Flurry of Trump Falsehoods

Summary

In two press appearances in the same day, President Donald Trump made several false claims and distorted the facts on issues ranging from Syria to trade:

• Trump claimed that former GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan “would never issue a subpoena,” because of his “respect for our country.” But subpoenas were issued under Ryan’s watch. “Our committee alone issued more than 100 subpoenas,” a former GOP House oversight staffer has said.
• Trump said “the FBI never got” the DNC server that was hacked during the 2016 election, and that the server is now held by a company co-owned by someone “from Ukraine.” But the company — which is based in the U.S. — gave the FBI an exact copy of the DNC hard drives. It also has said it never possessed the servers and that its owners are not from Ukraine.
• Trump exaggerated his influence when he boasted that “nobody else but me” would have gotten a U.S. win in a World Trade Organization case involving European Union subsidies to Airbus. A string of WTO decisions since 2011 had already established that the subsidies broke trade rules.
• The president repeated his false claim that the U.S. military was originally supposed to be in Syria for only “30 days.” He also ignored the progress made against the Islamic State by the Obama administration, saying “when I came in under President Obama, ISIS was a disaster all over that area. I was the one that got them.”
• Trump again distorted the facts about the whistleblower report’s account of his July 25 phone call with the president of Ukraine. The White House-released rough transcript of the call supported what the whistleblower said.
• He said he was able to secure the release of a U.S. pastor detained by Turkey “very quickly,” while the previous administration failed. It’s worth noting the pastor was detained less than four months before Trump took office and released nearly 21 months after.
• While boasting about the performance of the stock market, Trump repeated the false claim that “all people own in the stock markets.” Only about half of Americans own stock, directly or indirectly.
• The president greatly exaggerated the trade deficit with the European Union, claiming it “could even be $178 billion.” It was $114.6 billion in 2018.

Analysis

Trump made his claims in two press appearances with Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, at the White House on Oct. 16. The two men first made remarks before their bilateral meeting and then held a joint press conference.

Subpoenas Issued Under Ryan

In criticizing the House Democrats for their handling of the impeachment inquiry, Trump said former GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan never issued subpoenas.

Trump, Oct. 16: [T]he Republicans have been treated very unfairly by the Democrats. I’ll say this: Paul Ryan would never issue a subpoena. I don’t say right or wrong. He wouldn’t do it. He had too much respect for our country.

That’s not true. Republican committees issued numerous subpoenas to Obama administration officials, including during Ryan’s relatively brief time as speaker when Barack Obama was president. Ryan served as speaker from Oct. 29,, to , so he ruled the House for little more than one year when Obama was president.