Fact Checker: Trump surpasses 3,000 false or misleading claims

May 04, 2018

Democracy Dies in Darkness

The truth behind the rhetoric

Trump surpasses 3,000 false or misleading claims

If we ran a Hall of Fame for Pinocchios, the president might very well be our first inductee. The Fact Checker’s database that analyzes, categorizes and tracks every one of Trump’s suspect statements keeps growing. Our latest update includes 3,001 false or misleading claims Trump made since the day he took office to the end of April.

When we first started this project for the president’s first 100 days, Trump averaged 4.9 fishy claims a day. The rate has accelerated over time — Trump is now averaging nearly 6.5 claims a day.

Unlike other politicians, Trump is prone to repeating his Pinocchio-worthy claims, which drives up the count. Some of his greatest hits include the false claim that he passed the biggest tax cut in history (72 times), his claim that the Russia probe is a made-up controversy (53 times), and his claim that Democrats do not really care about the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that Trump terminated (41 times). You can find all 3,001 claims (and counting!) in our searchable graphic.

The House Intelligence Committee report on Russian election interference includes an intriguing finding: “Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, now a CNN national security analyst, provided inconsistent testimony to the Committee about his contacts with the media, including CNN.”

This set off speculation in right-leaning media that Clapper pushed then-FBI director James B. Comey to brief President-elect Donald Trump about the dossier with salacious material about Trump in Russia. As the theory goes, Clapper then tipped CNN’s Jake Tapper about Comey’s briefing, so CNN would have a hook to report on the dossier’s existence. CNN’s reporting then prompted BuzzFeed to publish the document in full. Clapper was supposedly rewarded for his assistance with a CNN gig.

The whole narrative hinges on the idea that Clapper talked to Tapper, “in early January 2017,” around the time Comey briefed President-elect Trump. But it all falls apart if you read Clapper’s testimony carefully. He told the committee he discussed the dossier “after it was out,” but did not clarify exactly when. It seems the majority assumed Clapper meant January 2017. However, he told the Fact Checker he had never interacted with Tapper until May 14 — months after he had left government. It’s a case study in sloppily connecting the dots. Although we withheld Pinocchios, it’s clear the Republican majority's report should be corrected.