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Former President Donald Trump’s newly chosen working mate, JD Vance, accepted the Republican Social gathering’s vice presidential nomination on the conference’s third night time, which featured claims in regards to the financial system, immigration and international coverage.
- Vance wrongly stated that staff’ wages “stagnated” for a lot of his life till they “went via the roof” underneath Trump. Inflation-adjusted wages had been rising over a number of presidencies earlier than Trump took workplace.
- Vance stated “Trump was proper” to oppose “the disastrous invasion of Iraq.” However there is no such thing as a document of him opposing the struggle earlier than it began in 2003 or the congressional decision authorizing the struggle in 2002.
- Media persona Kimberly Guilfoyle stated that “President Trump handed Biden a booming financial system.” However when President Joe Biden took workplace, the U.S. had simply skilled a uncommon drop in gross home product in 2020, associated to the COVID-19 pandemic, and unemployment remained excessive.
- Rep. Matt Gaetz falsely stated Vice President Kamala Harris was appointed a “border czar.” Harris wasn’t appointed to guide immigration points. As a substitute, Biden assigned her to guide a gaggle of actions supposed to “handle the foundation causes of migration from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.”
- Former Home Speaker Newt Gingrich falsely claimed that Trump needed to maintain Bagram Air Base when U.S. troops have been being withdrawn from Afghanistan. Trump had negotiated an settlement with the Taliban in 2020 that known as for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from all bases.
- North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum misleadingly blamed “Biden’s pink tape” for growing the value of gasoline. The price of fuel is primarily fueled by world provide and demand components past a president’s management, consultants say.
- Former White Home commerce adviser Peter Navarro advised the conference crowd that he “went to jail so that you gained’t need to.” Navarro was sentenced to jail after a jury convicted him in 2023 on two counts of contempt for refusing to adjust to a 2022 subpoena from Congress.
- Vance famous then-Sen. Biden’s assist for NAFTA in 1993 and known as it “a foul commerce deal that despatched numerous good jobs to Mexico.” However financial research say the commerce deal had a comparatively small general affect on jobs.
- Texas Gov. Greg Abbott claimed that Trump had succeeded as president in “eliminating unlawful immigration.” That’s false. The variety of border crossings did drop in his first yr in workplace, however they have been by no means eradicated. They usually started rising in his second yr.
- Abbott claimed that neither Biden nor Harris had visited the southern border earlier than he started busing migrants to different components of the nation. However Harris had gone to El Paso, Texas, virtually a yr earlier than his busing coverage started.
- Rep. Michael Waltz channeled the false Trump speaking level that Biden is changing the navy to electrical tanks. Whereas the navy is transferring towards the electrification of its automobile fleets, that doesn’t apply to fight automobiles.
Wages have been rising earlier than Trump
In his speech accepting the vice presidential nomination, JD Vance falsely claimed that staff’ wages “stagnated” for a lot of his life till they “went via the roof” underneath Trump. Inflation-adjusted wages had been rising over a number of presidencies earlier than Trump took workplace.
“There’s this chart that reveals employee wages,” Vance stated, “and so they stagnated for just about my whole life till President Donald J. Trump got here alongside — staff’ wages went via the roof.”
That’s not what this chart from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals on actual, which means inflation-adjusted, common weekly earnings of manufacturing and nonsupervisory staff.
Vance was born in 1984, when actual wages have been nonetheless typically falling after reaching their long-term peak within the early Seventies. However across the mid- to late Nineties, when Vance was 12 or so years outdated, actual wages started to rise.
Because the chart reveals, wages have fluctuated, however they have been on an upward development earlier than Trump took workplace. The noticeable spike within the chart got here in April and Might 2020, through the begin of the COVID-19 pandemic, when unemployment also shot up and lots of lower-wage staff misplaced their jobs.
Over Trump’s 4 years, wage development was stable. The common weekly earnings for manufacturing and nonsupervisory staff — who make up 81% of all private-sector workers — went up 9.6% underneath Trump. Earlier than the pandemic hit, that they had gone up 3.6%.
However as we’ve explained before, that rise prolonged a development that began after the 2007-2009 recession. Over President Barack Obama’s two phrases in workplace, actual weekly earnings for rank-and-file staff rose 4%.
And wages had been climbing previous to that. Beneath President George W. Bush, actual wages went up by 4.5%, and underneath President Invoice Clinton, they rose by 6.4%.
Trump and the Iraq struggle
In discussing decisions made by the “ruling class in Washington” that harm folks residing in small cities in America, Vance criticized Biden for main the U.S. into struggle in Iraq after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist assaults.
Vance stated: “Joe Biden supported the disastrous invasion of Iraq” — which, as FactCheck wrote, is true. Biden voted in October 2002 for a joint decision authorizing use of navy drive in opposition to Iraq, and spoke out in assist of then-President George W. Bush instantly after the Republican president used that congressional authorization to invade Iraq on March 19, 2003.
Vance then contrasted Biden’s assist for the struggle with Trump’s place, saying that “by some means an actual property developer from New York Metropolis by the identify of Donald J. Trump was proper” about Iraq. However, as FactCheck also wrote, there is no such thing as a proof that Trump spoke in opposition to the struggle earlier than it began, though FactCheck did discover he expressed early issues about the price and course of the struggle a number of months after it began.
When Trump first ran for president, FactCheck did a deep dive into the topic of Trump’s position on the Iraq war after he repeatedly claimed to have opposed the Iraq struggle earlier than it began. In a Sept. 16, 2015, debate, Trump claimed he “fought very, very laborious in opposition to us … going into Iraq.” Just a few weeks later, Trump told Fox News that he was “visited by folks from the White Home” in an try to silence him, as a result of, he stated, he was getting “a disproportionate quantity of publicity” for his opposition to the struggle.
The Trump marketing campaign on the time supplied no proof of what Trump known as his “loud and clear” opposition to invading Iraq. Different fact-checking organizations — together with PolitiFact and the Washington Post Fact Checker — have been additionally unable to seek out any proof to assist Trump’s claims. Round this time, BuzzFeed reported that Trump indicated his assist for struggle in a radio interview with shock jock Howard Stern on Sept. 11, 2002 — slightly greater than six months earlier than the struggle began. Stern requested Trump straight if he supported going to struggle with Iraq, and Trump hesitantly responded, “Yeah, I suppose so.”
FactCheck’s reporting discovered that Trump had a monetary curiosity in opposing the struggle within the weeks main as much as the struggle, and that he expressed issues in regards to the monetary price of the struggle not lengthy after it began. For instance, Trump in July 2003 stated in an interview that he wished the cash being spent in Iraq may very well be spent in New York Metropolis.
By 2004, Trump’s opposition to the war was nicely documented, however there is no such thing as a document that he opposed the struggle earlier than it began in 2003 or the decision authorizing the struggle in 2002.
Biden inherited a struggling financial system
Media persona Kimberly Guilfoyle, who’s engaged to Donald Trump Jr., misrepresented the state of the U.S. financial system when Biden took workplace in January 2021. “President Trump handed Biden a booming financial system and a robust nation,” she said. “All Joe needed to do was go away it alone and take a nap.”
However by some key measures, the financial system was struggling when Biden took workplace and has improved since.
Unemployment in January 2021 was at 6.4% — an enchancment from its pandemic-related peak of 14.8% in April 2020, however nonetheless above the historic norm of 5.6% and up 1.7 proportion factors from when Trump’s time period started. The unemployment rate underneath Biden as of June was 4.1%, under the historic norm.
Trump additionally presided over a internet lack of 2.9 million jobs, largely because of the pandemic. As of final month, the U.S. has gained greater than 15.7 million jobs underneath Biden.
Actual (inflation-adjusted) gross home product has grown most years in fashionable historical past, in response to the Bureau of Financial Evaluation. However it dropped by 2.2% with the arrival of the pandemic in 2020, after rising modestly by 2.5% to three% throughout Trump’s first three years in workplace. It went on to develop by 5.8% in 2021, amid the financial restoration, adopted by will increase of 1.9% and a couple of.5% within the subsequent two years of Biden’s time period.
Harris wasn’t appointed ‘border czar’
Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida falsely claimed Vice President Kamala Harris was appointed a “border czar.”
“Kamala Harris isn’t capable of do any job,” he said whereas talking about Biden’s potential to do his job. “She was appointed border czar — appointing Kamala Harris to supervise the border is like appointing Bernie Madoff to supervise your retirement plan.”
Harris was not appointed a “border czar” or an individual in control of immigration points on the border. In 2021, Biden appointed Harris to guide an effort to “enhance safety, governance, human rights, and financial situations” in Central America named the “Root Causes Technique.” The technique consisted of a number of actions supposed to “handle the foundation causes of migration” particularly “from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.” The efforts to discourage migration from these nations included funds for pure disasters and COVID-19 vaccines, the creation of job forces and plans to handle safety points and preventing corruption, and partnerships with the non-public sector and worldwide organizations.
On Tuesday night time, through the second night time of the conference, Harris was repeatedly called a “border czar” by different Republican audio system. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida had beforehand known as Harris a “border czar” in a letter he despatched to Harris on Feb. 20 urging her to “fulfill your constitutional responsibility to function the presiding officer of Secretary Mayorkas’ impeachment trial.”
Trump’s statements on Bagram Air Base
In his remarks about international coverage, former Speaker of the Home Newt Gingrich misrepresented Trump’s actions and statements relating to the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. Whereas referring to the Aug. 26, 2021, bombing at Hamid Karzai Worldwide Airport through the last days of the withdrawal, Gingrich said, “Biden ordered a chaotic panic-filled withdrawal that left 13 American troops and a whole lot of Afghans lifeless. The place President Trump insisted on holding Bagram Air Base, which is positioned inside one hour of the Chinese language nuclear services, President Biden gave it to the Taliban.”
However Trump didn’t say the U.S. ought to have saved Bagram till months after he left workplace.
As we’ve written before, in 2020 Trump had reached a take care of the Taliban to withdraw U.S. troops from all bases in Afghanistan. The Doha agreement included a “full withdrawal of all remaining [Coalition] forces from Afghanistan” by Might 1, 2021. The pact additionally stated, “The USA, its allies, and the Coalition will withdraw all forces from remaining bases.”
Biden pushed back the withdrawal date, with a plan to carry all troops residence by Aug. 31. Trump criticized Biden’s delay, releasing a statement on April 18, 2021, that stated, “we are able to and may get out earlier.”
At a rally in Ohio on June 26, 2021, Trump stated “all of the troops are coming again residence” and the Biden administration “couldn’t cease the method.”
On July 6, 2021, U.S. forces have been pulled out of Bagram, as we’ve written.
However days before the final withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, Trump stated, “we should always have saved Bagram as a result of Bagram is between China.”
In an interview with Fox Information on Nov. 7, 2021, Trump stated after the withdrawal of troops that he would have maintained a navy jail on the Bagram Air Base. “We might have saved Bagram as a result of it’s subsequent to China,” Trump stated. “And it’s one hour away from their nuclear facility, and we gave that up too.”
FactCheck might discover no statements by Trump whereas he was in workplace about sustaining an American presence at Bagram. The pact he reached with the Taliban known as for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from all of the bases in Afghanistan.
Gasoline costs
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who unsuccessfully challenged Trump for the nomination, misleadingly claimed that “Biden’s pink tape has raised the value of the fuel in your automotive.”
Whereas gasoline costs have risen underneath the Biden administration, experts told us that the rise is primarily fueled by world provide and demand components past the president’s management, and never authorities actions.
In response to the Energy Information Administration, the nationwide common worth of normal gasoline on the pump has elevated by 47% underneath Biden’s presidency, rising from $2.38 when he first entered workplace in late January 2021 to $3.50 as of July 15. Economists primarily pointed to the disruptive results of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine for the rise underneath the Biden administration.
In 2020, gasoline costs dropped as financial exercise declined sharply because of the pandemic. In 2021, as the worldwide financial system started to recuperate, folks started to renew their common actions, together with journey, and the worldwide demand for crude oil drove up costs quickly, as a result of the worldwide provide was not capable of hold tempo.
Specialists advised us that oil and gasoline costs have been pushed even larger when Russia, one of the world’s largest oil exporters, invaded Ukraine in late February 2022. In response to the assault, the U.S. and different nations put sanctions and bans on Russian oil, additional limiting world provide.
Alan Reynolds, an economist and senior fellow on the Cato Institute, wrote in a May 2022 post that “what occurred to crude oil and gasoline costs in 2022 was the Russian invasion of Ukraine, although partisans falsely deny the hyperlink between struggle and oil markets and as a substitute blame President Biden for U.S. gasoline costs.” The struggle is now in its third year.
Equally, Tom Kloza, the worldwide head of power evaluation and a co-founder of the Oil Price Information Service, told us in March 2022 that the value of oil “doesn’t actually have a lot to do with US crude manufacturing,” and that “President Biden and his administration are being falsely accused of pursuing insurance policies that led to rampant worth inflation.”
In blaming “pink tape,” Burgum could also be referring to actions corresponding to a pause in new leasing of federal land and water in 2021 — a choice that was then blocked by the courts. Nonetheless, as we’ve written previously, consultants advised us that this resolution didn’t considerably have an effect on gasoline costs.
“The reality is that there’s not a lot Biden can do to make the state of affairs higher within the brief time period, nor have his insurance policies to this point made issues worse,” Samantha Gross, director of the Vitality Safety and Local weather Initiative and a fellow in international coverage on the Brookings Establishment, advised us in a March 2022 electronic mail. “Biden’s slowing of federal leasing is a SMALL problem for producers, and has made no distinction in any respect in what’s being produced in the present day,” she stated.
Why Navarro went to jail
Peter Navarro, Trump’s former White Home adviser on commerce, spoke on the conference a number of hours after being released from a jail in Miami. “Joe Biden and his division of injustice put me there,” Navarro stated.
He warned conference attendees that “if they’ll come for me, and if they’ll come for Donald Trump, watch out, they’ll come for you.” And he later advised them, “I went to jail so that you gained’t need to.” He went to jail for contempt of Congress. We’ll clarify what occurred.
Navarro reported to a federal jail in March to serve a four-month sentence. That was about six months after a jury found him guilty on two counts of contempt of Congress for not complying with a February 2022 subpoena issued by the Home choose committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.
The subpoena that Navarro ignored required him to look for a deposition and produce paperwork to Congress, which he didn’t do. The committee said it believed Navarro had data related to its investigation as a result of he performed a task in “efforts to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 election.”
In courtroom, Navarro said that he couldn’t adjust to the committee’s request as a result of Trump had invoked government privilege, precluding him from offering testimony to Congress. However a federal choose rejected that argument.
Navarro’s subsequent appeals of his conviction have been denied by federal courts. And his emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court docket from jail was additionally denied.
NAFTA
Making the argument that Biden has an extended historical past of destroying “center class manufacturing jobs,” Vance famous then-Sen. Biden’s assist in 1993 for the North American Free Commerce Settlement, which Vance stated “despatched numerous good jobs to Mexico.” However financial research say the commerce deal had a comparatively small general affect on jobs.
“Once I was within the fourth grade, a profession politician by the identify of Joe Biden supported NAFTA, a foul commerce deal that despatched numerous good jobs to Mexico,” Vance said.
As FactCheck has written, NAFTA was negotiated and signed by Republican President George H.W. Bush. Democratic President Invoice Clinton signed the invoice enabling NAFTA in 1993; nonetheless, it took Republican congressional assist to get that invoice to his desk. The Senate handed the North American Free Commerce Settlement Implementation Act, 61-38, in November 1993, with 34 Republican votes. Biden was amongst those that voted in favor of ratifying it. The Home handed it 234-200, with 132 Republican votes.
Although Vance claimed NAFTA “despatched numerous good jobs to Mexico,” economic studies overall say NAFTA’s internet affect on U.S. jobs was small.
The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service evaluated 4 research in 2004 and concluded that “NAFTA had little or no affect on combination employment.” 13 years later, a 2017 report from the Congressional Research Service known as the general affect on the U.S. financial system “comparatively modest.”
That 2017 report additionally famous that it was tough to gauge the general financial affect “since commerce and funding developments are influenced by quite a few different financial variables, corresponding to financial development, inflation, and foreign money fluctuations.” CRS stated: “The settlement doubtless accelerated and likewise locked in commerce liberalization that was already happening in Mexico, however many of those adjustments could have taken place with out an settlement.”
Unlawful immigration not eradicated underneath Trump
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott echoed a Republican talking point about border safety underneath Trump. Abbott stated, “The president’s most sacred responsibility is to safe our nation. Donald Trump fulfilled that responsibility by eliminating unlawful immigration. Beneath President Trump we had the bottom unlawful border crossings in about 4 many years.”
However that’s not true. Trump didn’t remove unlawful immigration.
As we’ve written before, unlawful border crossings, as measured by apprehensions, have been 14.7% larger in Trump’s last yr in contrast with the final full yr earlier than he took workplace.
As for Abbott’s declare that Trump introduced unlawful immigration to the bottom degree in 4 many years, it’s true that unlawful border crossings did drop dramatically in Trump’s first yr in workplace, reaching the bottom degree because the flip of the century. However that’s cherry choosing.
The number of apprehensions on the southern border started to rise in Trump’s second yr. They usually peaked at almost 800,000 in 2019, in response to U.S. Customs and Border Safety month-to-month knowledge spanning fiscal years 2019 and 2020. That was the best variety of apprehensions since 2007. It was additionally larger than any year during Obama’s two phrases in workplace.
Abbott went on to assert that “underneath Joe Biden, unlawful immigration has skyrocketed. Beneath his watch round 11 million immigrants have crossed our border illegally.”
Unlawful immigration actually took off after Biden turned president, leaping by over 300% in Biden’s first yr in contrast with Trump’s final. And apprehensions have remained at these larger ranges till very not too long ago. However Abbott’s 11 million determine is inflated.
Abbott seems to be together with individuals who arrived at authorized ports of entry, however with out authorization to enter the U.S. They weren’t crossing illegally. Additionally, hundreds of thousands of those that did cross illegally have been eliminated or returned underneath the Biden administration.
Since February 2021, the month after Biden took workplace, there have been almost 7 million apprehensions on the southwest border of these attempting to cross illegally. The determine doesn’t signify the whole variety of folks, as a result of some folks try a number of crossings.
As we’ve explained before, there are additionally estimates for “gotaways,” or migrants who crossed the border illegally and evaded the authorities. Based mostly on a median annual apprehension charge of 78%, which Division of Homeland Safety supplied to us, that may imply there about 2 million gotaways.
After being processed by border officers, a few of these apprehended are faraway from the nation, and a few who’re in search of asylum are given notices to look in courtroom.
When FactCheck looked though comprehensive data from DHS of the preliminary processing of encounters of migrants underneath Biden, via February of this yr — each these apprehended and people arriving at authorized ports of entry — we discovered that 2.9 million have been eliminated by Customs and Border Safety and three.2 million have been launched with notices to look in immigration courtroom or report back to Immigration and Customs Enforcement sooner or later, or different classifications, corresponding to parole.
There have been additionally transfers of unaccompanied kids to the Division of Well being and Human Providers and transfers to ICE, who’re then booked into ICE custody, enrolled in “alternatives to detention” (which embody technological monitoring) or launched by ICE.
Harris visited border
Abbott additionally claimed that Biden and Harris hadn’t visited the southern border till he began busing migrants out of the state. He’s improper about Harris.
“When Joe Biden and Kamala Harris refused to even come to Texas and to see the border disaster that they created, I took the border to them. I started busing unlawful immigrants to Washington, D.C.,” Abbott said, referencing a controversial policy underneath which his administration transports migrants from Texas to different components of the nation.
Harris visited El Paso, Texas, in June 2021, about six months after taking workplace and virtually a yr earlier than Abbott started his busing policy.
It’s true that Biden didn’t go to the border till after Abbott’s busing coverage started.
The president has now visited the southern border twice, each instances in Texas. He went to El Paso in January 2023, and he went to Brownsville in February.
No electrical tanks
After praising Trump’s navy management, Rep. Michael Waltz, a U.S. Military veteran, said that, against this, Biden is “targeted on constructing electrical tanks.” Waltz then added sarcastically, “Has anyone seen any charging stations within the Center East for Biden electrical tanks?”
The declare that Biden is changing the navy to all-electric-powered tanks is a daily speaking level in Trump’s rally speeches. However as FactCheck has written, it’s false.
The navy is transferring towards the electrification of its automobile fleets, beginning with light-duty, non-tactical automobiles, citing not solely environmental advantages however price financial savings and operational benefits. As a part of the navy’s Climate Strategy launched in 2022 — which talks about lowering nationwide safety dangers posed by local weather change — the navy additionally aspires to maneuver to “purpose-built hybrid-drive tactical automobiles by 2035 and totally electrical tactical automobiles by 2050.”
Tactical automobiles are used on the battlefield, usually in assist roles. These are totally different from fight automobiles, that are those that shoot on the enemy, Fabian Villalobos, an affiliate engineer on the RAND Company and an knowledgeable in rising applied sciences and the protection industrial base, advised us in November. “Tactical positively doesn’t imply tanks,” he stated.
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