Trump’s Campaign Kickoff Claims
At a rally in Orlando on June 18, President Donald Trump officially launched his reelection campaign. Trump boasted that under his leadership, the country is “thriving, prospering and booming,” and he asked voters for four more years to “keep America great.”
“Nobody’s done what we have done in two and a half years,” he said. However, we found his speech was filled with many familiar false, misleading and exaggerated statements about his record on jobs, military spending, veterans, energy, trade and more.
Energy
During his speech, Trump twice took credit for the state of America’s energy production, citing milestones that were achieved years ago or long expected.
“We are, by the way, the number one producer of energy in the world because of what we’ve done right now,” the president said, early on in his remarks. About a half hour later, Trump returned to the theme, stating, “We’ve ended the last administration’s cruel and heartless war on American energy. What they were doing to our energy should never be forgotten. The United States is now the number one producer of oil and natural gas anywhere in the world.”
As we’ve explained before, citing data from the Energy Information Administration, the United States is the top producer of natural gas. But that’s a title the nation has held since 2009. The U.S. also produces the most petroleum — and has done so since 2013.
More recently, this past summer, the U.S. did take over as the leading producer of crude oil. Production of crude oil, however, had been ramping up for many years, and the milestone was expected.
According to the most recent EIA data, the United States is not the largest overall producer of energy. That award goes to China, which in 2016 produced 107 quadrillion Btus of total primary energy, a term that includes fossil fuels as well as nuclear and renewable sources.
In 2016, the U.S. was second worldwide, with 84 quadrillion Btus. Since then, the U.S. has increased its energy production to 95 quadrillion Btus in 2018. The agency doesn’t have more recent data for China, but U.S. production is still below China’s 2016 level.
Military Budget Not ‘Far More Than Ever’
Trump repeated his misleading claim that spending on defense is at a record high.
Trump: After past leaders slashed military budgets, we are rebuilding the U.S. armed forces with $700 billion last year and $716 billion this year, far more than ever before.
Trump got the dollar amounts right. The, a two-year budget agreement that Trump signed into law on Feb. 9, 2018, set the
