Americans making just under $1 million a year.
According to Biden’s plan, which would have to be approved by Congress, taxpayers earning up to $60,400 would see their yearly taxes decline and taxpayers earning $60,400 - $107,300 would see an increase on average of $20. (Politifact)
Deficits
“To finish up. We now have the largest deficit in the history of our country under this guy.”
FALSE - According to the data from the U.S. Treasury, the deficit grew to the largest it had been in two decades during the Trump administration. (CBS News)
Deficit in the fiscal year 2020 - $3.13 trillion (Trump)
Deficit at the end of fiscal year 2023 - $1.7 trillion (Biden)
"We have the largest deficit with China”
FALSE - The exact opposite is true. The U.S. trade deficit with China in goods and services was $252 billion in 2023. It is the lowest level since 2009. (The New York Times)
Regulations
“I also gave you the largest regulation cut in history.”
FALSE - There’s no easy way to measure regulations cuts for different presidential administrations. Many have argued the largest wave of regulation cuts came during the deregulation of airline, rail and trucking industries during the Carter administration.
The Penn Program on Regulation concluded that “without exception, each major claim we have uncovered by the President (Trump) or other White House official about regulation turns out to be exaggerated, misleading or downright untrue.” (Washington Post)
Immigration
“Why has he allowed millions of people to come in here from prisons, jails and mental institutions to come into our country and destroy our country . . .from prisons, people that are from mental institutions, insane asylum.”
Trump says this often, but he has no evidence to back it up. In other media appearances Trump has singled out Venezuela and Congo as two countries that are intentionally sending prisoners to the U.S.
“The Congo,” as Trump likes to call it is actually two different countries Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring Republic of Congo. Representatives from both countries have said Trump’s claims are false and the former president has offered no proof to back up his statements.
From 2021 to 2024, federal data shows immigration officials arrested 103,700 noncitizens with criminal convictions.
According to FactCheck.org the FBI acknowledges some Venezuelan criminals have migrated to the U.S., but there’s no indication they were purposefully released from prison and then sent to the United States.
“We have a border. That's the most dangerous place anywhere in the world, considered the most dangerous place anywhere in the world. And he opened it up. And these killers are coming into our country”
“We don't have borders anymore. Every state is now a border. And because of his ridiculous, insane and very stupid policies, people are coming in and they're killing our citizens at a level that we've never seen. We call it migrant crime. I call it Biden migrant crime. They are killing our citizens at a level that we've never seen before.”
EXAGGERATION - Although there have been some recent crimes allegedly committed by undocumented immigrants that have gotten a lot of media coverage there’s no evidence of an increase in crime.
According to the FBI violent crime rates have decreased across the country and multiple studies have shown that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans. (NY Times)
“We had the safest border in the history of our country.”
FALSE - Trump repeats this exact phrase at every political rally or public event. Apprehensions at the southern border during the final two month’s of Trump’s presidency were significantly higher than Barack Obama’s last two months in office (Washington Post).
Obama
Dec. 2016 - apprehensions - 43,251
Jan. 2017 - apprehensions - 31,576
Trump
Dec. 2020 - apprehensions - 71,141
Jan. 2021 - apprehensions - 75,316
“Did anybody get fired for allowing 18 million people, many from prisons, many from mental institutions”
FALSE - This is a wild exaggeration. Custom and Border Protected recorded 9.5 million “encounters” between February 2021 through April 2024. About 7.9 million of these have been at the southwest border.
Some of these encounters are people who have tried to enter the country multiple times while 4 million of them have been expelled. Three million migrants were expelled due to Title 42 a law put into place during the pandemic to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Government and independent analysis have estimated that about one-quarter to one-half of Border Control ‘encounters’ have repeatedly tried to enter the U.S. illegally.
The exact number of “gotaways” is unclear. Fox News has estimated this number at 1.6 million - which has been picked up and repeated by countless Republican politicians.
Many experts estimate that about 5 million migrants have entered the U.S. illegally which is a large number but nowhere near the outrageous numbers Trump has claimed. (New York Times) (Washington Post)
“He come out, came out with a, nothing, nothing deal. And it reduced it a little bit. A little bit like this much. It's insignificant. He wants open borders.”
FALSE - There’s no evidence that President Biden wants open borders. He advocated for a bipartisan bill in Congress that would have curbed illegal immigration had it passed. The bill would have added 1500 new Border Control agents and increase the amount of detention beds.
The legislation would have also raise the standard to gain asylum and expedite migrants who have started asylum process while expelling those who do not meet the criteria more quickly.
Even Fox News conceded that the changes the Biden administration created via executive order has reduced the amount of illegal crossings.
Terrorists Crossing the Border
“Terrorist. We have the largest number of terrorists coming into our country right now. All terrorists all over the world, not just in South America, all over the world. They come from the Middle East. Everywhere, all over the world are pouring in.”
EXAGGERATION - The number of people encountered at the southern border who are on the federal terror watchlist has jumped from three in the last year of the Trump administration to nearly 100 in the last fiscal year of Joe Biden’s presidency.
The Terrorist Screening Dataset maintained by the FBI is not a list of known terrorists. It includes names of people who have suspected ties to individuals who might be affiliated with terror organizations. (ABC News)
“Just take a look at where they're living. They're living in luxury hotels in New York City and other places.”
New York City has had a large immigrant population since its inception. Foreign born residents make up about 36% of the population of the city.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott offered free bus rides to migrants in Texas to Democratic run cities in an attempt to spread the burden of the surge in migration at the southern border.
New York City has housed some of these migrants in hotels with families given priority over single men. The city has also housed migrants in large tents in various locations throughout the five boroughs of New York City.
None of the immigrants were housed in luxury hotels. (The New York Times)
Social Security and Medicare
“He is destroying Medicare because all of these people are coming in. They're putting them on Medicare. They're putting them on Social Security. They're going to destroy Social Security.”
FALSE - Trump has this completely backwards. New immigrants of all kinds, including undocumented, help increase the ratio of workers to retirees.
Most undocumented immigrants are ineligible for Social Security. The only exception are immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally who are then granted humanitarian parole - which is a temporary position to stay in the U.S.
Most immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally are also not eligible for Medicare or Medicaid although some state provide Medicaid coverage under state-funded programs for all residents. Immigrants are eligible for emergency Medicaid regardless of status. (Politifact)
“I'm the one that got the insulin down for the seniors. I took care of the seniors.”
PARTLY FALSE - Trump established a voluntary $35-per-month cap on insulin for Americans on Medicare. Only a limited number of Medicare plans lowered their prices to $35 a month.
The Inflation Reduction Act, signed by Biden in 2022, required all Medicare plans to cap insulin at $35. The Biden administration also pushed to make the cap applicable to Americans on private insurance plans but the provision to lower the price of insulin for all Americans was removed from the bill before it became law. (The New York Times)
Addiction
“Jake, we're doing very well at addiction. Until the Covid came along, we had the two and a half, almost three years of like nobody's ever had before.”
FALSE - According to the CDC there was a drop in overdose deaths from 2017 to 2018. Trump would be speaking the truth if he said he had one year of improvement.
Overdose deaths increased in 2019 and then shot up dramatically in 2020 at the start of the pandemic. The pandemic undoubtedly made the drug crisis worse as the entire healthcare system was directed to treat COVID-19 and people became cut off and isolated.
Abortion
“But they're voting and it's bringing it back to the vote of the people, which is what everybody wanted, including the founders.”
“And if you look at this whole question that you're asking, a complex but not really complex, 51 years ago, you had Roe v Wade and everybody wanted to get it back to the states. Everybody, without exception.”
FALSE - When a case is heard before the Supreme Court legal scholars are allowed to give their opinions about a case. The docket for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case that ultimately overturned Roe v Wade, is filled with 49 pages of briefs from scholars saying that overturning decades of legal precedent would be a mistake. (Washington Post)
“So that means he can take the life of the baby in the 9th month and even after birth, because some states, Democrat run take it after birth.”
FALSE - There are no states that allow abortion after birth that would be infanticide which is illegal in all 50 states. According to reporting by Axios:
In 2019 according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
93% of reported abortions were performed at or before 13 weeks of pregnancy,
6% were conducted between 14 and 20 weeks
1% were performed at or after 21 weeks
Late term abortions are extremely rare and performed due to "medical concerns such as fetal anomalies or maternal life endangerment, as well as barriers to care that cause delays in obtaining an abortion” according to KFF.
The entire fact check is quite long - A link to Part Two can be found here.
Where was CNN fact checking as he spewed this BS? Medias Touch has a list of 50 lies he spread without any pushback. Thanks for your thorough response with documentation to his lies.
Whew…! That’s a firehouse of BS. But, almost used to it by now.
If Joe was more up for the battle he would’ve crushed this felon.
And the other Trumpian slips. For instance, Trump’s secret convo with Putin about invading Ukraine. Joe should’ve pounced on that. But he just stared, mouth agape. So very frustrating.