Donald Trump has spoken, and the GOP convention in Cleveland is history.
The non-partisan fact-checkers at PolitiFact were there from the get-go, trying to parse political truth from fiction.
Want to see how Trump fared? Abbreviated versions of our fact checks are below.
The latest fact-checks can be found at www.myajc.com/s/news/politifact/.
Want to comment on our rulings or suggest one of your own? Just go to our Facebook page
(www.facebook.com/politifact.georgia). You can also follow us on Twitter
(http://twitter.com/politifactga).
Trump said this:
“Our trade deficit in goods reached nearly … $800 billion last year alone.”
Trump’s phrasing is a little off, but he’s got the idea right.
The country’s overall trade deficit in 2015 was about $500 billion, according to Census data, but that figure includes both goods and services.
Trump mentioned the trade deficit in goods, which includes all manufactured products, oil and agriculture products.
The trade deficit in 2015 for just goods was $763 billion. Not quite $800 billion, but reasonably close.
We rate Trump's claim True.
Trump said this:
“Nearly 180,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records, ordered deported from our country, are tonight roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens.”
According to federal data, 925,000 immigrants had been ordered removed but were still in the country as of July 2015.
And an estimated 20 percent of them had at least one criminal conviction — Nearly all of whom were at large.
A little bit of context missing here —
Experts say some of those convicted criminals include people who failed to appear before a judge to argue their immigration case, and are not violent crime offenders.
We Trump's statement Mostly True.
Trump on immigration again.
Says Hillary Clinton “wants sanctuary cities.”
During her first race for president, Clinton expressed support for sanctuary cities and said she wouldn’t crack down on them. She argued that without such policies, people will hide from police and not report crimes.
In 2015, Clinton criticized the city of San Francisco for releasing a man from jail who later was charged with murdering a woman and had previously been deported many times. However, her campaign reiterated Clinton’s view that she believes sanctuary cities can help further public safety.
We rate this claim Mostly True.
Trump on household income:
”Household incomes are down more than $4,000 since the year 2000.”
He’s right on the number.
But that number exaggerates the income trend under president Obama.
A majority of the decline since 2000 actually occurred under Bush.
The statement is pretty accurate. But it needs that bit additional information.
We rate it Mostly True.
Trump said this on jobs:
“America has lost nearly one third of its manufacturing jobs since 1997, following the enactment of disastrous trade deals supported by Bill and Hillary Clinton.”
Trump’s statement overlooks that manufacturing employment climbed after passage of NAFTA.
The general consensus among economists is that overall, NAFTA has neither helped nor hurt American workers. There’s broad agreement that China’s entry to the WTO has come at the price of many American manufacturing jobs, with estimates ranging from about a million to over 2 million.
But that would be less than half of the manufacturing jobs lost that Trump talked about. Trump’s focus on the Clintons also overlooks the key role played by Republicans. In naming the Clintons, he leaves out at least half of the picture.
There’s a measure of truth in Trump’s words, but he omits a lot of important information.
We rate this claim Half True.
This one from Trump on taxes:
”America is one of the highest-taxed nations in the world.”
If you believe that he meant the corporate tax rate, then Trump’s comment is pretty accurate.
However, he didn’t specify that distinction, and a reasonable listener could think that Trump meant taxes overall.
That would not be true for overall taxes.
We rate the claim Mostly False.
Trump said this about Clinton and guns:
Hillary Clinton “wants to essentially abolish the Second Amendment.”
The addition of the word essentially doesn’t change the accuracy of this claim. We found no evidence of Clinton ever saying verbatim or suggesting explicitly she wants to abolish the Second Amendment. The bulk of her comments suggest the opposite: She wants to enact stricter gun control, but has no objection to responsible gun ownership.
Gun advocates say Trump’s claim is backed up by Clinton’s openness to a gun buyback program and her disagreement with a Supreme Court decision on the Second Amendment. But whether or not these cherry-picked comments actually reveal Clinton’s intentions is a matter of interpretation.
We rate Trump's claim False.
About the Author
