Fact Check – Page 3 – Capitol Hill Blue

More Trump lies about ‘deal’ with Mexico

June 10, 2019June 10, 2019

President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

President Donald Trump is bragging about a new deal with Mexico that provides for “large” sales of U.S. farm goods, but it doesn’t appear to exist.

In weekend tweets, he announced in all capital letters that he had won the agreement to benefit America’s “great patriot farmers,” and that U.S. sales would begin “immediately.” There isn’t any sign of that happening, however. Mexican officials denied that anything on agriculture was included in the deal on border security reached Friday to avert Trump’s threatened tariffs.

Trump also unfairly placed responsibility on Mexico for the entire U.S. drug problem, even though many of the known drug deaths have nothing to do with the country.

The statements came in a week where the apportioning of credit and blame often went awry in Trump’s remarks.

He hailed pristine air quality that isn’t, wrongly insisted that the U.S. was paying “close to 100%” of NATO and told Puerto Ricans they should love him because he got them hurricane aid that he’s actually been complaining about for months.

In the Democratic presidential campaign, meantime, Trump was accused of breaking a gun-control promise that in reality he kept.

A look at recent claims and reality:

MEXICO DEAL

TRUMP: “MEXICO HAS AGREED TO IMMEDIATELY BEGIN BUYING LARGE QUANTITIES OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCT FROM OUR GREAT PATRIOT FARMERS!” — tweet Saturday, retweeted Sunday.

THE FACTS: There’s no evidence that Mexico agreed to “large” purchases of agricultural products from the U.S. as part of the deal to avoid tariffs. Nor did the White House provide any details to show such a deal exists.

The joint declaration between the U.S. and Mexico released by the State Department late Friday makes no mention of agriculture. Officials from Mexico deny an agreement was reached on farm goods as part of the talks.

“Everything that was negotiated was in the joint statement,” said a Mexican official familiar with the discussions who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. When Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, Martha Barcena, was asked repeatedly Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation” whether there was a new agricultural deal, she demurred, saying such trade between both countries should increase over time.

She referenced instead the potential impact of the separate United States-Mexico-Canada trade deal, which has yet to be approved by Congress.

“Is trade on agricultural products going to grow? Yes, it is going to grow, and it is going to grow without tariffs and with USMCA ratification,” Barcena said.

According to the office of the United States Trade Representative, Mexico bought $20 billion in U.S. agricultural goods last year, making it the United States’ second-largest ag export market.

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TRUMP: “Look, I’m dealing with Mexico right now. They send in $500 billion worth of drugs, they kill 100,000 people, they ruin a million families every year if you look at that. That’s really an invasion without the guns. … 100,000 people are killed, dead every year, from what comes through our southern border. They shouldn’t be allowing people to come through their country from Central, from Honduras and Guatemala, El Salvador.” — Fox News interview Thursday.

THE FACTS: Trump is inflating the death toll from drug overdoses — more than 70,200 in 2017 — and wrongly blaming all the known deaths on Mexico. Tens of thousands of those deaths have nothing to do with Mexico or Central America. They are from legally made prescription opioids, fentanyl laboratories in China or other sources of international drug smuggling and illicit manufacturing in the U.S. More than 17,000 of the deaths in 2017, for example, were from prescription opioids alone.

Mexico is indeed a significant conduit in the drug trade — it’s a leading source of heroin, for example — but it is hardly the only one.

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DISASTER AID

TRUMP, on signing a relief bill for multiple U.S. disasters: “Puerto Rico should love President Trump. Without me, they would have been shut out!” — tweet Thursday.

THE FACTS: That’s not likely.

The $19.1 billion disaster aid bill, passed by the House on Monday and signed into law by Trump on Thursday, ordinarily would have been approved by Congress months ago. But Trump injected himself into the debate, demanding that money for hurricane-rebuilding efforts that was sought by Puerto Rico’s elected officials, Republicans and Democrats both, be kept out.

Trump frequently inflated the amount of aid that Puerto Rico had obtained in previous bills and feuded with the island’s Democratic officials.

The relief measure delivers money to states in the South suffering from last fall’s hurricanes, Midwestern states deluged with springtime floods and fire-ravaged rural California, among others.

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NATO

TRUMP: “We were paying so much. I think we were really paying close to 100% of NATO. So we were paying to protect all of these European nations. And it’s just not fair.” — interview Thursday with Fox News.

THE FACTS: It’s not true that the U.S. was paying “close to 100%” of the price of protecting Europe.

NATO does have a shared budget to which each member makes contributions based on the size of its economy. The United States, with the biggest economy, pays the biggest share, about 22%.

Four European members — Germany, France, Britain and Italy — combined pay nearly 44% of the total. The money, about $3 billion, runs NATO’s headquarters and covers certain other civilian and military costs.

Defending Europe involves far more than that fund. The primary cost of doing so would come from each member country’s military budget, as the alliance operates under a mutual defense treaty.

The U.S. is the largest military spender but others in the alliance obviously have armed forces, too. The notion that almost all costs would fall to the U.S. is false.

In fact, NATO’s Article 5, calling for allies to act if one is attacked, has only been invoked once, and it was on behalf of the U.S., after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

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CLIMATE CHANGE

TRUMP, asked if he believes in climate change: “I believe that there’s a change in weather, and I think it changes both ways.” — interview with Piers Morgan that broadcast Tuesday.

THE FACTS: Trump is once again conflating weather and climate, suggesting that global warming can’t be happening if it gets cold outside. But weather is like mood, which changes daily. Climate is like personality, which is long term.

The data show Trump also is wrong in that there is a clear one-way warming trend. Earth is considerably warmer than it was 30 years ago and especially 100 years ago.

So far in this decade, there have been 301,292 daily heat records set in the contiguous United States, compared with only 141,892 daily cold records set, according to retired Weather Channel meteorologist Guy Walton’s analysis of government temperature records. That’s more than two heat records broken for every cold record, a ratio that is the largest of any decade since these types of records started in the 1920s.

According to Walton’s analysis, each decade since the 1970s has had a higher hot record-to-cold record ratio than the decade before it.

And that’s just the extreme weather. When it comes to global average temperature, April was the 412th consecutive warmer month than the 20th century average, according to records kept by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The last five years — 2014 to 2018 — have been the five hottest years on record globally, according to those records. Nine of the 10 hottest years on record have been in the past 15 years with records going back to 1880.

The White House in November produced the National Climate Assessment by scientists from 13 Trump administration agencies and outside scientists. “Climate change is transforming where and how we live and presents growing challenges to human health and quality of life, the economy, and the natural systems that support us,” the report said.

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TRUMP: “We have the cleanest air in the world in the United States, and it’s gotten better since I’m president. We have the cleanest water. It’s crystal clean and I always say I want crystal clean water and air. … We’re setting records environmentally.” — remarks Wednesday with Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.

THE FACTS: The U.S. does not have the cleanest air, and it hasn’t gotten better under the Trump administration.

U.S. drinking water is among the best by one leading measure.

Trump’s own Environmental Protection Agency data show that in 2017, among 35 major U.S. cities, there were 729 cases of “unhealthy days for ozone and fine particle pollution.” That’s up 22% from 2014 and the worst year since 2012.

The Obama administration, in fact, set records for the fewest air polluted days, in 2016. In 2017, after Trump took office, the number of bad air days per metropolitan area went up 20%.

The State of Global Air 2019 report by the Health Effects Institute rated the U.S. as having the eighth cleanest air for particle pollution — which kills 85,000 Americans each year — behind Canada, Scandinavian countries and others.

The U.S. ranks poorly on smog pollution, which kills 24,000 Americans per year. On a scale from the cleanest to the dirtiest, the U.S. is at 123 out of 195 countries measured.

On water, Yale University’s global Environmental Performance Index finds 10 countries tied for the cleanest drinking water, the U.S. among them. On environmental quality overall, the U.S. was 27th, behind a variety of European countries, Canada, Japan, Australia and more. Switzerland was No. 1.

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GILLIBRAND ON GUN CONTROL

SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, Democratic presidential candidate, on Trump: “Remember after the shooting in Las Vegas, he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, we are going to ban the bump stocks’? Did he ban the bump stocks? No, because the NRA came crashing down and said, ’Don’t you dare do any restrictions on our guns around this country.‴— Fox News town hall on June 2.

THE FACTS: Not true. Trump kept his promise.

A nationwide ban took effect in March on bump stocks, the attachment used by the gunman in the 2017 Las Vegas massacre to make his weapons fire rapidly like machine guns.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives outlawed the attachments at Trump’s direction after the shootings killed more than 50 people in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. It is the only major gun restriction imposed by the federal government in the past few years.

The Trump administration’s move was an about-face for the bureau. In 2010, under the Obama administration, it found that the devices were legal. But under the Trump administration, officials revisited that determination and found it incorrect.

After the Las Vegas shootings, the National Rifle Association initially said “devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations.” After the bureau’s ruling banning the devices, however, the gun lobby called it “disappointing” and said it should have provided amnesty for gun owners who already have bump stocks.

The government estimates that more than 500,000 bump stocks were sold after they were made legal in 2010.

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VETERANS

TRUMP, on the late Sen. John McCain: “I was not a fan. I didn’t like what he did with health care. I didn’t like how he handled the veterans. Because I got them Choice. He was always unable. He was on committees and could have done it.” — interview Tuesday with Morgan.

THE FACTS: Not so. McCain did, in fact, get the Veterans Choice program passed in Congress.

Trump repeatedly claims falsely that he was the first president in decades to get such a private-sector health program passed. But what Trump actually got done was an expansion of the Choice program achieved by McCain and Sen. Bernie Sanders, the main lawmakers who advanced the legislation signed by President Barack Obama.

McCain, an Arizona Republican, co-sponsored the legislation following a 2014 scandal at the VA medical center in Phoenix, where some veterans died while waiting months for medical appointments.

Trump signed the law expanding the program in June 2018. It is named after three veterans who were lawmakers — McCain, Daniel K. Akaka and Samuel R. Johnson.

After helping to pass the program, McCain fought to expand it even more in his last months before dying of brain cancer in August.

The original Choice program allowed veterans to see doctors outside the Department of Veterans Affairs system if they must wait more than 30 days for an appointment or drive more than 40 miles (65 kilometers) to a VA facility. Under the expansion, which took effect Thursday, veterans are to have that option for a private doctor if their VA wait is only 20 days (28 for specialty care) or their drive is only 30 minutes.

Still, the VA says it does not expect a major increase in veterans seeking care outside the VA under Trump’s expanded program, partly because wait times in the private sector are now typically longer than at VA.

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LONDON PROTESTS

TRUMP: “I kept hearing that there would be ‘massive’ rallies against me in the UK, but it was quite the opposite. The big crowds, which the Corrupt Media hates to show, were those that gathered in support of the USA and me.” — tweet Wednesday.

TRUMP: “I heard that there were protests. I said: ‘Where are the protests? I don’t see any protests.’ I did see a small protest today when I came, very small, so a lot of it is fake news, I hate to say. …And I didn’t see the protesters until just a little while ago and it was a very, very small group of people.” — news conference Tuesday with British Prime Minister Theresa May.

THE FACTS: The protests over Trump’s visit were more than just “very, very small,” and some were hard to miss.

Thousands of protesters crowded London’s government district, chanting as he met May nearby. While police erected barricades to stop protesters from marching past the gates of Downing Street, they could be heard as Trump and May emerged from the prime minister’s official residence to pose for photos before their news conference.

The protests included a giant Trump baby balloon and a robotic likeness of Trump sitting on a golden toilet, reciting familiar Trump phrases like “No collusion” and “You are fake news.”

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BREXIT

TRUMP, referring to how he stood at his Scottish golf resort, Turnberry, on the eve of the Brexit referendum and predicted the British would vote to leave the European Union: “I really predicted what was going to happen. Some of you remember that prediction. It was a strong prediction, made at a certain location, on a development we were opening the day before it happened.” — news conference Tuesday.

THE FACTS: He often tells this false story.

Trump did not predict Brexit the day before the vote.

Three months before the vote, he did predict accurately that Britain would vote to leave the EU. The day after the 2016 vote — not the day before — he predicted from his Scottish resort that the EU would collapse because of Britain’s withdrawal. That remains to be seen.

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TRANSGENDER TROOPS

TRUMP, explaining his ban on transgender troops in the military: “In the military, you’re not allowed to take any drugs …People were going in and then asking for the operation, and the operation is $200,000, $250,000, and getting the operation, the recovery period is long, and they have to take large amounts of drugs after that …You can’t do that.” — interview Tuesday with Morgan.

THE FACTS: Trump has offered no substantiation for the assertion that transgender military members represent tremendous medical costs and disruption. A Rand Corp. study found otherwise. Nor does the military bar troops from using prescription drugs.

Rand estimates that out of about 1.3 million active-duty military personnel, 2,450 are transgender. Only a subset would seek transition-related care, such as hormone therapy and sex-reassignment surgery. Based on private insurance data, the study estimates a minimal increase in costs from such care for the active-duty armed forces — no more than 0.13%, or $8.4 million annually.

As for disruption, members representing less than 0.1% of the total force would seek transition-related care that could affect their deployments, the study says.

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Associated Press writers Peter Orsi and Christopher Sherman in Mexico City, Seth Borenstein, Andrew Taylor, Matthew Perrone and Darlene Superville in Washington, Lisa Marie Pane in Boise, Idaho, Nicky Forster in New York, and Jill Lawless and Kevin Freking in London contributed to this report.

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More lies, misdirection, false claims from Trump

June 9, 2019June 9, 2019

A demonstrator protests before the arrival of U.S President Trump in Ireland, Wednesday. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)

The apportioning of credit and blame went awry in President Donald Trump’s remarks over the past week.

He hailed pristine air quality that isn’t, placed responsibility on Mexico for the entire U.S. drug problem and told Puerto Ricans they should love him because he got them hurricane aid that he’s actually been complaining about for months.

In the Democratic presidential campaign, meantime, Trump was accused of breaking a gun-control promise that in reality he kept.

A week in review:

DISASTER AID

TRUMP, on signing a relief bill for multiple U.S. disasters: “Puerto Rico should love President Trump. Without me, they would have been shut out!” — tweet Thursday.

THE FACTS: That’s not likely.

Trump frequently inflated the amount of aid that Puerto Rico had obtained in previous bills and feuded with the island’s Democratic officials.

Congressional Democrats held firm in demanding that Puerto Rico, a territory whose 3 million people are U.S. citizens, be helped by the measure. The legislation ultimately included more money for Puerto Rico, about $1.4 billion, than Democrats originally sought.
President Donald Trump is touting his administration’s environmental policies, insisting the US has the cleanest air and water in the world. While visiting Ireland, Trump said the US is ‘setting records environmentally’ since he became president. (June 5)

The relief measure delivers money to states in the South suffering from last fall’s hurricanes, Midwestern states deluged with springtime floods and fire-ravaged rural California, among other disasters.

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NATO

THE FACTS: It’s not true that the U.S. was paying “close to 100%” of the price of protecting Europe.

NATO does have a shared budget to which each member makes contributions based on the size of its economy. The United States, with the biggest economy, pays the biggest share, about 22%.

Defending Europe involves far more than that fund. The primary cost of doing so would come from each member country’s military budget, as the alliance operates under a mutual defense treaty.

The U.S. is the largest military spender but others in the alliance obviously have armed forces, too. The notion that almost all costs would fall to the U.S. is false.

In fact, NATO’s Article 5, calling for allies to act if one is attacked, has only been invoked once, and it was on behalf of the U.S., after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

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DRUGS

Mexico is indeed a significant conduit in the drug trade — it’s a leading source of heroin, for example — but it is hardly the only one.

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CLIMATE CHANGE

TRUMP, asked if he believes in climate change: “I believe that there’s a change in weather, and I think it changes both ways.” — interview with Piers Morgan that broadcast Tuesday.

The data show Trump also is wrong in that there is a clear one-way warming trend. Earth is considerably warmer than it was 30 years ago and especially 100 years ago.

According to Walton’s analysis, each decade since the 1970s has had a higher hot record-to-cold record ratio than the decade before it.

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THE FACTS: The U.S. does not have the cleanest air, and it hasn’t gotten better under the Trump administration.

U.S. drinking water is among the best by one leading measure.

The Obama administration, in fact, set records for the fewest air polluted days, in 2016. In 2017, after Trump took office, the number of bad air days per metropolitan area went up 20%.

The U.S. ranks poorly on smog pollution, which kills 24,000 Americans per year. On a scale from the cleanest to the dirtiest, the U.S. is at 123 out of 195 countries measured.

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GILLIBRAND ON GUN CONTROL

THE FACTS: Not true. Trump kept his promise.

A nationwide ban took effect in March on bump stocks, the attachment used by the gunman in the 2017 Las Vegas massacre to make his weapons fire rapidly like machine guns.

The government estimates that more than 500,000 bump stocks were sold after they were made legal in 2010.

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VETERANS

THE FACTS: Not so. McCain did, in fact, get the Veterans Choice program passed in Congress.

McCain, an Arizona Republican, co-sponsored the legislation following a 2014 scandal at the VA medical center in Phoenix, where some veterans died while waiting months for medical appointments.

Trump signed the law expanding the program in June 2018. It is named after three veterans who were lawmakers — McCain, Daniel K. Akaka and Samuel R. Johnson.

After helping to pass the program, McCain fought to expand it even more in his last months before dying of brain cancer in August.

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LONDON PROTESTS

THE FACTS: The protests over Trump’s visit were more than just “very, very small,” and some were hard to miss.

The protests included a giant Trump baby balloon and a robotic likeness of Trump sitting on a golden toilet, reciting familiar Trump phrases like “No collusion” and “You are fake news.”

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BREXIT

THE FACTS: He often tells this false story.

Trump did not predict Brexit the day before the vote.

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TRANSGENDER TROOPS

As for disruption, members representing less than 0.1% of the total force would seek transition-related care that could affect their deployments, the study says.

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Associated Press writers Matthew Perrone, Andrew Taylor and Darlene Superville in Washington, Lisa Marie Pane in Boise, Idaho, Nicky Forster in New York, and Jill Lawless and Kevin Freking in London contributed to this report.

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More lies from America’s Liar-in-Chief’

June 5, 2019

A woman takes a selfie as the ‘Trump Baby’ blimp is inflated in Parliament Square in central London as people start to gather to demonstrate against the state visit of President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

President Donald Trump is spinning a tall tale about crowd sizes and the protests in London.

He’s asserting there have been few protests over his visit to the United Kingdom — even though nearby protesters could be heard at 10 Downing Street. He also once again falsely said he predicted Brexit a day before the vote happened.

A look at the claims, in a tweet Wednesday and a news conference Tuesday with British Prime Minister Theresa May:

TRUMP: “There were thousands of people (Monday) on the streets cheering. And even coming over today, there were thousands of people cheering and then I heard that there were protests. I said: ‘Where are the protests? I don’t see any protests.’ I did see a small protest today when I came, very small, so a lot of it is fake news, I hate to say. … There was great love. … And I didn’t see the protesters until just a little while ago and it was a very, very small group of people.” — news conference Tuesday.

THE FACTS: The protests over Trump’s visit were more than just “very, very small.”

Thousands of protesters crowded London’s government district, shouting angry chants as he met May nearby. While police erected barricades to stop protesters from marching past the gates of Downing Street, they could be heard as Trump and May emerged from the prime minister’s official residence for a photo op and before their news conference.

The demonstrators expressed outrage over his lavish welcome and protested him as a danger to the world.

The protests included a giant Trump baby balloon and a robotic likeness of Trump sitting on a golden toilet, cellphone in hand, dubbed “Dump Trump.” The robot made flatulent sounds and recited familiar Trump phrases like “No collusion” and “You are fake news.”

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THE FACTS: He didn’t predict Brexit the day before it happened.

As when he has told this story before, Trump is mixing up his predictions and his days. Three months before the vote, he did predict accurately that Britain would vote to leave the EU. The day after the 2016 vote — not the day before — he predicted from his Scottish resort that the EU would collapse because of Britain’s withdrawal. That remains to be seen.

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Associated Press writers Jill Lawless and Kevin Freking in London and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

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Trump lies again. He did call Duchess Meghan ‘nasty’

June 2, 2019June 2, 2019

Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Donald Trump insisted Sunday that he never called Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex and the wife of Britain’s Prince Harry, “nasty.”

The president used the adjective while discussing Meghan in a recent interview with Britain’s The Sun newspaper in the run-up to his state visit to the U.K. on Monday. But debate on social media since then has raged over whether his use of “nasty” referred to the duchess herself or the negative things she said about him in 2016.

Trump and his defenders have accused the news media of spreading a deliberately false narrative about him.

A look at the claim:

TRUMP: “I never called Meghan Markle ‘nasty.’ Made up by the Fake News Media, and they got caught cold!” — tweet Sunday.

THE FACTS: Trump, in fact, did use the word “nasty” to describe Meghan when asked about her comments about him during the 2016 campaign.

In audio of the interview posted on the newspaper’s website, Trump discusses the upcoming state visit, his second meeting with Queen Elizabeth II and the Trump family members who are tagging along on the trip. The reporter then asks about Meghan, who isn’t joining other royals to meet Trump and his wife, Melania, due to the recent birth of her first child, Archie, in May.

Asked if he was sorry to miss out on meeting the American-born Meghan and told that she “wasn’t so nice about you” during the campaign, Trump says: “I didn’t know that. No, I hope she’s OK. I did not know that.”

When told that Meghan once said she might move to Canada if Trump was elected, Trump responds: “No, I didn’t know that she was nasty.”

The former Meghan Markle supported Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate in 2016, calling Trump “divisive” and “misogynistic.” The former actress also said she might move to Canada. “Suits,” the cable TV legal drama she starred in at the time, was filming in Toronto.

She ultimately married Prince Harry in 2018 and moved to Britain.

After the interview was released, reporters at some news organizations tweeted that Trump called Meghan “nasty,” sparking debate.

The case isn’t as clear as Trump portrays it to be, said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center.

Jamieson said in an email that since Trump’s interviewer is informing him about a statement that Trump says he was unaware of “one would ordinarily assume that his answer refers to that statement.” But she says the answer — “was nasty” — could also refer to a person or to what the person said.

Complicating matters, Jamieson said, is Trump’s history of verbal attacks on people he views as antagonists and his sensitivity to negative statements about his election.

“As a result, difficult to know what he meant,” she said.

In the Sun interview, Trump also spoke positively about Meghan when asked whether it was good for an American to be a member of the British royal family.

“I think it’s nice. I think it’s nice. I’m sure she will do excellently. She’ll be very good. She’ll be very good. I hope she does,” Trump said.

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Copyright © 2019 Capitol Hill Blue

Trump keeps lying in Japan

May 28, 2019

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at Akasaka Palace, Monday, May 27, 2019, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump dismissed the hard realities of his trade dispute with China as mere foolishness Monday and told people to expect humans on Mars “very shortly,” which isn’t happening.

Here’s a look at some of his statements in a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and how they stack up with reality:

TRADE

TRUMP: “You know, foolishly, some people said that the American taxpayer is paying the tariffs of China. No, no, no — it’s not that way. They’re paying a small percentage, but our country is taking in billions and billions of dollars.”

THE FACTS: That’s not true. U.S. consumers and the public are primarily if not entirely paying the costs of the tariffs, as his chief economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, has acknowledged. That’s how tariffs work: Importers pay the taxes and often pass on the cost to consumers. The U.S. is not “taking in” billions from China as a result.

A sustained trade dispute is not painless for China, either. Its goods become pricier and therefore less competitive. But China is not paying a tab to the U.S. Treasury in this matter.

As Kudlow said, accurately: “Both sides will suffer on this.” But in his view, “this is a risk we should and can take.”

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MARS

TRUMP: “Prime Minister Abe and I have agreed to dramatically expand our nations’ cooperation in human space exploration. Japan will join our mission to send U.S. astronauts to space. We’ll be going to the moon. We’ll be going to Mars very soon.”

THE FACTS: Not very soon. The U.S. will almost certainly not be sending humans to Mars in his presidency, even if he wins a second term.

The Trump administration has a placed a priority on the moon over Mars for human exploration (President Barack Obama favored Mars) and hopes to accelerate NASA’s plan for returning people to the lunar surface. It has asked Congress to approve enough money to make a moon mission possible by 2024, instead 2028. But even if that happens, Mars would come years after that. International space agencies have made aspirational statements about possibly landing humans on Mars during the 2030s.

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TRUMP on Iran: “If you look at the deal that Biden and President Obama signed, they would have access — free access — to nuclear weapons, where they wouldn’t even be in violation, in just a very short period of time. What kind of a deal is that?”

THE FACTS: That’s a misrepresentation of what the deal required . Iran would not have access to nuclear weapons capability in a “very short period” without violating the terms of the 2015 accord. The U.S. withdrew from the multinational agreement last year.

During the 15-year life of most provisions of the deal, Iran’s capabilities were limited to a level where it could not produce a nuclear bomb. Iran was thought to be only months away from a bomb when the deal came into effect.

After 15 years, Iran could have an array of advanced centrifuges ready to work, the limits on its stockpile would be gone and, in theory, it could then throw itself into producing highly enriched uranium. But nothing in the deal prevented the West from trying to rein Iran in again with sanctions. The deal included a pledge by Iran never to seek a nuclear weapon. In return, partners in the deal eased sanctions on Iran.

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Trump lies to take credit for Obama vet program

May 27, 2019

Former President Barack Obama. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Boastful on the occasion of Memorial Day, President Donald Trump and his Veterans Affairs secretary are claiming full credit for health care improvements that were underway before they took office.

Trump said he passed a private-sector health care program, Veterans Choice, after failed attempts by past presidents for the last “45 years.” That’s not true. The Choice program, which allows veterans to see doctors outside the government-run VA system at taxpayer expense, was first passed in 2014 under President Barack Obama.

Trump’s VA secretary, Robert Wilkie, also is distorting the facts. Faulting previous “bad leadership” at VA, Wilkie suggested it was his own efforts that improved waiting times at VA medical centers and brought new offerings of same-day mental health service. The problem: The study cited by Wilkie on wait times covers the period from 2014 to 2017, before Wilkie took the helm as VA secretary. Same-day mental health services at VA were started during the Obama administration under Wilkie’s predecessor, David Shulkin.

The half-truths and exaggerations came in a week when selective accounting was a norm in Trump’s rhetoric, extending into his trip to Japan, where he inflated the drop in the U.S. unemployment rate for women.

President Donald Trump says he won’t negotiate policy with congressional Democrats while they continue to investigate him. (May 21)
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A look at the claims, about the Russia investigation, the border, drug prices and more:

VETERANS

TRUMP: “We passed VA Choice and VA Accountability to give our veterans the care that they deserve and they have been trying to pass these things for 45 years.” — Montoursville, Pennsylvania, rally on May 20.

THE FACTS: Wrong. Trump is not the first president in 45 years to get Congress to pass Veterans Choice; Obama did it in the wake of a scandal at VA’s medical center in Phoenix, where some veterans died while waiting months for appointments. The program currently allows veterans to see doctors outside the VA system if they must wait more than 30 days for an appointment or drive more than 40 miles (65 kilometers) to a VA facility.

Trump did expand eligibility for the program. Now, starting June 6, veterans are to have that option for a private doctor if their VA wait is only 20 days (28 for specialty care) or their drive is only 30 minutes.

Still, VA’s top health official, Dr. Richard Stone, described the new program’s start to “almost be a non-event” in testimony to Congress. That’s in part because wait times in the private sector are typically longer than at VA. In 2018, 34 percent of all VA appointments were with outside physicians, down from 36 percent in 2017.

Also key to the Choice program’s success is an overhaul of VA’s electronic medical records to allow seamless sharing of them with private physicians, a process expected to take up to 10 years. Wilkie has said full implementation of the expanded Choice program is “years” away.

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WILKIE: “The first thing I did was change out the leadership at VA. … (The president) also allowed me to change out leadership in the VA centers. If someone wasn’t walking the post, getting to know the people who work for her or him, or getting to know those veterans, they had to leave. And, as a result, the Journal of the American Medical Association this year said that our waiting times are now as good or better than any in the private sector.” — interview Thursday with Fox News.

THE FACTS: It’s true that a study by the medical association came out in January that found wait times at VA medical centers on average were better than the private sector. But the improvement wasn’t a “result” of anything that Wilkie did: The study involved a period largely covering the Obama administration — and before Wilkie became acting VA secretary in late March 2018.

In fact, in a VA press release in January announcing the study’s results, Wilkie credits the department’s “concerted” effort to improve access to care “since 2014.”

The study covered four specialties, primary care, dermatology, cardiology and orthopedics.

It found that in 2014, the average wait time at VA medical centers was 22.5 days, compared with 18.7 days in the private sector, which was not statistically different. By 2017, the wait time at VA improved to 17.7 days, while increasing to 29.8 days for private doctors. Wait times at VA medical centers were shorter in all specialties except orthopedics.

According to the study, the number of patients seen yearly in VA increased slightly between 2014 and 2017, to about 5.1 million. VA patient satisfaction also rose, according to patient surveys cited in the study.

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WILKIE: The VA “had suffered from bad leadership. And that’s a bipartisan comment. And the second thing I had to do was make sure that as we approach our veteran population that we make sure that they are at the center, their needs are at the center of what we do … I think we’ve had it backwards at VA for many years. … One of the things that we’re doing at VA is that we have same-day mental health service. … It is huge.” — interview with Fox News.

THE FACTS: Same-day mental health service started at VA before Trump took office in January 2017, let alone Wilkie.

VA’s effort to provide same-day primary and mental-health care when medically necessary at every VA medical center was publicized in April 2016 under the Obama administration. At the time, Shulkin was helping lead the effort as VA’s top health official. By late 2016, the department’s blog announced that the goal of same-day mental health services would be achieved by year’s end.

A Dec. 23, 2016, article in the Harvard Business Review cites new same-day services at all VA hospitals as evidence of notable progress at the department. Shulkin, who was then named by Trump to be his VA secretary, told Congress in late January 2017 the services already were fully in place.

Trump selected Wilkie to be his VA secretary after firing Shulkin in March 2018 because of ethics charges and internal rebellion at the department over the role of private care for veterans. Trump’s initial replacement choice, White House doctor Ronny Jackson, withdrew after allegations of workplace misconduct surfaced. While Wilkie has been credited by both parties in Congress for bringing stability to the department, the VA improvements he attributes to himself this past week are misplaced.

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ECONOMY

TRUMP, on the unemployment rate: “With women, we have the best numbers we’ve had in now 71 years. That’s going to be, very soon, a historic number, meaning the best ever.” — remarks Saturday with Japanese business leaders in Tokyo.

THE FACTS: The unemployment rate for women is not the best in 71 years.

According to the Labor Department, the women’s unemployment rate fell last month to 3.1%. That’s just the lowest since October 1953, or 66 years ago, when it also was 3.1%. The lowest on record was 2.4% in May 1953.

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TRUMP: “My Administration is achieving things that have never been done before, including unleashing perhaps the Greatest Economy in our Country’s history.” — tweet Wednesday.

TRUMP: “Most successful economy, perhaps, in our country’s history.” — remarks to reporters Wednesday.

THE FACTS: The economy is solid but it’s not one of the best in our country’s history, no matter how many times he asserts it. Trump is also claiming full credit for an economic expansion that began under Obama in mid-2009.

The economy expanded at an annual rate of 3.2 percent in the first quarter of this year. That growth was the highest in just four years for the first quarter.

In the late 1990s, growth topped 4 percent for four straight years, a level it has not yet reached on an annual basis under Trump. Growth even reached 7.2 percent in 1984.

While the economy has shown strength, it grew 2.9% in 2018 – the same pace it reached in 2015 — and simply hasn’t hit historically high growth rates.

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TRUMP claims “the best unemployment numbers in history.” — Pennsylvania rally on May 20.

THE FACTS: The 3.6% unemployment rate in the latest report is not the best in history. It’s the lowest since 1969, when it was 3.5%. The U.S. also had lower rates than now in the early 1950s. And during three years of World War II, the annual rate was under 2%.

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TRUMP INVESTIGATIONS

TRUMP: “I don’t do cover-ups.” — Rose Garden remarks Wednesday to reporters.

THE FACTS: Federal prosecutors may not agree with that assertion, which he made in response to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s accusation that the president was engaged in a cover-up. Trump spoke after breaking off an infrastructure meeting when Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., came to the White House for it.

Prosecutors’ court filings in December said Trump directed his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, to make payments to buy the silence of porn actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal during the 2016 presidential campaign. Both women alleged they had extramarital affairs with Trump, which the White House denies.

In particular, the Justice Department says the hush money payments were unreported campaign contributions meant to influence the outcome of the election. That assertion makes the payments subject to campaign finance laws, which restrict how much people can donate to a campaign and bar corporations from making direct contributions.

Trump has said the payments were “a simple private transaction,” not a campaign contribution.

Separately, the Mueller report found that Trump dictated his son Trump Jr.’s misleading statement about a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower to cloak its purpose.

Cohen, who pleaded guilty last year to campaign finance crimes in connection with those payments, had previously implicated Trump. The department’s filings backed up Cohen’s claims.

The Mueller report said Trump learned in summer of 2017 that the news media planned to report on the meeting at Trump Tower between senior campaign officials and Russians offering derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee.

Trump directed aides not to disclose the emails setting up the meeting. Before the emails became public, the president also edited a press statement for Donald Trump Jr. by deleting a line that acknowledged that the meeting was “with an individual who (Trump Jr.) was told might have information helpful to the campaign” and instead said only that the meeting was about adoptions.

That episode was among 10 identified by the Mueller investigation of possible obstruction of justice by Trump. Mueller said in his report that he could not conclusively determine that Trump had committed a crime or that he hadn’t.

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TRUMP: “The greatest Hoax in American History.” — tweet Wednesday.

THE FACTS: A two-year investigation that produced guilty pleas, convictions and criminal charges against Russian intelligence officers and others with ties to the Kremlin, as well as Trump associates, is not a hoax.

Mueller charged 34 people, including the president’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and three Russian companies. Twenty-five Russians were indicted on charges related to election interference, accused either of hacking Democratic email accounts during the campaign or of orchestrating a social media campaign that spread disinformation on the internet.

Five Trump aides pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with Mueller, and a sixth, longtime confidant Roger Stone, is awaiting trial on charges he lied to Congress and engaged in witness tampering.

Mueller’s report concluded that Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was “sweeping and systematic.” Ultimately, Mueller did not find a criminal conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign. But the special counsel didn’t render judgment on whether Trump obstructed justice, saying his investigators found evidence on both sides.

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TRUMP ON BIDEN

TRUMP, on Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden: “He’s not from Pennsylvania. I guess he was born here but he left you, folks. … He left you for another state and he didn’t take care of you because he didn’t take care of your jobs. He let other countries come in and rip off America.” — Pennsylvania rally on May 20.

THE FACTS: It’s true that Pennsylvania-born Biden left the state without taking care of jobs for the people he left behind. He was a boy, 10 or 11, when his family moved to Delaware in 1953.

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TRADE

TRUMP on his trade dispute with China: “I’ll be honest, we are getting hundreds of millions of dollars brought into our country. We’ve never gotten 10 cents. We are getting hundreds of billions of dollars coming into our country.” — remarks to reporters Thursday.

THE FACTS: This is not true. The tariffs he’s raised on imports from China are primarily if not entirely a tax on U.S. consumers and businesses, %href_on(file:

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Copyright © 2019 Capitol Hill Blue

Trump: Selective accounts, exaggerations & lies

May 25, 2019May 25, 2019

President Donald Trump speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump held up and read from a sheet of paper in the Rose Garden this past week as he argued he’s been hounded by investigators in the Russia probe for no reason. “Nearly 500 search warrants,” says the page, from an ABC News graphic. “More than 2,500 subpoenas.” And: “19 special counsel lawyers & 40 FBI agents worked the case.”

If that sounds like overkill by the Robert Mueller inquiry, it’s only half the story.

Trump did not show or quote from a second page that goes with the graphic, laying out the results of the investigation. Among them: “37 total indicted … 26 Russians indicted … 4 people sent to prison … 7 guilty pleas.” In Trump’s telling, it’s all a hoax.

Selective accounting like that has been a constant in Trump’s rhetoric.

A look at some of his recent statements, on the Russia investigation, the border, the economy and more:

TRUMP INVESTIGATIONS

TRUMP: “I don’t do cover-ups.” — Rose Garden remarks Wednesday to reporters.

Trump has said the payments were “a simple private transaction,” not a campaign contribution.

Separately, the Mueller report found that Trump dictated his son Trump Jr.’s misleading statement about a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower to cloak its purpose.

Cohen, who pleaded guilty last year to campaign finance crimes in connection with those payments, had previously implicated Trump. The department’s filings backed up Cohen’s claims.

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TRUMP: “ILLEGAL Witch Hunt.” — tweet Wednesday.

THE FACTS: Trump is wrong to suggest, as he has done before, that the FBI acted illegally by investigating him. The FBI does not need to know if or have evidence that a crime occurred before the bureau begins an investigation.

Many investigations that are properly conducted ultimately don’t find evidence of any crime. The FBI is empowered to open an investigation if there’s information it has received or uncovered that leads the bureau to think it might encounter a crime. Apart from that, the investigation into the Trump campaign was initially a counterintelligence investigation rather than a strictly criminal one, as agents sought to understand whether and why Russia was meddling in the 2016 election.

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TRUMP: “The greatest Hoax in American History.” — tweet Wednesday.

Five Trump aides pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with Mueller, and a sixth, longtime confidant Roger Stone, is awaiting trial on charges he lied to Congress and engaged in witness tampering.

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BIDEN

THE FACTS: It’s true that Pennsylvania-born Biden left the state without taking care of jobs for the people he left behind. He was a boy, 10 or 11, when his family moved to Delaware in 1953.

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TRADE

THE FACTS: This is not true. The tariffs he’s raised on imports from China are primarily if not entirely a tax on U.S. consumers and businesses, not a source of significant revenue coming into the country.

A study in March by economists from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Columbia University and Princeton University, before the latest escalation, found that the public and U.S. companies were paying $3 billion a month in higher taxes from the trade dispute with China, suffering $1.4 billion a month in lost efficiency and absorbing the entire impact.

It’s also false that the U.S. never collected a dime in tariffs before he took action. Tariffs on goods from China are not remotely new. They are simply higher in some cases than they were before. Tariffs go back to the beginning of the U.S. and were once a leading source of revenue for the government. Not in modern times. They equate to less than 1% of federal spending.

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BORDER

TRUMP: “Our country is full. We don’t want people coming up here. Our country is full. We want Mexico to stop. We want all of them to stop. Our country is packed to the gills. We don’t want them coming up.” — Pennsylvania rally Monday.

THE FACTS: Trump’s declaration that the U.S. is too “full” to accept migrants due to an overwhelmed southern border is his latest flip-flop. It turns out the U.S. is only “full” in terms of the people Trump doesn’t want.

Just last month, the president had made clear that more migrants are needed due to an improving economy.

“We have companies pouring in. The problem is we need workers,” he told Fox Business Network on April 28.

“We need people to come in,” Trump said at a Wisconsin rally on April 27.

Immigrants as a whole make up a greater percentage of the total U.S. population than they did back in 1970, having grown from less than 5 percent of the population to more than 13 percent now. In 2030, it’s projected that immigrants will become the primary driver for U.S. population growth, overtaking U.S. births.

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TRUMP: “The wall is being built as we speak. We’ll have almost 500 miles of wall by the end of next year.” — Pennsylvania rally Monday.

THE FACTS: It’s unclear how Trump arrives at 500 miles (800 km), but he would have to prevail in legal challenges to his declaration of a national emergency or get Congress to cough up more money to get anywhere close. Those are big assumptions.

So far, the administration has awarded contracts for 244 miles (390 km) of wall construction, but more than half comes from Defense Department money available under Trump’s Feb. 15 emergency declaration. On Friday, a federal judge in California blocked Trump from building key sections of the wall with that money; a separate challenge is before a judge in New York.

Nearly all of what Trump has awarded so far is for replacement barriers and fencing, not new miles of wall. Even if Trump prevails in court, all but 14 miles (22 km) of those awarded contracts replace existing barriers.

The White House says it has identified up to $8.1 billion in potential money under the national emergency, mostly from the Defense Department.

Customs and Border Protection officials say the administration wants Congress to finance 206 miles (330 km) next year. The chances of the Democratic-controlled House backing that are between slim and none.

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ECONOMY

TRUMP: “My Administration is achieving things that have never been done before, including unleashing perhaps the Greatest Economy in our Country’s history.” — tweet Wednesday.

TRUMP: “Most successful economy, perhaps, in our country’s history.” — remarks to reporters Wednesday.

The economy expanded at an annual rate of 3.2 percent in the first quarter of this year. That growth was the highest in just four years for the first quarter.

In the late 1990s, growth topped 4 percent for four straight years, a level it has not yet reached on an annual basis under Trump. Growth even reached 7.2 percent in 1984.

While the economy has shown strength, it grew 2.9% in 2018 – the same pace it reached in 2015 — and simply hasn’t hit historically high growth rates.

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TRUMP claims “the best unemployment numbers in history.” — Pennsylvania rally.

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HEALTH CARE

TRUMP: “Drug prices are coming down, first time in 51 years, because of my administration.” — remarks Wednesday to reporters.

THE FACTS: Trump continues to ignore an increase in drug prices.

The Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index for prescription drug prices shows an increase of 0.3% in April compared with the same month last year. The index tracks a set of medications, both brand names and generics, and Trump has frequently made his boast since the updated numbers showing higher costs came out.

Other independent studies point to increasing prices for brand-name drugs as well and more overall spending on medications.

An analysis of brand-name drug prices by The Associated Press showed 2,712 price increases in the first half of January, compared with 3,327 increases during the same period last year. However, the size of this year’s increases was not as pronounced.

Both this year and last, the number of price cuts was minuscule. The information for the analysis was provided by the health data firm Elsevier.

An analysis by Altarum, a nonprofit research and consulting firm, found that in 2018, spending on prescription drugs was one of the main factors behind a 4.5% increase in U.S. health spending. Spending on prescription drugs grew much faster than in 2017, according to the study.

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TRUMP: “We will always protect pre-existing conditions.” — Pennsylvania rally.

THE FACTS: He’s not protecting health coverage for patients with pre-existing medical conditions. His Trump administration instead is pressing in court for full repeal of the Affordable Care Act, including provisions that protect people with pre-existing conditions from health insurance discrimination.

Trump and other Republicans say they’ll have a plan to preserve those safeguards, but the White House has provided no details.

Obama’s health care law requires insurers to take all applicants, regardless of medical history, and patients with health problems pay the same standard premiums as healthy ones. Bills supported in 2017 by Trump and congressional Republicans to repeal the law could undermine protections by pushing up costs for people with pre-existing conditions.

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Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.

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More Trump exaggerations, lies about wall, jobs

May 21, 2019May 21, 2019

President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally, Monday, May 20, 2019, in Montoursville, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump is vowing to have 500 miles of border wall built by the 2020 election. There’s reason to be strongly skeptical about that.

Here’s a look at a sampling of his rhetoric Monday night at a rally in Montoursville, Pennsylvania, and how it compares with the facts:

BORDER

TRUMP: “The wall is being built as we speak. We’ll have almost 500 miles of wall by the end of next year.”

THE FACTS: It’s unclear how Trump arrives at 500 miles (800 kilometers), but he would have to prevail in legal challenges to his declaration of a national emergency or get Congress to cough up more money to get anywhere close. Those are big assumptions.

So far, the administration has awarded contracts for 244 miles (390 kilometers) of wall construction, but more than half comes from Defense Department money available under Trump’s Feb. 15 emergency declaration. Two judges — in Washington and in San Francisco — are weighing whether to block the administration for tapping those funds.

And nearly all of what Trump has awarded so far is for replacement barriers and fencing, not new miles of wall. Even if Trump prevails in court, all but 14 miles (22 kilometers) of those awarded contracts replace existing barriers.

The White House says it has identified up to $8.1 billion in potential money under the national emergency, mostly from the Defense Department.

Customs and Border Protection officials say the administration wants Congress to finance 206 miles (330 kilometers) next year. The chances of the Democratic-controlled House backing that are between slim and none.

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JOBS

TRUMP claims “the best unemployment numbers in history.”

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DRUG PRICES

TRUMP: “Last year for the first time in 51 years, drug prices went down.”

THE FACTS: Trump continues to ignore an increase in drug prices.

Other independent studies point to increasing prices for brand-name drugs as well and more overall spending on medications.

Both this year and last, the number of price cuts was minuscule. The information for the analysis was provided by the health data firm Elsevier.

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Spagat reported from San Diego. Associated Press writer Hope Yen contributed to this report.

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Correcting Trump’s ‘maliciously false’ claims on abortions

May 13, 2019May 13, 2019

President Trump speaks at a rally in Panama City Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

President Donald Trump, in what’s become a staple of his rallies, accuses doctors of executing babies who are born alive after a failed abortion attempt.

His comments, meant to taint Democrats, have been embraced by many anti-abortion activists, and assailed as maliciously false by many medical professionals. What’s clear is that he is oversimplifying a deeply complex issue. It’s already a crime to kill babies, but not necessarily a crime to forgo sophisticated medical intervention in cases where severe fetal abnormalities leave a newborn with no chance of survival.

A look at his rhetoric, similarly framed from one event to the next, and the reality behind it:

TRUMP: “Democrats are aggressively pushing late-term abortion allowing children to be ripped from their mother’s womb, right up until the moment of birth. The baby is born and you wrap the baby beautifully and you talk to the mother about the possible execution of the baby.” — rally in Panama City Beach, Florida, on Wednesday.

THE FACTS: Federal data suggests that very few U.S. babies are born alive as a result of a failed abortion. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 143 deaths between 2003 and 2014 involving infants born alive during attempted abortions.

Anti-abortion politicians and activists have been pushing for state and federal legislation this year that would impose criminal penalties on doctors who fail to give medical care to babies born alive after a failed abortion. Organizations representing obstetricians and gynecologists say existing laws already provide protections to every healthy newborn, whether born during a failed abortion or under other circumstances.

“We would never do anything to actively hasten the passing of the infant,” said Dr. Cara Heuser, a maternal fetal medicine specialist in Salt Lake City.

She and other physicians say the rhetoric coming from Trump and anti-abortion activists fails to reflect the wrenching circumstances underlying most abortions performed late in pregnancy. According to the CDC, only 1.3% of abortions take place after 21 weeks, and these often involve either severe fetal anomalies or conditions that endanger the mother.

When anomalies are so severe that a newborn would die soon after birth, a family may choose what’s known as palliative care or comfort care. This might involve swaddling the newborn in a blanket and allowing the baby to die naturally without medical intervention.

“The medical standard is to give hospice type care, not futile medical interventions, when the baby has a terminal diagnosis with no chance of surviving,” said Dr. Diane Horvath, a Baltimore-based obstetrician-gynecologist. “This is a deeply personal decision and it allows families to follow their own beliefs and faith traditions.”

Horvath is a fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health and medical director of Whole Woman’s Health, which operates abortion clinics in several states.

Cheryl Sullinger of Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion organization, argued in a recent online commentary that lack of medical intervention in such circumstances could be considered criminal.

“If abortionists do not supply medical care for premature babies that survive abortions, their intent is for the baby to die, even if he or she might be saved with a little medical assistance,” she wrote. “This is to actually kill the baby through a crime of omission.”

However, Heuser said doctors in such cases often determine that medical intervention is not only futile in the long run but would, in fact, prolong a newborn’s pain.

“The baby is not ignored — comfort care includes things like food, oxygen, pain medication, and skin-to-skin contact,” she said. “Everyone’s goal is to make the newborn as comfortable as possible, respect the time the family has with their child, and avoid interventions that would cause additional suffering without changing the outcome.”

The legal situation in such cases varies from state to state. In some states, women whose own health is not in danger are barred from having abortions at late stages of their pregnancy even in cases of severe fetal anomalies.

“Those mothers would be forced to carry a baby to term that they know is going to die,” said Heuser, who cited cases where women with sufficient money have traveled to other states with less stringent laws.

That was the case for Kate Carson, a teacher in the Boston area who had an abortion late in pregnancy in 2012. She has shared her experience in recent radio interviews and newspaper opinion pieces.

In the 35th week of her pregnancy, Carson says, an ultrasound determined that the baby girl had a catastrophic brain malformation that would probably make her permanently unable to talk, walk, swallow or even to sleep comfortably.

In an appearance on the Washington-based radio station WAMU, Carson explained how she and her husband then reached the difficult decision to opt for an abortion.

“If we had to choose between the two beautiful and precious gifts of peace and life, for us and our values and our family we wanted to give our daughter peace,” Carson said.

In her home state of Massachusetts, abortions that late in pregnancy are allowed only if the mother’s health is at risk; Carson had to travel to Boulder, Colorado, to undergo the costly procedure.

In past years, anti-abortion activists have often cited the case of a Philadelphia doctor, Kermit Gosnell, as part of an effort to stigmatize other abortion providers across the country. Abortion-rights advocates say the Gosnell case proves their contention that existing laws are adequate. He performed extremely late-term abortions, then snipped the spines of infants born alive during the procedures. In 2013, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without the chance for parole.

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Many more lies from Trump on trade, economy, himself

May 11, 2019

Field of corn grows in front of an old windmill in Pacific Junction, Iowa. President Donald Trump cast a fog of misinformation over the U.S. trade dispute with China, floating inaccurate numbers and skewed economic theories as big tariffs kicked in on Chinese goods. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

President Donald Trump cast a fog of misinformation over the U.S. trade dispute with China, floating inaccurate numbers and skewed economic theories as big tariffs kicked in on Chinese goods.

At stake in the rupture is a trading relationship between the world’s two largest economies that employs nearly 1 million Americans, supplies affordable goods to U.S. households and, in the view of Trump and a bipartisan group of trade hard-liners, puts U.S. business at an unfair disadvantage.

Trump’s torrent of tweets on the subject Friday followed a rally infused with familiar falsehoods about his achievements (the economy, veterans’ health) and grievances (the Russia inquiry). A look at his words over the past week:

TRADE

TRUMP: “Tariffs are NOW being paid to the United States by China of 25% on 250 Billion Dollars worth of goods & products. These massive payments go directly to the Treasury of the U.S.” — tweet Friday.

THE FACTS: This is not how tariffs work. China is not writing a check to the U.S. Treasury. The tariffs are paid by American companies, which usually pass the cost on to consumers through higher prices. One of the theories is that the higher prices will encourage consumers to buy goods made in the U.S. or elsewhere instead. But the risk is that consumers could simply respond by spending less than they otherwise would, which would hurt growth.

The burden of Trump’s tariffs on imports from China and other countries falls entirely on U.S. consumers and businesses that buy imports, said a study in March by economists from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Columbia University and Princeton University. By the end of last year, the study found, the public and U.S. companies were paying $3 billion a month in higher taxes and absorbing $1.4 billion a month in lost efficiency.

A coalition of U.S. trade organizations representing retail businesses, tech, manufacturing and agriculture said this past week: “For 10 months, Americans have been paying the full cost of the trade war, not China.” It said: “To be clear, tariffs are taxes that Americans pay, and this sudden increase with little notice will only punish U.S farmers, businesses and consumers.”

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TRUMP: “Your all time favorite President got tired of waiting for China to help out and start buying from our FARMERS, the greatest anywhere in the World!” — tweet Friday.

THE FACTS: The notion that China doesn’t buy from U.S. farmers is false. China is the fourth-largest export market for U.S. agriculture. It bought $9.3 billion in U.S. agricultural products last year.

As for calling himself “your” favorite president, he is addressing only his supporters, not the country. Polls find Trump’s approval rating to be high among Republicans but it generally ranges between about 35% and 45% among Americans overall.

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TRUMP: “We have lost 500 Billion Dollars a year, for many years, on Crazy Trade with China. NO MORE!” — tweet Friday.

THE FACTS: That’s wrong. When sizing up the trade deficit, Trump always ignores trade in services — where the U.S. runs a surplus with China — and speaks only of goods. Even in that context, he misstated the imbalance.

The U.S. trade deficit with China last year was $378.6 billion, not $500 billion.

On goods alone, the deficit was $419.2 billion.

Trump is also misleading when he puts the deficit in that ballpark for many years. It’s true the imbalance has long been lopsided. But the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office notes that exports of goods to China have increased by nearly 73% since 2008 and U.S. exports to China overall are up 527% since 2001.

Nor is the trade gap a “loss” in a pure sense. U.S. consumers and businesses get electronics, furniture, clothing and other goods in return for their money. They are buying things, not losing cash.

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TRUMP: “Tariffs will bring in FAR MORE wealth to our Country than even a phenomenal deal of the traditional kind. Also, much easier & quicker to do. Our Farmers will do better, faster, and starving nations can now be helped. Waivers on some products will be granted, or go to new source!” — tweet Friday.

THE FACTS: In addition to repeating the canard that China pays the tariffs, he’s failing to account for the damage that tariffs can do.

By most private estimates, a trade war leads to slower growth rather than the prosperity that Trump is promising. The president’s tweet also goes beyond past claims that tariffs are simply a negotiating tactic to force better terms with China. Trump appears to be suggesting that a tariff increase would generate revenues that could then be spent on farm products and infrastructure, something that might in theory require support from Congress.

But on their own, tariffs are a clear drag on growth.

Analysts at the consultancy Oxford Economics estimate that implementing and maintaining the latest increase would trim U.S. gross domestic product by 0.3%, or $62 billion, in 2020. This would be equal to a loss of about $490 per household.

Economists at Nomura note that gross domestic product this year could take a hit of as much as 0.4% if Trump expands the taxes to all Chinese imports as business confidence slumped and financial conditions tightened.

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ECONOMY

TRUMP: “And our unemployment numbers are the best in 51 years. And for certain groups, … women is now 71 years.” — remarks Monday to the U.S. Military Academy football team.

THE FACTS: The unemployment rate for women is solid, but it’s not the best in 71 years.

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TRUMP, boasting that his economic record has delivered the “highest income ever in history for the different groups — highest income.” — Panama City Beach, Florida, rally Wednesday.

THE FACTS: Not so. He did not achieve the best income numbers for all the racial groups. Both African Americans and Asian Americans had higher income prior to the Trump administration.

The median income last year for a black household was $40,258, according to the Census Bureau. That’s below a 2000 peak of $42,348 and also statistically no better than 2016, President Barack Obama’s last year in office.

Many economists view the continued economic growth since the middle of 2009, in Obama’s first term, as the primary explanation for recent hiring and income gains. More important, there are multiple signs that the racial wealth gap is now worsening even as unemployment rates have come down.

As for Asian Americans, the median income for a typical household last year was $81,331. It was $83,182 in 2016.

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RUSSIA INVESTIGATION

TRUMP, on his son Donald Trump Jr., who was subpoenaed by the GOP-led Senate intelligence committee to answer additional questions: “My son was totally exonerated by Mueller.” — remarks to reporters Thursday.

THE FACTS: The report does not exonerate Trump Jr.

Special counsel Robert Mueller looked into a potential criminal conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign and said the investigation did not collect sufficient evidence to establish criminal charges on that front.

For example, the report cited the case of a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting involving Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer who was said to have dirt on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Mueller said he considered bringing charges against Trump’s son and others but ultimately wasn’t sure if he could prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that they knew the actions were illegal. The meeting had raised questions about whether Trump Jr. and others violated the federal ban on foreign contributions to American political campaigns.

Mueller noted some Trump campaign officials, including Trump Jr., had declined to testify while others had provided incomplete or false testimony, making it difficult to get a complete picture of what happened during the 2016 campaign.

The special counsel wrote that he “cannot rule out the possibility” that unavailable information could have cast a different light on the investigation’s findings.

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TRUMP, on Mueller’s report: “No collusion. No obstruction. No anything. Two years on a witch hunt.” — Florida rally Wednesday.

TRUMP: “So this comes back and it comes back totally exonerating Donald Trump and a lot of other people. ” — remarks Thursday.

THE FACTS: He’s incorrect to say Mueller’s investigation did not find anything; it found plenty. Nor does the report “totally” exonerate Trump, instead specifically leaving open the question of whether his efforts to undermine the Russian investigation might have obstructed justice.

The two-year investigation produced charges against nearly three dozen people, among them senior Trump campaign operatives and 25 Russians, as it shed light on a brazen Russian assault on the American political system.

The investigation did not establish a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia and it reached no conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice. Yet it described his campaign as eager to exploit the release of hacked Democratic emails to hurt rival Hillary Clinton and it exposed lies by Trump aides aimed at covering up their Russia-related contacts.

According to the report, Mueller’s team declined to make a prosecutorial judgment on whether to charge partly because of a Justice Department legal opinion that said sitting presidents shouldn’t be indicted.

Instead, the report factually laid out instances in which Trump might have obstructed justice, leaving it open for Congress to take up the matter or for prosecutors to do so once Trump leaves office.

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HURRICANE AID

TRUMP: “Puerto Rico got $91 billion and I understand they don’t like me. It’s the most money we’ve ever given to anybody. We’ve never given $91 billion to a state.” — Florida rally.

TRUMP: “Puerto Rico has been given more money by Congress for Hurricane Disaster Relief, 91 Billion Dollars, than any State in the history of the U.S.” — tweet Monday.

THE FACTS: His number is wrong, as is his assertion that the U.S. territory has set some record for federal disaster aid. Congress has so far distributed only about $11 billion for Puerto Rico, not $91 billion.

He’s stuck to his figure for some time. The White House has said the estimate includes about $50 billion in expected future disaster disbursements that could span decades, along with $41 billion approved.

That $50 billion in additional money is speculative. It is based on Puerto Rico’s eligibility for federal emergency disaster funds for years ahead, involving calamities that haven’t happened.

That money would require future appropriations by Congress.

Even if correct, $91 billion would not be the most ever provided for hurricane rebuilding efforts. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 cost the U.S government more than $120 billion — the bulk of it going to Louisiana.

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IMMIGRATION

TRUMP, claiming countries are taking advantage of the U.S. diversity visa lottery program: “They’re giving us some rough people.” — Florida rally.

THE FACTS: A perpetual falsehood from the president. Countries don’t nominate their citizens for the program. They don’t get to select people they’d like to get rid of.

Foreigners apply for the visas on their own. Under the program, citizens of countries named by the U.S. can bid for visas if they have enough education or work experience in desired fields. Out of that pool of qualified applicants, the State Department randomly selects a much smaller pool of tentative winners. Not all winners will have visas approved because they still must compete for a smaller number of slots by getting their applications in quickly.

Those who are ultimately offered visas still need to go through background checks, like other immigrants.

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VETERANS

TRUMP, describing how veterans used to wait weeks and months for a VA appointment: “For the veterans, we passed VA Choice. … (Now) they immediately go outside, find a good local doctor, get themselves fixed up and we pay the bill.” — Florida rally.

THE FACTS: No, veterans still must wait for weeks for a medical appointment.

While it’s true the VA recently announced plans to expand eligibility for veterans in the Veterans Choice program, it remains limited due in part to uncertain money and longer waits.

The program currently allows veterans to see doctors outside the VA system if they must wait more than 30 days for an appointment or drive more than 40 miles to a VA facility. Under new rules to take effect in June, veterans will have that option for a private doctor if their VA wait is only 20 days (28 for specialty care) or their drive is only 30 minutes.

But the expanded Choice eligibility may do little to provide immediate help.

That’s because veterans often must wait even longer for an appointment in the private sector. In 2018, 34 percent of all VA appointments were with outside physicians, down from 36 percent in 2017. Then-Secretary David Shulkin said VA care was “often 40 percent better in terms of wait times” compared with the private sector.

Choice came into effect after some veterans died while waiting months for appointments at the Phoenix VA medical center.

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TRUMP, on the Choice program: “It’s a great thing for our veterans. They’ve been trying to get it passed for 44 years. We got it passed.” — Florida rally.

THE FACTS: He’s incorrect. Congress approved the private-sector Veterans Choice health program in 2014 and President Barack Obama signed it into law. Trump is expanding it.

CROWD SIZE

TRUMP, on Democrat Beto O’Rourke’s crowd size at a Texas rally before he launched his presidential campaign: “He had like 502 people.” — Florida rally.

THE FACTS: Trump sells short O’Rourke’s crowd, though it has grown in his mind since he claimed the Democrat only got 200-300 at his El Paso gathering in February. Trump had a rally there the same day.

O’Rourke’s march and rally drew thousands. Police did not give an estimate, but his crowd filled nearly all of a baseball field from the stage at the infield to the edge of outfield and was tightly packed.

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Associated Press writers Josh Boak, Eric Tucker, Christopher Rugaber, Paul Wiseman and Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.

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