WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump revived acquainted falsehoods and returned to outdated themes in a speech Saturday evening at the Conservative Political Motion Convention.
Right here’s a truth test of a few of his claims.
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WHAT TRUMP SAID: “Killings are going down at a quantity like no one’s ever seen, proper in Manhattan.”
False. Murders declined in New York by about 11% from 488 homicides in 2021 to 433 homicides final yr. It was the bottom degree since 2019, based on the town’s Police Division. Murders continued to lower this yr to 30 in January (in contrast with 31 in January 2022) and to 26 in February (in contrast with 36 in February 2022).
These numbers additionally pale compared to the peak of crime in New York within the Eighties and Nineties, when Trump was a mainstay of the town and when it repeatedly recorded greater than 1,500 murders yearly. Homicides peaked in 1990 at 2,245.
WHAT TRUMP SAID: “We misplaced $85 billion price of the best navy gear on this planet.”
That is exaggerated. Trump was referring to, and overstating, the worth of navy gear seized by the Taliban after the USA withdrew the final of its troops from Afghanistan final August.
In keeping with quarterly Pentagon experiences to Congress, the USA had offered $88.6 billion for safety in Afghanistan from October 2001 to July 2021, and disbursed about $75 billion. That determine consists of the quantity spent on coaching, anti-drug trafficking efforts and infrastructure, in addition to $18 billion for gear. Many of the $75 billion really went towards “sustainment,” a class that features salaries, communications and fuel for automobiles.
CNN and different information retailers have reported that the USA left behind about $7 billion of navy gear.
WHAT TRUMP SAID: “They need windmills everywhere that damage our fields, kill our birds and are very unreliable and are the most costly power ever developed”
That is exaggerated. Trump has lengthy been an ardent critic of wind generators, however his complaints are overstated.
By one estimate, as many as 328,000 birds die every year flying into wind farms, however different issues — inanimate and residing — pose a far larger menace. Cats kill as many as 4 billion birds yearly in the USA, fossil gas energy vegetation are chargeable for 14.5 million and collisions with buildings as many as 988 million birds.
Wind energy and different types of renewable power have gotten more and more extra inexpensive.
The Power Data Administration estimated that onshore wind would value about $30 per megawatt-hour by 2027, cheaper than the $52 for coal, $61 for nuclear, $41 for biomass and $47 for hydroelectric. It is going to stay costlier than pure fuel, photo voltaic and geothermal technology.
OTHER CLAIMS
Trump additionally repeated a variety of different claims The New York Instances had beforehand fact-checked:
— Trump inaccurately claimed to have “shut down” unauthorized border crossings. (The quantity declined through the pandemic, however started to extend once more within the remaining months of his presidency.)
— He falsely claimed that “no different president had ever gotten something from China, not even 10 cents.” (Within the decade earlier than Trump took workplace, the USA collected $8 billion to $14 billion per yr from duties on Chinese language imports.)
— He misleadingly characterised members of NATO as “delinquent” on funds. (All member nations pay their payments.)
— He falsely mentioned that “nobody ever heard of” the Nord Stream 2 pipeline earlier than he raised it as a problem and halted its building. (His predecessors all opposed the venture.)
— He misleadingly claimed that the Obama administration had solely equipped Ukraine with “blankets.” (It dedicated greater than $600 million in safety help to Ukraine.)
— He falsely claimed to have “accomplished” constructing a wall alongside the southern border. (It has not been completed.)
— He claimed to have presided over the “greatest economic system in historical past.” (Common progress, even earlier than the coronavirus pandemic decimated the economic system, was decrease beneath Trump than beneath former Presidents Invoice Clinton and Ronald Reagan.)
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