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It’s a wrap: Read our fact-checks and stories from the 2024 RNC

Former president Donald Trump and Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, watch July 18, 2024, as balloons fall during the final day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. (AP)

By Jeff Cercone July 19, 2024

If Your Time is short

PolitiFact also fact-checked the 2024 Democratic National Convention. Find our DNC coverage here.

Former President Donald Trump wrapped up the final day of the Republican National Convention on July 18 with a lengthy speech, his first since he was nearly assassinated days earlier in Butler, Pennsylvania.

He recounted the "happy" vibe as he arrived at his campaign rally July 13, rose to speak and then heard a "loud whizzing sound." Within moments, his ear was bloody and flying bullets had struck and killed supporter Corey Comperatore and injured two others.

Trump honored Comperatore, a volunteer firefighter, kissing a firefighter’s uniform displayed onstage and holding a moment of silence.

But a speech that began in a somber tone soon turned more combative as Trump aired long-held grievances and repeated questionable claims he’s made before.

We fact-checked claims made during all four nights of the convention. Here’s a wrap-up of what we found.

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., speaks July 15, 2024, at a Republican National Convention event sponsored by the news outlet Axios in Milwaukee. (Louis Jacobson/PolitiFact)

Day 1: Monday, July 15

The news on the convention’s first day was dominated by Trump’s selection of Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate and the dismissal of the classified documents case against Trump by a federal judge in Florida.

Vance appeared with Trump on the first night, but neither spoke to the crowd. Vance did, however, give his first interview as the nominee to Fox News host Sean Hannity. Vance said in the interview that the media had twisted his words in the past on abortion and domestic violence, so we decided to take a closer look at his past comments. We found Vance falsely portrayed President Joe Biden’s position on abortion.

At the same time, Biden gave an interview to NBC News’ Lester Holt, where he attacked Vance’s views on abortion and climate change.

Meanwhile, online, conspiracy theories about the assassination attempt flourished, including baseless claims that it was staged or ordered by Biden.

On the convention floor in Milwaukee, the economy was the topic of the day. Here are some of the claims we checked:

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., "Under President Trump, we had the strongest economy in history."

False.

There are several metrics that show this isn’t the case. Among them:

The unemployment rate under Trump fell to levels the U.S. hasn’t seen in five decades, but the rate has been matched or lowered under President Joe Biden.
Gross domestic product growth under Trump was well below that of previous presidents and was similar to the final six years of Barack Obama’s administration.
The growth rate in personal consumption per person, adjusted for inflation, wasn’t higher under Trump than under previous presidents.

Entrepreneur David Sacks: Democrats have set off "the worst inflation since Jimmy Carter."

False.

Inflation was worse under Republican President Ronald Reagan. The peak annual inflation rate under Biden was 8% in 2022. In 1981 under Reagan, the inflation rate was 10.3% inflation.

Before Reagan, Carter, a Democrat, did see inflation at 11.3% in 1979 and 13.5% in 1980.

Read all our Day 1 fact-checks here.

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former President Donald Trump's strongest challenger in the primary elections, speaks July 16, 2024, during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. (AP)

Day 2: Tuesday, July 16

It was a day for Trump’s vanquished rivals to attempt to unify their voters with Trump’s. Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Trump’s closest primary challenger, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy all spoke and endorsed Trump.

Republican candidates for competitive U.S. Senate races in Arizona, Montana, Wisconsin and other states called out their potential Democratic opponents, linking them to Biden and his immigration policy.

Immigration, national security and crime were among the topics of the day.

Nikki Haley, former Republican presidential candidate: "Kamala had one job, one job. And that was to fix the border."

Mostly False.

Biden tasked Vice President Kamala Harris in March 2021 to work with officials in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to address the root causes of people migrating to the U.S.

Republicans soon began calling Harris the "border czar" and have since tried to pin border security problems on her. Harris has clarified that her role was not managing the border, but rather focusing on the root causes of migration. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has told reporters that it’s his responsibility to manage security and management of the border.

Kari Lake, Arizona Senate candidate: "Just last week, Ruben Gallego voted to let the millions of people who poured into our country illegally cast a ballot in this upcoming election."

False.

U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego D-Ariz., did not vote to allow millions of people in the country illegally to vote in the 2024 election. Federal law already bans noncitizens from voting in federal elections.

Gallego voted against the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, which requires people to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.

When Gallego voted against the bill, he said in a statement, "Of course only U.S. citizens should vote." Gallego said the bill would create obstacles for Arizonans to vote because of the requirements to provide documentary proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate.

Read all our Day 2 fact-checks here.

Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, stands onstage July 17, 2024, at the third day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. (AP)

Day 3: Wednesday, July 17

It was Vance’s chance to introduce himself to voters. The former harsh Trump critic and military veteran shared his working-class background and economically populist views with the crowd, and why he is now aligned with the former president.

We fact-checked several of the claims he made in his speech. Here’s a sampling.

"Joe Biden supported the disastrous invasion of Iraq" while "Trump was right" on the war.

Half True.

Biden voted in favor of a 2002 resolution that authorized then-President George W. Bush to use military force if needed against Iraq. The U.S. invaded Iraq in March 2003. Vance’s team pointed PolitiFact to that vote to support his claim.

Biden criticized Bush’s strategy in July 2023, saying he went to war too soon, without enough troops or enough countries supporting the effort.

Trump, meanwhile, also supported the Iraq War early on, before criticizing it soon after.

"There’s this chart that shows worker wages, and they stagnated for pretty much my entire life until President Donald J. Trump came along. Workers’ wages went through the roof."

This is exaggerated. Wages stagnated for much of Vance’s life, but there was no sharp divide after Trump’s election when wages skyrocketed.

Median usual weekly inflation-adjusted earnings for full-time wage and salary workers stagnated from 1984, when Vance was born, until the mid-2010s. After about 2014, these earnings climbed about 4% during Obama’s final three years in office.

Between Trump’s inauguration to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic — about a three-year period — those earnings also climbed about 4%. (Data points from the pandemic are unreliable because lower-wage workers were more likely to be laid off, raising the median wage of still-employed workers).

This statistic has grown by about 2% under Biden since early 2022, when the pandemic’s economic impact began to fade.

Read all our Day 3 fact-checks here.

Former President Donald Trump and former first lady Melania Trump watch with their families July 18, 2024, as the balloons fall during the final day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. (AP)

Day 4: Thursday, July 18

Trump began his speech by emotionally recounting the attempted assassination on him at a Butler, Pennsylvania, campaign rally less than a week earlier.

"You’ll never hear it from me again a second time, because it’s too painful to tell," Trump said. "I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God."

After honoring Comperatore with a sober remembrance, Trump soon pivoted in tone and substance, airing questionable claims about his prior term and Biden’s record. We examined some of those claims.

Immigrants are "coming from prisons, they’re coming from jails, they're coming from mental institutions and insane asylums."

False.

We rated a similar claim by Trump earlier this year Pants on Fire. Immigration officials arrested about 103,700 noncitizens with criminal convictions (in the U.S. and overseas) at and between points of entry from fiscal years 2021 to 2024.

Not everyone of those was let in and the term noncitizens includes people who may have legal status in the U.S. Immigration experts told PolitiFact that there is no evidence to support Trump’s statement. They said there are barriers to mental health treatment in Latin American countries for many people, so if patients are coming to the U.S. they are more likely coming from their homes, not psychiatric hospitals.

"I will end the electric vehicle mandate on Day 1."

False.

There is no electric vehicle mandate, just a goal by the Biden administration to have electric vehicles comprise half of all new vehicle sales by 2030.

Later in his speech, Trump added that he would allow people to buy a gasoline-powered or hybrid car. Biden has not banned gasoline-powered cars, which can continue to be sold, even after 2030.

Read all our Day 4 fact-checks here.

Read and share our coverage of Spanish

Read our coverage in Spanish for nights three and four of the convention.