PolitiFact last week found two recent Donald Trump tweets lacked full truth, and Ann Coulter's comment on Trump's immigration policy so far had the numbers right but described the effect as 'amnesty,' a term open to lots of interpretation. Here are abbreviated versions of our fact checks. Full versions can be found at www.politifact.com.
“The new Rasmussen Poll, one of the most accurate in the 2016 Election, just out with a Trump 50% Approval Rating. That’s higher than O’s #’s!”
— President Donald Trump, in a tweet on June 18
Rasmussen’s numbers are not typical. Of the polls that have surveyed Trump’s approval ratings, the next-closest results were still pretty far from 50 percent.
What about Trump’s assertion that Obama fared more poorly? It’s not the case if you use the most apples-to-apples comparison, Rasmussen’s own polling at this stage of Obama’s presidency. Rasmussen’s results for Obama during the same period in June 2009 do not show an approval rating below Trump’s 50 percent. Obama’s approval ratings were between 54 and 58 percent through June 9-16, 2009, and they did not dip below 50 percent until late July of that year.
Our ruling
There’s a grain of truth here: Rasmussen was closest to the mark among pollsters in its final pre-election survey. However, Trump has engaged in some serious cherry-picking. And contrary to Trump’s assertion, Obama’s numbers in the same poll at the same point in his presidency were higher than Trump’s current results.
We rate the claim Mostly False.
Obamacare has led to fewer health insurance options for millions of Americans.
— Donald Trump on Wednesday, June 21st, 2017 in a White House tweet
Before passage of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) in 2010, many Americans either couldn’t afford insurance or were denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Thousands gained coverage as a result of the law. A 2016 estimate from the U.S. Health and Human Services Department put the number at 20 million.
The White House statement does apply in a more limited sense. The video included a statistic about insurance companies deciding not to offer policies on the health insurance exchanges set up under the law. The original idea of the exchanges was to have companies competing for business. In many counties, particularly rural ones, it hasn’t turned out that way. “Fewer plan options will be available when compared to the early years of the Affordable Care Act,” said Daniel Polsky, professor of health management at the Wharton School. The exchanges represent a small slice of the insurance market, though. The individual market covers about 7 percent of all Americans, and slightly more than half of those policies are sold on the exchanges.
Our ruling
About 20 million more people have insurance today than before as a result of the new health care law. The White House neglects that critical point. The sole thread of truth is that in the insurance exchanges set up by the law, the number of carriers has dwindled.
We rate this claim Mostly False.
The Trump administration has granted amnesty to “nearly 100,000 ‘Dreamers’ “
— Ann Coulter on Thursday, June 8th, 2017 in in a tweet
We found the numbers Coulter cited are in line with data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, but whether the DACA program (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, created in the Obama years) grants "amnesty" is a matter of debate among experts.
Coulter referred to an article in The Daily Caller that estimated 98,000 DACA approvals under Trump. Our own calculation also got that number.
“DACA does not create a lasting ‘amnesty’ and lawful permanent residence” said Kevin R. Johnson, an immigration law expert and dean of the University of California, Davis School of Law.
Based on the benefits it offers, DACA is amnesty, said Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors low-immigration levels. “I would define an amnesty as such whenever the law is set aside and the normal penalty is waived as a matter of policy. The normal penalty for being in the U.S. illegally is removal.”
Our ruling
Calculations of the number of DACA applications approved January through March that only include days Trump has been in office show that, at least, about 98,000 were approved. Whether the program is amnesty, however, is subject to interpretation.
For that reason, we rate Coulter's claim Mostly True.
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