Trump made more than 20 false claims at the news conference

In a news conference on Thursday, the former president Donald Trump persisted in his extreme dishonesty, repeating more than twenty falsehoods from his Monday talk with Elon Musk.

For years, numerous falsehoods made by Trump on Thursday have been refuted. Some, however, were rather recent. He once accused Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic opponent, of being behind a California law that permits store robberies.

I was unaware, but according to a recent article, you can rob a store for no more than $950. Is it a common knowledge that thieves can rob a store and use calculators to determine the exact amount they would take? Since they can rob it and not be prosecuted if it’s less than $950. Trump claimed, “That was her doing that.”.

First the facts: There are two main reasons why this claim is untrue.

In California, theft under $950 is still considered a misdemeanor and carries a maximum six-month jail sentence. It’s true that some misdemeanor cases end up unsettled, but Trump at least created the appearance that Harris and the state had legalized theft under $950.

In the second place, Harris did not “do that.”. 2010 saw the signing of a bill by Republican California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger raising the threshold amount required to be charged with felony grand theft from $400 to $950. Then, in 2014, voters in California approved a referendum that lowered penalties for a number of non-violent offenses, with nearly 60% of the vote. As a result, the referendum upheld the $950 threshold and established a new crime of shoplifting.

In her capacity as state attorney general, Harris chose to remain impartial and refrained from publicly endorsing or opposing the referendum.

Proposition 47 is a ballot proposal that has drawn criticism from some quarters. They claim that by having her office prepare a positive ballot summary for the proposal, Harris impliedly supported it. That is certainly far from what Trump is claiming.

Trump made several more untrue statements on Thursday; here is a fact check of them.

Walz and restrooms: Trump asserted that Harris’ deputy, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz “signed legislation mandating tampons be provided in all boys’ restrooms in Minnesota.”. But as PolitiFact has revealed, there is no mention of tampons in “all boys’ bathrooms” in the law that Walz signed in 2023.

The bill, instead, mandates that tampons be supplied to “all menstruating students” in fourth through twelfth grades in bathrooms that students frequently use. How school districts choose to comply with this requirement is left to their discretion. Tampons can be provided by districts to transgender boys, for instance, by stashing them in bathrooms designated for men. Tampons are only provided in “nongendered bathrooms,” girls’ bathrooms, and through health staff, according to a spokesman for the biggest school district in the state, who made this revelation to the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper earlier this month.

Following the Supreme Court’s ruling on immunity, Trump asserted, “As you know, I’m immune from everything that they’ve charged me with. “.

Not true. Trump has immunity for “official acts” committed during his presidency, but not for “unofficial acts,” and not everything the president does is official, according to the Supreme Court, which declined to grant him blanket immunity against “all” of the charges against him, including those related to his federal election subversion case. The court was informed by Trump’s own attorney that some of the acts in question in the case were not authorized.

In order to determine how the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling relates to the particular accusations made against Trump, the case has now been remanded to a federal district court judge.

“Lock her up” chants: During the 2016 election campaign, Trump made the false claim that he dissuaded his supporters’ chants about Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, saying that he would reply, “Easy, just easy,” in response to complaints from Democrats that he should go to jail. To allow the chants to continue, Trump would often halt his speeches and stand in silence. He would also occasionally say things like “lock her up” and use different language to demand Clinton’s imprisonment.

Energy in the US: According to Trump, “we don’t have energy.”. It’s incorrect even if he’s just talking about the production of fossil fuels. More crude oil is produced in the US than in any other nation in history.

Mortgage rates: according to Trump, they are “now at 10 percent.”. Mortgage financing giant Freddie Mac reported on Thursday that the average rate on a standard 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6 point 49 percent in the week ending August 15.

Under Trump, there is “no inflation” in the economy, according to what he told President Joe Biden and Senator Harris. That is likewise untrue. Although not very high, inflation was roughly 1.4 percent in the month before Trump left office, and it was roughly 8 percent overall during his presidency.

Trump made false claims about his civil fraud trial once again, saying he “won the case” in an appeals court despite still having to pay a hefty fine that was mandated by a lower court judge. The appeals court did not rule in his favor.

Trump asserted that during Harris’ vice presidential term, she served as a “border czar” in regards to immigration. While Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has been in charge of border security during the Biden administration, Harris was actually given a more constrained immigration-related assignment that involved leading diplomatic efforts with Central American nations in an effort to address the “root causes” of their citizens’ migration.

Awareness: Reiterating a prior assertion that “nobody” even knows Harris’ last name, Trump contended that Harris’ support will decrease as Americans come to know her better. This is blatantly absurd.

2020 Presidential Election: Trump asserted that he received 10 to 12 million more votes in the election he lost in 2020 than he did in the election he won in 2016. This is true (he received approximately 11 points and 2 million more votes), but he also said, “And that’s not including other votes, that we can talk about it another day.”. “Trump’s total does not include any legitimate “other votes” pool.

International governments and immigration: Trump reiterated his vacuous and unfounded accusation that foreign nations are purposefully “bringing” criminals and individuals “from mental institutions and insane asylums” to the United States as refugees, even “driving them through” the border. There is no evidence to support these claims, according to experts, and Trump’s own campaign has not been able to do so either.

China, Iran, and Hamas: Trump reiterated a frequent assertion that, at the time of his presidency, “Hamas had no money because Iran had no money,” implying that this was the result of his effective exertion of pressure on China and other parties to cease purchasing Iranian oil. Contrary to popular belief, China’s purchases of Iranian oil declined during his presidency but then increased again later in his reign. Iran continued to fund Hamas and other terror organizations throughout his presidency, though this did not happen at all.

Trump made up the claim that he “ended Nord Stream 2.”. The pipeline had died. The pipeline was not destroyed by him. About three years into his presidency, he put project-related sanctions into law. By then, the pipeline was nearly 90% finished, and the project’s state-owned Russian partner had declared in December 2020 that work was about to resume.

Afghanistan and military hardware: Trump reiterated his notoriously ludicrous claim that the US handed over $85 billion in military hardware to the Taliban during the Biden administration’s pullout from the country. A portion of the approximately $18.6 billion in equipment that was given to Afghan forces between 2005 and 2021, according to estimates from the Defense Department, was valued at roughly $7.1 billion.

Foreign Exchange Earnings: Trump reiterated his irrational accusation that Biden received $3,5 million from the Moscow mayor’s wife. Money was transferred to a company associated with Biden’s son Hunter Biden; however, it was not received by Joe Biden; Hunter Biden’s former business partner has stated that the money was intended for him.

Regarding Chris Wallace and this money from Russia: Trump persisted in his fabricated allegation that during a 2020 presidential debate moderated by Wallace, the journalist Chris Wallace (formerly of Fox News, now of CNN) attempted to stop him from discussing this money from Russia by stating, “You shouldn’t be talking about that.”. Wallace never said that; the transcript reveals that Wallace’s purpose in interjecting during this debate exchange was to persuade Trump to let Biden respond to a question regarding the money rather than to prevent Trump from raising the issue.

Tariffs on China: According to Trump, no prior president had received “10 cents” in tariff revenue from China, despite having received “hundreds of billions of dollars” in Chinese tariffs. They are both incorrect. Numerous studies have revealed that the majority of the tariff costs incurred by Trump were borne by Americans, and that prior to Trump’s election, the US was earning billions of dollars annually from tariffs on China.

China’s adherence to the terms of a trade agreement that Trump made, according to which China was expected to purchase billions more worth of US exports during his presidency, was a point of contention. China did not even come close to fulfilling its purchase obligations.