Two out of three is bad: Trump statements mostly bogus

Pulitzer Prize-winning scrutineers PolitiFact found that 69 per cent of major fact-checked claims by Trump were classed as either mostly false, false or 'pants on

fire' against 26 per cent in a similar analysis of former president Barack Obama's statements.

Just 16 per cent of Trump's statements were either true or mostly true, against 48 per cent of Obama.

Nearly one in six comments were described as 'pants on fire', meaning they were not accurate and made a "ridiculous claim", compared to just one in 50 made by Obama.

Around one in three were classed as 'false' or not accurate, and around one in five statements was 'mostly false', meaning that it contained an element of truth but ignored critical facts that would give a different impression.

According to PolitiFact, one of Trump's biggest falsehoods since becoming leader of the free world was stating during a recent visit to US Central Command headquarters in Tampa that the media were to blame for letting Islamic terrorists get away with attacks by not wanting to report on it.

"Radical Islamic terrorists are determined to strike our homeland as they did on 9/11, as they did from Boston to Orlando, to San Bernardino and all across Europe," Trump said. "You've seen what happened in Paris and Nice. All over Europe, it's happening. It's gotten to a point where it's not even being reported, and in many cases, the very, very dishonest press doesn't want to report it. They have their reasons, and you understand that."

But PolitiFact said it found "no support" for the idea that the media is hushing up terrorist attacks on US or European soil.

"The media may sometimes be cautious about assigning religious motivation to a terrorist attack when the facts are unclear or still being investigated. But that’s not the same as covering them up through lack of coverage," the fact-checkers said. "There is plenty of coverage in the American media of terrorist attacks."

Another statement rated 'false' was Trump's claim made earlier this month that the murder rate in the US is the highest it's been in 47 years. The president said: "I’d say that in a speech and everybody was surprised, because the press doesn’t tell it like it is."

PolitiFact responded: "There's a reason the press didn’t tout that figure - the statement was incorrect."

During his presidential campaign, Trump sought to paint the US as besieged by crime levels not seen for decades, presenting his leadership as necessary to put

things right.

"Actually, the highest murder rates in recent memory occurred during the early 1990s; after that, the rate fell dramatically until 2014, at which point it ticked up. That uptick did represent the biggest single-year rise in more than four decades, but that’s very different from what Trump said," said PolitiFact.

The fact-checking site which was originally set up by he Tampa Bay Times and investigates and rates the accuracy of the most prominent claims of elected officials, political candidates “and others who speak up in American politics" through speeches, news stories, press releases, campaign brochures, TV ads, Facebook postings and transcripts of TV and radio interviews. It won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for its coverage of the 2008 US presidential campaign.

One campaign trail comment that went straight in the 'pants on fire' bin was Trump's claim that outgoing-president Barack Obama founded Isis and his presidential opponent Hillary Clinton was the "crooked" co-founder, while promising to "knock the hell " out of the terrorist group.

When Republican radio host Hugh Hewitt suggested there was a more cautious interpretation of his claim - that Obama and Clinton "created the vacuum" in the region and thus "lost the peace" to Isis, Trump rejected the analysis, preferring his literal version.

"No, I meant he’s the founder of Isis," Trump told Hewitt. "I do. He was the most valuable player. I give him the most valuable player award. I give her, too, by the way, Hillary Clinton. The way he got out of Iraq, that was the founding of Isis, okay?"

But PolitiFact placed his statement in August, 2016, in the 'pants on fire' category, saying that the terrorist group’s roots pre-date Obama’s presidency and Clinton’s role as secretary of state.

"There’s a credible critique that Obama’s and Clinton’s foreign policy and military decisions helped create a space in which Isis could operate and expand," said PolitiFact. "But Trump explicitly rejected this formulation, saying he literally means Obama is 'the founder of Isis' and Clinton is the 'co-founder'.

"In reality, the founder of Isis was a terrorist. All this makes Trump’s statement a ridiculous characterisation." said PolitiFact. "He’s doubled, tripled and quadrupled down on it in various venues and has reinforced that he meant his words to be taken literally."

One of the most bizarre claims came in January, 2016, when his campaign's TV advert shows dozens of people swarming over a border fence while a narrator says: "He'll stop illegal immigration by building a wall on our southern border that Mexico will pay for."

But what was shown was actually 5,000 miles away, in a small Spanish enclave on the mainland of Morocco.

PolitiFact said it was able to trace the footage back to the Italian television network RepubblicaTV which posted footage of migrants crossing the border into Melilla.

Asked about the video, Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told a journalist: "No s***, it's not the Mexican border, but that's what our country is going to look like. This was 1,000 per cent on purpose."

Trump's campaign later released a statement saying: "The use of this footage was intentional and selected to demonstrate the severe impact of an open border and the very real threat Americans face if we do not immediately build a wall and stop illegal immigration. The biased mainstream media doesn't understand, but Americans who want to protect their jobs and families do."

Of 15 completely accurate major statements made by Trump, only one has been made during his presidency, according to PolitiFact.

Trump's most recent truth was saying that America's Got Talent star Jackie Evancho's decision to sing at his presidential inauguration was great for her career, with album sales rocketing.

He also got PolitiFact's seal of approval for claiming that "the single-biggest problem is heroin that pours across our southern borders" during the third and final presidential debate in October. The group said the vast majority of heroin in the United States comes from Mexico and South America.

There was a 'mostly true' affirmation for stating last week that the US stock market has hit "record numbers" and that there "has been a tremendous surge of optimism in the business world".

PolitiFact said that the three major stock indexes, Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all closed at record highs for five consecutive days and while investors are optimistic about Trump’s plans to cut taxes and eliminate regulations, other experts say other factors play influential roles in the stock market.

PolitiFact's 2015 Lie of the Year was for "various statements" made by Trump early on in his presidential campaign. Statements that rated 'pants on fire' included his assertion that the Mexican government sends "the bad ones over" the border into the United States, that crime statistics show blacks kill 81 per cent of white murder victims and his claim that he saw "thousands and thousands" of people cheering the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9/11.

PolitiFact describes itself as an independent fact-checking website set up to "sort out the truth in American politics" and is funded primarily by the Tampa Bay Times and the ad revenues generated on its website. It says it also relies on grants from non-partisan organisations.

Trump's office was approached for comment, but did not respond.