False Stories & Claims

Trump Condemns Racism After Charlottesville(USA TODAY)[2017]

President Trump declared Monday that "racism is evil" and announced that the Justice Department will open a civil rights investigation into the deadly car attack that left one woman dead. 

"To anyone who acted criminally in this weekend's racist violence: You will be held fully accountable. Justice will be delivered," Trump said after returning to the White House to meet with top federal law enforcement officials.

Denouncing racism, Trump said in a prepared speech that "those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/08/14/white-house-response-to-charlottesville/564199001/

 

Trump Condemns Racist Actions(CNN)[2016]

Donald Trump on Sunday told his supporters to stop harassing minorities, in his first televised sit-down interview since becoming President-elect.

“I am so saddened to hear that,” Trump told CBS’ Lesley Stahl on “60 Minutes” when she said Latinos and Muslims are facing harassment. “And I say, ‘Stop it.’ If it – if it helps, I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: ‘Stop it.’”

Trump directed his comments to his own supporters whom Stahl said have written racist slogans or chanted degrading messages – particularly in schools. It was a powerful appeal to a nation ripped apart by the divisive 2016 campaign. Trump’s election has left Democrats angry and many minorities fearful about the future.

https://www.cnn.com/2016/11/13/politics/donald-trump-60-minutes-first-interview/index.html

 

Trump Denies Calling Dead Veterans Losers(Miltimes)[2020]

A new report details multiple instances of President Donald Trump making disparaging remarks about members of the U.S. military who have been captured or killed, including referring to the American war dead at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France in 2018 as “losers” and “suckers.”

Trump said Thursday that the story is “totally false.”

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2020/09/03/report-trump-disparaged-us-war-dead-as-losers-suckers/

 

Trump 9-11 Call into News Station(Youtube)[2001]

Trump Administration Siphoning FDNY Money(Newsweek)[2020]

A White House official told Newsweek that the Treasury Department complied with its obligations to take the money and use it to pay what New York owes the federal government—but noted that the White House is actively working with King and others to find potential ways to provide aid to support the country's 9/11 heroes.

 

In an email sent to Newsweek, an administration official from the Treasury Department said that the goal of the department and King is to get the FDNY its funding. The official added that the Treasury Department has done everything in its power solve this issue and are actively working with New York City to find alternative ways of making it happen.

 

The Treasury Department also directed Newsweek to a letter sent to King on August 20, which stated the department's Bureau of the Fiscal Service is "required to offset federal payments for the collection of delinquent debts owed to the United states."

 

"In this case, between August 2016 and May 2020, TOP [Treasury Offset Program] took 292 offsets of payments to FDNY in the amount of $1,983,452.98. Each of these offsets was applied to delinquent Medicare Secondary Payer debt owed to the Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services," the letter said. "These debts were owed by various entities within New York City that share the same TIN [taxpayer identification number]."

 

https://archive.ph/uOM97

Trump Said Drink Bleach(Statesman)[2020]

Here are his full comments:

"A question that probably some of you are thinking of if you’re totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting. So, supposedly we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. (To Bryan) And I think you said you’re going to test that, too. Sounds interesting, right?"

He continued.

"And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that, so that you’re going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me. So, we’ll see, but the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute. That’s pretty powerful."

 

https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/07/13/fact-check-did-trump-tell-people-to-drink-bleach-to-kill-coronavirus/113754708/

 

Trump Said Nazis Were Good People(PolitiFact)[2019]

Reporter: "Mr. President, are you putting what you’re calling the alt-left and white supremacists on the same moral plane?"

Trump: "I’m not putting anybody on a moral plane. What I’m saying is this: You had a group on one side and you had a group on the other, and they came at each other with clubs -- and it was vicious and it was horrible. And it was a horrible thing to watch.

"But there is another side. There was a group on this side. You can call them the left -- you just called them the left -- that came violently attacking the other group. So you can say what you want, but that’s the way it is.

Reporter: (Inaudible) "… both sides, sir. You said there was hatred, there was violence on both sides. Are the --"

Trump: "Yes, I think there’s blame on both sides. If you look at both sides -- I think there’s blame on both sides. And I have no doubt about it, and you don’t have any doubt about it either. And if you reported it accurately, you would say."

Reporter: "The neo-Nazis started this. They showed up in Charlottesville to protest --"

Trump: "Excuse me, excuse me. They didn’t put themselves -- and you had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides. You had people in that group. Excuse me, excuse me. I saw the same pictures as you did. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name."

Reporter: "George Washington and Robert E. Lee are not the same."

Trump: "George Washington was a slave owner. Was George Washington a slave owner? So will George Washington now lose his status? Are we going to take down -- excuse me, are we going to take down statues to George Washington? How about Thomas Jefferson? What do you think of Thomas Jefferson? You like him?"

Reporter: "I do love Thomas Jefferson."

Trump: "Okay, good. Are we going to take down the statue? Because he was a major slave owner. Now, are we going to take down his statue?

"So you know what, it’s fine. You’re changing history. You’re changing culture. And you had people -- and I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists -- because they should be condemned totally. But you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists. Okay? And the press has treated them absolutely unfairly.

"Now, in the other group also, you had some fine people. But you also had troublemakers, and you see them come with the black outfits and with the helmets, and with the baseball bats. You had a lot of bad people in the other group."

Reporter: "Sir, I just didn’t understand what you were saying. You were saying the press has treated white nationalists unfairly? I just don’t understand what you were saying."

Trump: "No, no. There were people in that rally -- and I looked the night before -- if you look, there were people protesting very quietly the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee. I’m sure in that group there were some bad ones. The following day it looked like they had some rough, bad people -- neo-Nazis, white nationalists, whatever you want to call them.

"But you had a lot of people in that group that were there to innocently protest, and very legally protest -- because, I don’t know if you know, they had a permit. The other group didn’t have a permit. So I only tell you this: There are two sides to a story. I thought what took place was a horrible moment for our country -- a horrible moment.  But there are two sides to the country.

https://www.politifact.com/article/2019/apr/26/context-trumps-very-fine-people-both-sides-remarks/