Fact-checking Donald Trump’s rally in Bozeman, Montana

In his first campaign rally since Vice President Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate for the 2024 presidential election, former President Donald Trump attacked Walz and rallied support for a crucial Senate seat in Montana. 

"If Comrade Walz and Comrade Harris win this November, the people cheering will be the pink-haired Marxists, the looters, the perverts, the flag burners," Trump said, invoking a common but misleading line of attack that seeks to paint Democrats’ policies as socialist. 

Trump took the stage later than expected at his Friday night rally in Bozeman, Montana, after a mechanical problem forced his plane to divert 140 miles east to Billings. The plane landed without incident. Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, did not attend.

In his speech, Trump zeroed in on the state’s Democratic senator, Jon Tester, criticizing the votes Tester took to support major legislation passed under President Joe Biden’s administration, such as the Inflation Reduction Act. Tim Sheehy, the Republican running to unseat Tester, spoke alongside Trump.

Trump also criticized Harris and Biden on issues such as immigration and the economy. We fact-checked five of his claims.

Trump: I handed Biden "a surging economy with no inflation." 

This is inaccurate. Trump has made this claim before. 

Although inflation was lower during Trump’s presidency than it has been under Biden’s, the Consumer Price Index 12-month change was never at zero percent. 

It fell close to zero in April and May 2020, shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic’s onset. The lowest inflation rate was 0.1% in May 2020.

That’s because the American economy took a major hit as the demand for goods and services plunged during the pandemic’s initial lockdowns. Trump claiming credit for the low inflation at that time ignores that the rate dropped because of economic crisis, not success.

For much of Trump’s presidency until the pandemic, inflation ranged from 1.5% to 3%. When Biden entered office in January 2021, inflation was at 1.4%.

Trump: "By the millions and millions, (immigrants are) coming from prisons, they’re coming from jails." 

Pants on Fire!

Trump’s claim that immigrants are flowing across the border from prisons and mental institutions lacks evidence, and data and expert analysis reveal his description of them coming by the "millions and millions" to be so implausible as to be ridiculous.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows that officials have arrested just more than 110,000 noncitizens with criminal convictions, whether in the U.S. or abroad. Not all were let into the country. The data reflects numbers the federal government knows about, but it isn’t exhaustive. 

There have been about 8 million encounters at the border since Biden took office. But encounters data represents events, not people. For example, if one person tries to cross the border three times and is stopped each time, that would count as three encounters. 

Trump: Harris "wants to get rid of ICE."

False.

Harris was critical of the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement — the agency in charge of detaining and deporting immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally — during Trump’s presidency. She criticized many of his border policies, including one that led to family separations at the border, but she hasn’t called to abolish the agency.

She said in a 2018 MSNBC interview that Immigration and Customs Enforcement should exist, but she called for reexamining its role and scope. During a separate interview in 2018, she said that the U.S. should "reexamine ICE and its role" and mission, and "even think about starting from scratch." Harris has not stumped in 2024 to end the agency; her campaign has not released a written policy platform for her 2024 run. But her 2019 presidential primary immigration platform called for restructuring the agency, not abolishing it. 

Trump: "They're destroying Social Security and Medicare by allowing all of these people to come in on the plan."

False.

Most immigrants in the country illegally are not eligible for Social Security. Some who have been granted humanitarian parole for more than one year may be eligible for Social Security for up to seven years, according to the Congressional Research Service. 

Immigrants in the U.S. illegally are typically ineligible to enroll in federally funded health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Some states offer Medicaid coverage under state-funded programs regardless of immigration status, and immigrants are eligible for emergency Medicaid regardless of status. 

Immigration also does not threaten Social Security’s sustainability. The program has shortfalls because the ranks of retirees outpace the numbers of workers feeding their tax dollars into the system. Immigrants who meet the legal requirements to receive retirement benefits can access Social Security only after working and contributing to Social Security taxes for a minimum of 10 years.

Trump: Harris "wants to have all of your guns taken away." 

Mostly False.

As presidential candidate in 2019, Harris said she supported a "mandatory gun buyback program" for assault weapons.

The proposed program did not apply to all guns. Handguns, which would not have been affected, make up the majority of guns sold in the U.S. 

Since Harris has become the Democratic presidential nominee, her campaign has said she does not support a mandatory buyback program. The campaign said she supports banning assault weapons but not requiring people to sell them to the federal government.