On Tuesday, Donald Trump delivered a speech on how he plans to deal with the threat of terrorism, specifically ISIS, in Ohio. However, not everything Trump said in his speech was correct. In fact, several of his statements had already been proven false in the past—and USA Today broke them down well in a fact-check.
For example, according to a full transcript of Trump’s speech, he stated that he was “an opponent of the Iraq war from the beginning – a major difference between me and my opponent.” But USA Today points out that that’s simply not true. According to The Washington Post, there is no evidence of Trump being “an opponent” from the very start or even being openly outspoken against the war. In a 2003 interview with Fox Business, Trump vaguely said that the President cared more about the economy than the war—but that was about it. And the Post has a great summary of everything Trump’s said about the war over the years here.
Trump also lied about the San Bernardino shooting, saying in his speech that the San Bernardino shooters “very openly” supported jihad online, and that the neighbor of the shooters “saw … bombs on the floor” of their home but didn’t report it because of racial profiling concerns. But the FBI Director himself said in December that the shooters didn’t post anything publicly, but rather sent private messages. And neighbors didn’t see any bombs—they just noticed the couple getting a lot of packages. Weapons weren’t found until after the attack. As much as we all want someone to blame for not stopping the tragedy, it’s not as simple as Trump’s making it out to be.
What else did he fudge the truth on a bit? He blamed Obama for pulling troops out of Iraq prematurely in 2011 (he had to follow a 2008 agreement signed by Bush) and said Hillary Clinton will allow 620,000 refugees into the U.S. if she becomes president (she has never given this number, but a Republican subcommittee estimated it based on her previous statements).
So, it’s safe to say that not all of Trump’s facts add up.