Stand up for the facts!

Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy.
We need your help.

More Info

I would like to contribute

Trump holds rally in Atlanta on Saturday

Donald Trump says "there aren't that many women, there aren't that many children" who make up the refugees from Syria on ABC's "This Week" Oct. 4, 2015. The facts say otherwise. (Screengrab) Donald Trump says "there aren't that many women, there aren't that many children" who make up the refugees from Syria on ABC's "This Week" Oct. 4, 2015. The facts say otherwise. (Screengrab)

Donald Trump says "there aren't that many women, there aren't that many children" who make up the refugees from Syria on ABC's "This Week" Oct. 4, 2015. The facts say otherwise. (Screengrab)

Nancy Badertscher
By Nancy Badertscher October 9, 2015

The Donald’s been taking a ride on the Truth-O-Meter long before he announced for the 2016 presidential race.

To date, he’s had 52 statements rated by fact-checkers at PolitiFact.

Five were rated Mostly True, 8 Half True, 6 Mostly False 24 False and 9 Pants on Fire.

He’s yet to earn a True rating.

Read them all at: http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/.

Sign up for PolitiFact texts

We’ve included a few summaries below.

 

Donald Trump on Wednesday, September 16th, 2015 in the second GOP primary debate.

Says Marco Rubio has "the worst voting record there is today."

 

In one of many heated exchanges during the second Republican primary debate, Trump mocked Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s poor attendance record in the Senate after Rubio schooled Trump on his lack foreign policy knowledge.

"The one thing that the federal government must do -- the one thing that only the federal government can do -- is keep us safe," Rubio said on Sept. 16. "And a president better be up-to-date on those issues on his first day in office, on her first day in office."

"You have to understand, I am not sitting in the United States Senate with, by the way, the worst voting record there is today," Trump countered, referring to Rubio’s missed votes. "No. 1, I am not sitting in the United States Senate. I am a businessman doing business transactions."

Rubio admitted that he didn’t have the best attendance record and suggested that’s because he’s focusing on something more important: the White House. We wondered if Rubio really has missed the most Senate votes in the GOP field.

Trump’s accurate if we look at the number of votes missed this year out of the five current senators running for president. Rubio has missed about a third of all votes.

If we look at career truancy records, Rubio is a close second to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz among the current field.

We rated Trump’s claim Mostly True.

 

Donald Trump on Sunday, August 16th, 2015 in an interview on "Meet the Press"

Says "if the (Iran nuclear) deal gets rejected, they still get" $150 billion.

 

Whether Congress approves it or not, Iran will still reap all the financial benefits of the nuclear deal, Trump said on NBC’s Meet the Press Aug. 16.

When asked by host Chuck Todd how he would work with the Iran deal if he becomes president, Trump, running for the Republican nomination, said he would be "tough" on the contract, but it would be hard given all the money Iran would already have acquired as a result of the deal.

"The problem is by the time I got in there, they will have already received the $150 billion," Trump said. "Do you know if the deal gets rejected they still get the money?"

We decided to to check both claims about the money and, if it still goes to Iran, if Congress rejects the deal.

Experts told us that even if Congress rejected the nuclear deal -- thus maintaining current U.S. sanctions -- other countries could stop enforcing their own sanctions anyway. As a result, Iran would be able to access at least some of its assets that have been frozen under international sanctions. However, experts said it’s highly unlikely that this would amount to $150 billion, the maximum estimate of how much Iran could benefit by the lifting of all international sanctions without regard to Iran’s outstanding financial obligations. Without United States participation, the best estimate we could find was $40 billion.

Trump’s claim is partially accurate but cherry-picks the high end of estimates for the unfrozen assets.

We rated Trump’s claim Half True.

 

Donald Trump on Tuesday, September 8th, 2015 in a tweet

Jeb's policies in Florida helped lead to its almost total collapse."

 

Trump blamed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for the Sunshine State’s recession woes, saying Bush’s policies were the catalyst for financial disaster.

"Jeb’s policies in Florida helped lead to its almost total collapse," Trump tweeted on Sept. 8, 2015. "Right after he left he went to work for Lehman Brothers — wow!"

For this fact-check, we looked at Trump’s claim that Bush’s policies as governor led to financial ruin in the Sunshine State.

Bush has made repeated boasts about spikes in job growth and cuts in taxation and spending. But he also was fortunate to leave office just as the economy was starting to falter.

The state’s housing market, which had skyrocketed even more than the rest of the nation, cratered in the aftermath. Florida eventually lost 1 million of the 1.33 million new jobs that were created during Bush’s tenure. Many critics, like Trump, have said Bush can’t take credit for the party without accepting the blame for the hangover.

Economists told us the Great Recession was precipitated by a housing bubble that grew out of multiple factors, including policies on all levels of government.

While Bush’s actions as governor may not have done anything to prevent the financial crisis — some experts said he could have worked to throttle down the overbuilding — all agreed he did not cause the recession.

We rated Trump’s statement Mostly False.

 

Tweets on Sunday, October 4th, 2015

Says Donald Trump’s "Make America Great Again" hats were made in China.

 

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign was forced to address a widespread allegation of hypocrisy this week, and it had nothing to do with his former liberal ways or his company’s overseas investments.

Much worse. Social media posts claimed his unmistakable, sometimes ironically worn "Make America Great Again" hats are not made in the USA.

Here’s an example from Twitter, which was picked up by Occupy Democrats on Facebook:

2015-10-07 17_00_23-Alex on Twitter_ _So my roommate got one of those trump hats... http___t.co_mTdk.jpg

Made in China?! Say it ain’t so, Donald.

Hold onto your plastic snap enclosure. It’s not true.

The hat that launched a barrage of snarky social media posts after its July debut at a Texas campaign event has also launched a host of imitations.

"The image you shared is not an official campaign product," Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks told PunditFact in an email. "All product for sale on DonaldJTrump.com is made in the USA."

Those hats that are the focus of the tweets are knockoffs.

Trump has even trademarked the phrase "Make America Great Again." Trump’s hats are made by a California company that says they are, indeed, American made.

We rated the claim Pants on Fire!

 

Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter

Our Sources

Nexis, GOP CNN Debate transcript, Sept. 16, 2015

Tampa Bay Times, "His eye on the White House, Marco Rubio racks up the worst missed-vote record in the U.S. Senate," Aug. 7, 2015

Washington Post, "Ted Cruz, Barack Obama and the biggest vote-missers in the Senate", May 1, 2015

GovTrack searches

Senate.Gov searches

Nexis search

---

NBC, Meet the Press transcript, Aug. 16, 2015

New York Times, "Value of Iran Sanctions Relief Is Hard to Measure," Aug. 5, 2015

PolitiFact, "Bill O'Reilly tells Huckabee: Russia, China 'said clearly' they would not keep Iran sanctions," July 30, 2015

PolitiFact, "Israeli ambassador uses odd logic to relate Iran's frozen assets to the U.S. treasury," July 17, 2015

White House, Iran Deal Q&A, accessed Aug. 16, 2015

LobeLog, "Iran’s Economy after the Nuclear Deal," July 20, 2015

Phone interview, Michael Malloy, law professor at McGeorge School of Law, Aug. 16, 2015

Phone interview, George Perkovich, vice president at Carnegie Endowment, Aug. 16, 2015

Email interview, Garbis Iradian, chief economist at the Institute of International Finance, Aug. 16, 2015

Email interview, Richard Nephew, program director at the Center on Global Energy Policy, Aug. 16, 2015

Email interview, Jim Walsh, research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Security Studies Program, Aug. 16, 2015

Email interview, Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, economics professor at Virginia Tech, Aug. 16, 2015

Email interview, Matthew Bunn, professor at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affaris, Aug. 16, 2015

---------

Twitter, Donald Trump tweet, Sept. 8, 2015

PolitiFact, "What caused crisis? No one thing," Nov. 30, 2008

Tampa Bay Times, "Florida stands to lose $1 billion because of Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy," June 4, 2009

Vox, "Jeb Bush rode the housing bubble and got out at just the right time," March 3, 2015

PolitiFact Florida, "The saga of state spending enforcer Jeb Bush's one-time alias, Veto Corleone," May 26, 2015

PolitiFact Florida, "Dissecting the Republican theme ‘Crist crash, Scott surge’ in the governor’s race," May 31, 2014

Washington Post, "A housing bubble made Jeb Bush look great — and then it tanked Florida’s economy," June 16, 2015

Yahoo Finance, "How Jeb Bush escaped the Florida housing meltdown," June 18, 2015

Daily Beast, "Jeb Bush’s Big Lehman Brothers Problem," July 2, 2015

Wall Street Journal, "Florida’s Economic Leap Under Jeb Bush Helped By Housing Bubble, Economists Say," July 7, 2015

Fox Business, "Exclusive: Why Doesn't Jeb Want to Talk About Lehman Bros?," July 10, 2015

Washington Post, "Under Jeb Bush, housing prices fueled Florida’s boom. Then it all went bust.," July 27, 2015

International Business Times, "Election 2016: Jeb Bush Got $1.3M Job At Lehman After Florida Shifted Pension Cash To Bank," Aug. 19, 2015

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, "Chart Book: The Legacy of the Great Recession," Sept. 9, 2015

PolitiFact Florida, "Bush says Florida created more jobs than any other state while he was governor," Sept. 10, 2015

PolitiFact Florida, "Bush’s boasting about Florida only tells half the story," Sept. 11, 2015

Interview with Allie Brandenburger, Bush spokeswoman, Sept. 11, 2015

--

Interview with Hope Hicks, Trump campaign manager, Oct. 7, 2015

Interview with Christl Mahfouz, Ace Specialties LLC president and owner, Oct. 7, 2015

YouTube.com, "Make America Great Again - Unboxing video," Aug. 22, 2015

Interview with Brian Kennedy, Cali Fame of Los Angeles co-owner, Oct. 7, 2015

 

Interview with Randall Holcomb, Florida State University economics professor, Sept. 11, 2015

Interview with Mark Vitner, Wells Fargo senior economist, Sept. 11, 2015

Interview with Bill Seyfried, Rollins College economics professor, Sept. 14, 2015

Interview with Kwame Donaldson, Moody’s Analytics economist, Sept. 14, 2015

Interview with David Denslow, University of Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research economist, Sept. 14, 2015

Browse the Truth-O-Meter

More by Nancy Badertscher

Trump holds rally in Atlanta on Saturday