President Donald Trump’s first Cabinet meeting Wednesday of his new administration was riddled with inaccuracies and falsehoods, says CNN’s fact-checking reporter Daniel Dale, who delivered a boatload of receipts on “Inside Politics.”
Host Dana Bash kicked issues off with Trump’s declare that “60 Minutes” altered the solutions of former Vice President Kamala Harris throughout an interview final yr quite than merely enhancing the footage. A full interview transcript has since confirmed that the video was solely edited.
Dale went on to fact-check a complete host of different claims Trump made in the course of the assembly, together with false claims about U.S. help to Ukraine, America’s training rating, mail-in voting, tariffs on China, fentanyl deaths — and Elon Musk’s controversial email to federal staff.
“There was simply a lot on this Cupboard assembly,” said Dale before diving into the facts.
“We heard this declare once more from the president, he’s been saying it again and again previously week, that the U.S. has supplied Ukraine with $350 billion value of help, and that that is about thrice what Europe collectively has supplied,” he continued. “That isn’t true.”
“The $350 billion quantity shouldn’t be true, neither is the concept that the U.S. has supplied far more than Europe,” Dale confirmed. “In line with a assume tank in Germany that intently tracks this help, it’s Europe that has collectively supplied extra help to Ukraine than the U.S. has.”
Trump additionally stated Wednesday the U.S. ranks fortieth out of 40 in numerous academic rankings, which Dale stated he tried to inquire about with the White Home, who by no means supplied clarification. His declare that the U.S. is the only nation with mail-in voting can be false.
A recent report confirms 14 nations in Europe, as an illustration, present voters with the choice.
Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Photos
“He stated the U.S. took in a whole bunch of billions of {dollars} from China within the tariffs he imposed within the first time period,” Dale continued Wednesday. “In reality, Individuals paid these tariffs.”
The president additionally claimed that 300,000 Individuals die yearly from fentanyl overdoses. Dale stated that quantity, whereas nonetheless tragic, is in the end nearer to 60,000.
“He supplied one other alternate historical past of the European Union’s formation, saying it was shaped to screw, reap the benefits of the U.S. In reality, it was shaped with U.S. assist, so not even near appropriate,” he continued. “And so, I don’t even know the place to go from right here.”
Dale actually did, nonetheless, and cited Musk’s e-mail Saturday from the Department of Government Efficiency giving federal staffers 48 hours to clarify what they’ve achieved at work final week, which led Trump to assert that the million folks who didn’t respond don’t exist.
“I believe it’s vital to notice that we had quite a few company heads … telling their workers to not reply,” Dale stated. “So the easier clarification is that folks had been instructed not to do that, quite than them being, you already know, fictional, nonexistent human beings.”
Watch Dale’s full evaluation right here:
