Donald Trump got hammered by fact-checkers over his speech at the Republicans’ so-called “Midterm Convention,” an ill-conceived infomercial for sycophancy and lies.
Trump parachuted into Dallas Wednesday to anchor a 7-hour shitshow, the lowlights of which we covered this morning.
One of the most buzzed-about moments was this bit of desperation.
Only I can make this promise to you: If the Republicans win the House and Senate, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000.
Even Fox News had to call bullshit, at least a little and temporarily. Here’s Bret Baier framing it to JD Vance as why “critics’ heads are exploding” — but genuinely calling out the cost.
Baier: $5000 for every adult citizen, that’s about $1.3 trillion. The critics will say the president is bribing voters and he’s bankrupting the country.
Vance: Tariffs have generated a lot of revenues.
But the Fox panel failed to point out that all the tariff revenue collected under Trump is just a fraction of that $1.3 trillion or so — and that’s not even including court-ordered refunds.
Fox’s Bill Melugin continued to call out the $1.3 billion pricetag, but his chunk on Trump’s bullshit promise evolved from saying it will “lead to criticism” to saying “criticism from Democrats” — and finally, to dropping the mention of any criticism.
Other fact-checkers were not so timid.
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CNN’s Daniel Dale got some rare on-screen face time to destroy some of Trump’s falsehoods.
BERMAN: Daniel, great to see you this morning. You had a long night, as long as some people watching football. Look, the president talked about affordability. I want to play a little bit of what he said about prices.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We got eggs down lower than during my administration. And food prices and almost every other item are rapidly going down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Rapidly going down, Daniel?
DANIEL DALE: The part about eggs is true. The part about food prices and almost every o- other item rapidly going down is absolutely false. I call this a very important lie. Consumer price index data shows that we have a 3.4 percent most recent inflation rate, and that far more individual products are still getting more expensive rather than getting cheaper.
Now, since President Trump took office, overall food prices are up 4.3 percent. Grocery prices in particular are up 3.4 percent. Both are currently rising. So, there's a reason President Trump repeatedly invokes eggs when discussing affordability. That's because they're an extreme outlier on this issue. They are not the norm here, John.
BERMAN: So, the president talked about some of the candidates running for Senate, the Democratic candidates. He talked about James Talarico of Texas, Roy Cooper of North Carolina. Talarico, he said that, you know, he's going after gas and oil. He had plans for that. But I want to play one specific thing he said about Cooper.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: One monster, an absolute monster, with 14 prior arrests, nothing but trouble, violent person, stood up behind a beautiful 23- year-old woman, Iryna Zarutska, and slashed a knife from behind across her neck and killed her. Roy Cooper was the governor who released this animal into North Carolina society.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: So, what he's saying there about Roy Cooper, what's the real truth there?
DALE: Obviously a horrible case, but the fact is that then-Governor Cooper did not release the person charged with this murder. PolitiFact and the Charlotte Observer have done very good reporting on this. The state corrections department has told both of those outlets that the man in question was released after serving his sentence for another crime, released in September 2020.
The settlement between the state and a group suing over prison conditions amid the COVID pandemic, the settlement that resulted in some other offenders being released early happened in February 2021, so months after this particular man was released.
Now, this Republican attack appears to stem from the fact that this man, DeCarlos Brown Jr, did appear on a state list in relation to that February 2021 settlement. But the state corrections department explained that's because the settlement terms allowed the state to count certain people retroactively towards meeting the settlement, count certain people who had already been released from prison towards the settlement.
So, that's why the state says DeCarlos Brown Jr. was on that list, not again because he was released early, and certainly not because he was released early by then-Governor Cooper himself.
BERMAN: So, at the end of the speech, Daniel, the president said, quote, every single promise I made to you as a candidate, I've delivered on. Every single one, he says. That's a pretty high bar.
DALE: It's a high bar, and it's obviously not true. You and I and millions of other people remember him promising dozens of times on the campaign trail that he would end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of coming back to office, or even as president-elect before he took office. That war unfortunately still continues.
He also repeatedly made a high-profile promise to quickly end inflation. Again, we talked about how inflation continues, as many millions of Americans already know. In 2016, he famously campaigned on a promise to have Mexico pay for his border wall. That we know did not happen.
So, sure, he's kept a number of promises, but also broken a number of others.
BERMAN: Daniel Dale, long night for you, early morning. We appreciate you getting up for us.
Dale also published an online fact-check that went deeper on a much larger list of claims. Here’s a summary:
Economy and prices
“Over $20 trillion” invested in the US this term: False.
Egg prices fell; “food prices and almost every other item are rapidly going down”: Eggs did fall. The rest is false.
“No tax on Social Security”: False as stated.
Iowa gas at “$1.85” before the Iran war: No basis.
US now has the world’s lowest drug prices: Unsubstantiated and disputed.
“More people working than we have ever had before”: True as a raw headcount, but nearly meaningless.
Immigration
“25 million” migrants entered under Biden: False.
“Zero illegal aliens” entered from the southern border in the last 15 months: Exaggeration.
Democrats allowed “11,888 murderers” in: Misleading use of data.
Democratic candidates
James Talarico wore a mask “a few months ago”: No evidence.
Roy Cooper released the man who killed Iryna Zarutska: False.
Trump’s record
“We won the presidency three times” / victories in 2016, 2020, and 2024: False.
“Every single promise I made as a candidate, I’ve delivered on”: False.
White House ballroom uses “zero tax dollars”: Not established.
Other outlets had a field day fact-checking Trump as well. Politifact performed a live fact-check of Trump’s speech with time stamps.
New day, same old stuff, lies, lies and more lies. How can people be so gullible to believe this crap? The $5,000 dividend to every American adult if the GOP retains the House and Senate would appear to be something akin to vote buying in my opinion. The last thing we need is a $42 trillion national debt.
uh, $1.3 trillion (not billion)