FactChecking Trump’s MAGA Rally
In a campaign speech supporting the Republican candidate in a special House election in Pennsylvania’s 18th District, President Donald Trump made several false and misleading statements on a range of topics, from drug smuggling to the stock market.
- The president wrongly claimed to have received 52 percent of the women’s vote in the 2016 presidential election. He received 41 percent.
- Trump said when drug dealers and smugglers are caught “they don’t even put you in jail,” adding that “you might get 30 days, 60 days, 90 days. You might get a year.” In fact, with some exceptions, major drug traffickers are subject to mandatory minimum sentences that keep them in prison for years.
- Trump falsely claimed that “everyone” benefits — “not rich people” — from stock market gains. In 2016, only about half of U.S. households owned stocks directly or indirectly, and “the richest 10 percent of households controlled 84 percent” of all stock value, according to a paper published last year by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
- Trump exaggerated when he said the 313,000 jobs gained in February “was among the best numbers ever produced in the history of our country.” Over the last 79 years, the monthly jobs gain was higher 133 times, including six times under President Obama. Among the “best numbers” were 1.1 million in September 1983 and 942,000 in March 1946.
- The president said “a lot of steel mills are now opening up” because of his announced tariffs on imported steel. He’s right that some companies have announced they would reopen plants. But experts say other industries will lose jobs.
Trump also repeated several claims we’ve written about before on the trade deficit, the tax cut, wages and the cost of wars in the Middle East.
Women’s Vote
Several times during his speech, Trump revisited the 2016 campaign and basked in his victory — while not always getting the facts straight.
Women, women, we love you, we love you. Hey, didn’t we surprise them with women during the election? Remember, women won’t like Donald Trump. I said
