President Donald Trump spoke to Politico at the White House on Monday and made several strong points about the economy, the threat he claims from Venezuelan drug cartels and his popularity among black Americans.
The next day, Trump spoke about immigration and affordability in a 90-minute rally-style speech in Pennsylvania, during which he delivered a scathing attack on Ilhan Omar, America’s first Muslim lawmaker, who he claims is in the country illegally.
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We fact-check some of the claims made by Mr. Trump during interviews and speeches.
Claim: President Trump inherited the ‘worst inflation in history’ and the economy is now thriving
During a rally in Pennsylvania, Trump claimed he inherited “the worst inflation in the history of our country” from former Democratic President Joe Biden.
In an interview with Politico, Trump said, “I inherited a mess. I completely inherited a mess. When I arrived, prices were at an all-time high.”
He also told Politico, “Gasoline was $4.50 or almost $5.00 a gallon. You go to some states and it was $6.00. Two days ago, it was, uh, $1.99 a gallon in three states.”
fact
FactCheck.org, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit, wrote in January that while inflation did rise under the Biden administration, President Trump did not in fact inherit the worst inflation in history.
For the first six months of Trump’s second term, annual inflation was below 3%.
The group said the rise in inflation under the Biden administration was partially due to the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
According to Factcheck.org, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose from 5.4% to 9.1% in the 12 months to June 2022. But this was far from the worst the United States had experienced. It was just after World War I, and in June 1920 inflation had reached 23.7 percent.
In March 1980, inflation reached 14.8 percent, marking one of the most severe consumer price increases in modern U.S. history.
President Trump’s statements regarding gas prices are also somewhat misleading.
In the United States, the average price of gasoline (known as “gas” in the United States) was $3.05 per gallon (3.8 liters) in November, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). As of Dec. 3, costs per gallon ranged from $2.41 in Oklahoma to $4.53 in California, according to online marketplace Choose Energy.
The $1.99 price cited by President Trump applies to isolated low-cost stations in specific states and does not reflect a general average across states.
Claim: Ilhan Omar is in the U.S. illegally
During a rally in Pennsylvania, President Trump launched an attack on Democrat Ilhan Omar, who has served as a Minnesota state representative since 2019.
He lamented immigration to the United States from Somalia and other countries, but argued that Omar was in the country illegally.
“I love this Ilhan Omar, whatever her name is. She wears a little turban. I love her. She comes to my house and she’s a bitch. She’s complaining all the time. She’s from her own country, which is considered the worst country in the world,” Trump told supporters in the crowd, to thunderous applause.
“We have to get rid of her once and for all,” he said. “She married her brother in order to enter the country…She married her brother in order to enter the country, so she is in the country illegally.”
A crowd of supporters gathered at the rally began chanting, “Send her back!”
President Trump also claimed that Somalia has no military, no parliament, and no police. “They police themselves and kill each other all the time.”
fact
First, Somalia has an army, parliament, and police.
Omar was born in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu in 1982, but her family fled Somalia’s civil war and spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya before seeking asylum in the United States in 1995 when she was 12 years old.
Once granted asylum, like Omar’s family, refugees are granted lawful permanent resident (LPR) status through the U.S. Refugee Status Program, which allows them to apply for citizenship after five years.
Omar became eligible for citizenship five years after entering the United States, and finally became a citizen in 2000 at the age of 17.
Questions about Omar’s legal status in the United States and claims that she married her brother have been circulating on the American right since 2018, just before she was elected to Congress. In 2018, Omar dismissed these claims as “disgusting lies” in a statement to The Associated Press. She provided detailed marriage and divorce records to The Associated Press.
Ilhan Omar first married Ahmed Abdisaran Hirsi in a Muslim ceremony in 2002 and they had two children together, but they later separated. In 2009, she married British national Ahmed Nur Saeed Elmi in a civil marriage, but they separated in 2011. She reunited with Hirsi in 2012, legally divorced Elmi in 2017, and then legally remarried Hirsi in 2018.
There is no verifiable evidence to support the claim that Hirsi or Elmi are Omar’s brothers. She strongly denied these allegations.
Claim: Venezuelan boat strikes save 25,000 American lives every time
In an interview with Politico, Trump reiterated his claim that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is “sending tons of drugs” to the United States.
Since September, U.S. military attacks on at least 21 Venezuelan fishing boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific have killed more than 80 people.
In September, the commander in chief of the U.S. Navy ordered a second attack on an alleged Venezuelan drug ship, even though it was almost completely destroyed in the first attack. Witnesses said that after the first attack, only two survivors were left clinging to underwater debris, while in the second they both died.
Asked about that second attack, President Trump said, “It looked like they were trying to turn the boat back, but I’m not going to get involved in that. That’s up to them. Yeah, those admirals are very respected people. And we save 25,000 people every time we knock out a boat.”
During a rally in Pennsylvania, President Trump again claimed that every time the United States strikes a Venezuelan drug smuggling ship, “we save 25,000 American lives.”
fact
The Trump administration has presented no evidence that attacks on Venezuelan fishing boats are interdicting drug trafficking into the United States and saving 25,000 American lives each. In fact, no evidence has been shown that the ship that crashed was carrying drugs or belonged to a drug cartel, as the company claims.
Furthermore, there is little evidence that drugs are being smuggled out of Venezuela on a large scale. According to the 2023 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) World Drug Report, global cocaine production will increase by nearly a third from 2022 to a record 3,708 tonnes, with most coca cultivation occurring in Colombia, followed by Peru and Bolivia.
In 2023-2024, the smuggling route to the United States primarily passed through Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador rather than Venezuela, but it serves as a small transit corridor for Colombian cocaine moving to the eastern Caribbean.
The main maritime route to the United States remains through the eastern Pacific Ocean to Mexico and Central America, and most large-scale seizures occur before drugs enter the United States by land. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s own 2024 report similarly identifies Colombia as the source of about 84 percent of the cocaine seized in the United States, and makes no mention of Venezuela.
Claims about transgender and black people
At a rally in Pennsylvania, Trump claimed that Democrats want “everyone in the family to be transgender.”
She added: “If the kids don’t feel well that night, try changing the genders.”
President Trump also said, “Black people love President Trump. I got the most votes from black people.”
fact
In the United States, accessing medical transition or “gender-affirming” treatments, such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgery, is not a uniform process across the country. This varies widely from state to state depending on local laws, medical practices, and insurance coverage regulations.
But while some countries in Europe have placed restrictions on access to these treatments, they may be more readily available in parts of the United States due to concerns that puberty blockers, which have few trials, can cause permanent developmental problems, especially in children.
There is certainly no evidence that Democrats think every family should have a transgender member.
When it comes to black voters, it’s true that Trump has made significant gains heading into the 2024 election. Overall, he secured 20 percent of the black vote in November 2024, a significant increase from the 12 percent he received in 2020.
However, this means that his opponent in the presidential race, Democrat Kamala Harris, actually won a majority of the black vote.
