Trump has doubled a previously exaggerated claim about the permitting process for roads and infrastructure taking a decade.
WHAT WAS SAID
“Highways would take 21 years to get approved. We have it down to two years, and it’s going to be one year very shortly.”
— President Donald Trump, at a campaign rally Thursday night in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
THE FACTS
This is exaggerated.
Trump has doubled a previously exaggerated claim about the permitting process for roads and infrastructure taking a decade. Average wait times for a permit ranged from three to six years from the fiscal years 1999 to 2016, according to the Federal Highway Administration.
In fiscal 2017, the average wait time was three years and 10 months, almost double Trump’s claim of a two-year period. (Data for fiscal 2018, which ends in September, is not yet available.)
WHAT WAS SAID
“Our first lottery winner — let’s see, he has seven convictions for theft. He’s killed nine people. And we’re getting him the hell out of our country and giving them to the stupid politicians that have been running the United States for many years.'”
THE FACTS
False.
Trump has previously said that other countries were not “giving us their best” through the diversity visa lottery program. He has now escalated that unsubstantiated — and vague — claim into a false one by suggesting that foreign governments are sending murderers through the program.
As The New York Times has previously explained, millions of individuals enter the lottery of their own volition, not because they were selected by a foreign government. A computer picks winners at random and, before receiving a visa, the people chosen must undergo a screening process that bars criminals.
WHAT WAS SAID
“Chain migration. And this was a Schumer deal. Schumer wanted this.”
THE FACTS
False.
Trump is likely confusing the diversity lottery program with “chain migration” or family-based immigration. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the Senate minority leader, sponsored what became the diversity visa lottery in 1990, but family-based immigration has been a facet of U.S. immigration policy long before Schumer’s political career began.
Family relationship have been a basis for admitting new immigrants since the 1920s, according to the Congressional Research Service, and the United States began promoting family reunification in 1952. This established a hierarchy that prioritized family members like spouses and children over siblings.
WHAT WAS SAID
Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Bruce Springsteen “were drawing crowds smaller than my crowds.”
THE FACTS
False.
This is not the first time that Trump has compared crowd size to Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s, although it appears to be the first time he has brought the Boss into the mix.
Trump has claimed 20,000 to 49,000 people attended his biggest rallies during the 2016 presidential campaign. Even taking Trump at his word, those figures pale in comparison to audiences that have assembled to hear Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Springsteen perform.
For example, Springsteen sold out a two-night show in May 2016 in Dublin, drawing an average of 80,000 people to each show. This June, Beyoncé and Jay-Z performed for a crowd of more than 57,000 in Berlin. (In addition, it should be noted that fans purchase tickets to hear the musicians in question, while Trump’s rallies are free.)
OTHER CLAIMS
Trump also repeated several other claims that The Times has previously debunked:
— He falsely claimed the U.S. Steel Corp. “is opening up seven plants.” (It has not announced a single new plant.)
— He falsely claimed “Russia is very unhappy that Trump won.” (Intelligence agencies have said — and President Vladimir Putin of Russia has confirmed — that he preferred Trump to Hillary Clinton.)
— He mischaracterized NATO members as “delinquent” on payments to the alliance. (He is referring to a pledge each member set for spending on its own military.)
— He falsely claimed “NATO funding was going down” before he raised the issue. (Military spending from members has been increasing since 2015.)
— He claimed, with no evidence, that the man charged in the Manhattan truck attack in October brought in “22 relatives.” (This is not possible.)
— He hyperbolically said immigrants arrested on suspicion of crossing the border illegally “never come back” for court dates. (Most do.)
— He exaggerated the number of jobs the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines would bring, estimating 48,000 jobs. (The vast majority are temporary.)
— He misleadingly claimed that “nobody would have believed” how many jobs had been added since his election. (The number added in a comparable period before his election was larger.)
— He falsely claimed to have signed the “biggest tax cuts in the history of our country.” (Several were larger,)
— He misleadingly claimed to have “saved our family farms from the estate tax.” (About 80 family farms and small businesses were affected.)
— He took credit for passing the Veterans Choice Act, which he said other presidents had been trying to pass for 40 years. (It passed in 2014, although he did sign new overhauls,)
Sources: Federal Highway Administration, Congressional Research Service, Billboard, The New York Times
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.