Fact-checking: Donald Trump’s latest claims on tariffs, murder and more donald trump news

In an interview on December 8 on NBC’s Meet the Press, United States President-elect Donald Trump detailed plans to deport people living in the country illegally and impose tariffs on trading partners – and his support. Made some false claims to do so.

Trump reiterated his promise to end birthright citizenship, meaning citizenship given to anyone born on American soil. Although he said he would like to do so on his first day as president, he acknowledged that he might have to go “back to the people” through a constitutional amendment.

On his plan to carry out mass deportations, Trump said he would start with people convicted of crimes and try to find a way to allow “Dreamers” – people brought to the US illegally as minors – to stay. do. This group is called “Dreamers” because of the DREAM Act, a set of proposals that never passed in Congress.

Trump said that members of the House committee investigating the events leading up to the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, “committed a major crime… quite frankly, they should go to jail”. When host Kristen Welker asked Trump if he would pardon people convicted of crimes related to January 6, he said, “We’re considering it right now. Most likely, yes.”

Here are some of the things Trump said in his interview, fact-checked.

charge “Americans have no value”.

it is false,

The Trump transition team pointed to reports from the Coalition for a Prosperous America, an often pro-tariff group advocating “strategic trade, tax and growth policies.” But most reputable economists dispute the argument that tariffs are a net positive. In surveys in 1990, 2000, 2011, and 2021, about 95 percent of American Economic Association members agreed that tariffs reduced “general economic welfare.”

Most economists say that consumers in the country imposing the tariffs lose out on these deals, both directly by paying higher prices for foreign goods and indirectly by paying more for foreign-sourced raw materials used in domestic goods. Because of the prices. Furthermore, if another country retaliates by increasing tariffs on American goods, sales of American producers may decline.

If fully implemented, North American tariffs could drive up grocery prices, given that Mexico will account for 69 percent of U.S. vegetable imports and 51 percent of fresh fruit imports in 2022. New tariffs on Canada could also raise gasoline prices, especially in the Upper Midwest, which is dependent on Canadian crude oil imports. Construction prices may also increase; One-quarter of the lumber used in the US comes from Canada, and both Canada and Mexico supply cement, metals, machinery and other homebuilding needs.

“Tariffs artificially raise the cost of doing business, which results in lower GDP, artificially higher prices and fewer goods sold,” Ross Burkhart, a political scientist at Boise State University who studies trade policy, told PolitiFact. “Reduces overall economic output.” “For the consumer, this means a reduction in purchasing power.”

“When I handed it over (to Biden) he didn’t have inflation for a year and a half… Then he created inflation with energy and by spending a lot.”

it is hyperbolic In both cases.

Inflation was around 1 percent late in Trump’s tenure, largely because COVID-19 significantly slowed many types of economic activity.

However, the rise in inflation under President Joe Biden began even before Trump said he would. During the first six months of the Biden presidency, many Americans received COVID-19 vaccines, and the economy began to rebound, with consumer demand rising as supply lagged. Year-on-year inflation reached 4.9 percent by May 2021, four months into Biden’s term, its highest level in nearly 13 years. From there, inflation continued to rise and reached nearly 9 percent a year and a half into Biden’s term.

Economists say excessive spending fueled by Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act has driven up inflation, but the root cause was mostly COVID-19-era supply chain shortages and disruption to the global energy market from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The US released 13,099 murderers within a three-year period. “This is during the Biden tenure.”

false,

In a letter released in September, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a federal agency, said 13,099 noncitizens convicted of murder are not in immigration custody.

However, this data refers to people entering the country over the past 40 years, including under Trump — as Welker pointed out. There is no evidence that all 13,099 people entered in the same three-year period under Biden.

Additionally, many people included in this number are not in immigration detention because they are serving prison sentences.

The US is “the only country that has” birthright citizenship.

More than 30 other nations do so.

The World Population Review lists 33 countries that offer citizenship to anyone born within their borders. Along with the US, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina also include several countries in Central and South America. As defined by the International Monetary Fund, the US and Canada are the only two “developed” countries with unrestricted birthright citizenship laws.

Trump also said, “You know, if somebody puts one foot, just one foot, one foot, you don’t need two on the ground, congratulations, you’re now a citizen of the United States of America.”

This is not true. Setting foot on American soil does not make an immigrant a citizen; If that were the case, there would be no such thing as illegal immigration.

“Obamacare is lousy health care.”

Most people who use it don’t feel this way.

A 2023 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health care policy research group, found deep satisfaction with plans purchased on the marketplaces thanks to the Affordable Care Act, sometimes called Obamacare.

Among respondents who purchased insurance on the Affordable Care Act Marketplace, 20 percent called their care “excellent” and another 52 percent called it “good.” Another 23 percent called it “fair” and 5 percent called it “poor.”

It was a few percentage points behind the approval rating among those who had employer-sponsored insurance. Of that group, 33 percent said their plan was “excellent” and 47 percent said their plan was “good.”

“Crime is at an all-time high.”

This is too far off base.

The violent crime rate as measured by the FBI is about half what it was in the early 1990s.