Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican nomination Thursday at the Republican National Convention, a night that should have been filled with calls for unity but instead was filled with alarmist language and false claims.
Here’s a fact check on some of the things said on the final night of the Republican National Convention on Thursday, and why they’re untrue.
Trump claims US has experienced worst inflation ever under Joe Biden
In his speech, Trump claimed that the country has seen its worst inflation ever under the Biden administration.
This statement is misleading. In June 2022, when Biden took office, inflation reached a record high of 9.1%, the highest level since 1981.
Trump said of the 2020 election, “They’re taking advantage of COVID-19 to cheat.”
For the first time, Trump went down the well-worn path of 2020 election denialism, reciting a long list of policy recommendations and revealing: “And then we got that horrible, horrible outcome, and we will never let that happen again, that It’s the election results. We’re never going to let that happen again. They’re using COVID to deceive. You’re never going to let that happen again.
There is overwhelming evidence that the 2020 election was not affected by fraud.
Trump claims hundreds of thousands of people died because illegal immigrants brought fentanyl into U.S.
Trump claimed that hundreds of thousands of people are dying because of fentanyl entering the United States through illegal immigration.
This statement is false. In 2023, there were approximately 75,000 overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids, including fentanyl. The CDC said in May that about 107,000 people had died from drug overdoses, but that was for any drug, not the synthetic drugs that crossed the southern border.
Despite Republican claims, illegal opioids are overwhelmingly smuggled across the border by U.S. citizens, not immigrants.
Trump showed off a chart he said showed a record– Low illegal immigration rate
Trump pointed to a chart – which he said he was looking at when a gunman opened fire on a stage at a Pennsylvania rally last Saturday, and which he said saved his life – showing the time he was president. During this period, the number of illegal immigrants in 2021 hit a record low.
According to reports, the chart comes from a chart created by the office of Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson to show monthly immigration encounters at the U.S. southwest border.
This statement is misleading. According to Politifact, the arrow pointing to the low point of the conflict on the chart was incorrectly labeled “Trump leaves office.” In fact, this low was recorded at the height of the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. Later, the number of encounters increased. Trump leaves office in 2021.
Trump claims Biden administration hired 88,000 IRS agents
Trump reiterated a favorite claim among Republicans: that the Biden administration allegedly hired 88,000 IRS agents.
This statement is wrong. The Inflation Reduction Act provides $80 billion to the IRS over 10 years, only a portion of which will be spent on IRS agents who conduct audits and investigations.
A report from the U.S. Treasury Department estimates that by 2021, the U.S. government could employ 86,852 full-time employees across all departments through this investment.
Trump claims Joe Biden ruined energy policy
Donald Trump claimed that the Biden administration “took our energy policies and destroyed them, and then they immediately reinstated them”.
This statement is misleading. Under Joe Biden, the United States actually produces more crude oil than any country. Trump’s record was an average of 12.3 million barrels per day in 2019.
The lines in Trump’s statement suggest Biden is trying to halt fossil fuel production, which is inaccurate. Biden has also approved a number of large and controversial projects, including the Willow oil drilling project in Alaska.
RNC video claims Trump oversaw biggest tax cuts in U.S. history
This statement is generally considered false. For example, analysts found that Trump’s 2017 tax cuts were not the largest in history, either in inflation-adjusted dollars or as a percentage of GDP.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that two other tax cuts were larger: Ronald Reagan’s 1981 package and Barack Obama’s George W. Bush signed an extension of the tax cuts.
Pompeo claims Chinese spy balloons did not fly over U.S. under Trump
Mike Pompeo, former CIA director and Secretary of State in the Trump administration, said in his speech that no Chinese spy balloons flew over the United States during the Trump administration.
Several speakers at the Republican National Convention used the phrase to suggest that China was emboldened to fly its spy balloons because it believed Biden was weak.
But according to U.S. intelligence officials, this is not rooted in reality. Some balloons flew over the U.S. during Trump’s presidency, but they were not discovered until the Biden administration.
