There were a host of false things that Donald Trump said during his hour-long news conference Thursday that have gotten attention.
A glaring example is his helicopter emergency landing story, which has not stood up to scrutiny.
But there was so much more. A team of NPR reporters and editors reviewed the transcript of his news conference and found at least 162 misstatements, exaggerations and outright lies in 64 minutes. That’s more than two a minute. It’s a stunning number for anyone – and even more problematic for a person running to lead the free world.
Politicians spin. They fib. They misspeak. They make honest mistakes like the rest of us. And, yes, they even sometimes exaggerate their biographies.
The expectation, though, is that they will treat the truth as something important and correct any errors.
But what former President Trump did this past Thursday went well beyond the bounds of what most politicians would do.
Here’s what we found, going chronologically from the beginning of Trump’s remarks to the end:
- “I think our country right now is in the most dangerous position it’s ever been in from an economic standpoint…”
The U.S. economy has rebounded from the pandemic downturn more rapidly than most other countries around the world. Growth has slowed in recent months, but gross domestic product still grew at a relatively healthy annual clip of 2.8% in April, May and June – which is faster than the pace in three of the four years when Trump was president. – Scott Horsley, NPR chief economics correspondent
- “…from a safety standpoint, both gangs on the street…”
We don’t have great, up-to-date data on gang activity in the U.S., but violent crime trends offer a good glimpse into safety in the country. Nationally, violent crime – that includes murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault – has been trending way down after a surge in 2020, according to the most recent data from the FBI. That data is preliminary and incomplete, covering around three-quarters of the country, but other crime analysts have found similar trends. Crime levels, of course, vary locally: murders are down in Philadelphia, for instance, but up in Charlotte, N.C. – Meg Anderson, NPR National Desk reporter covering criminal justice
The U.S. is not in the “most dangerous position” from a foreign-policy standpoint than ever before. Biden pulled troops out of Afghanistan in his first year in office — though the withdrawal itself was chaotic and a target of much criticism — and since then, U.S.
troops have not been actively engaged in a war for the first time in 20 years. The U.S. is supporting Ukraine and Israel, of course, and has troops in Iraq and Syria, but they’re not fighting on any regular basis.
What’s more, however, FBI Director Christopher Wray has said the greatest threat to the country is domestic extremism. And beyond organized groups the very definition of extremism is changing, as fringe ideologies move into the mainstream, and radicalization takes hold amongst parts of the populace. Consider: the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and the assassination attempt on Trump’s life, even with a motive that remains murky at best. Regardless, the call is coming from inside the house, domestic extremism experts warn. Many polls showa sobering degree of support for political violence to drive change. – Andrew Sussman, NPR supervising editor for national security
