Trump’s False Claims on Birthright Citizenship and Other Issues
In a Meet the Press interview aired on Sunday, President-elect Donald Trump repeated several misleading and inaccurate statements. One of his key false claims was that the U.S. is the only country with birthright citizenship, a notion he has repeatedly asserted in past interviews. According to Trump’s statement, under the 14th Amendment, anyone born in the U.S. automatically becomes a citizen, regardless of their parents’ citizenship. Trump suggested that the U.S. is alone in this policy, but this is incorrect. In fact, over 30 countries, including Canada, Mexico, and many nations in South America, offer birthright citizenship.
Trump also revisited other misstatements:
- Crime Rates: Trump claimed that crime is at an all-time high, which contradicts current data. Both violent and property crime rates have significantly dropped since the 1990s, and crime rates in 2023 continued to show a decline.
- Tariffs: Trump insisted that the tariffs imposed during his presidency “cost Americans nothing.” However, numerous studies have shown that these tariffs were mostly borne by American consumers, as U.S. importers paid the tariffs, not foreign exporters.
- Inflation: The former president claimed that inflation was absent during his presidency, a statement that is inaccurate. The inflation rate during his term was approximately 8%, and inflation surged again during Biden’s first two years, peaking at 9.1% in 2022.
- The 2020 Election: Trump reiterated his baseless claim that he was the real winner of the 2020 election, despite the absence of evidence supporting his assertion.
- Immigrants and Crime: Trump repeated the misleading figure of “13,099 murderers” allegedly released into the U.S., a number that misrepresents immigrants with homicide convictions over decades, not just in the past three years.
- Venezuela and Migration: Trump again pushed the narrative that Venezuela had emptied its prisons to send criminals to the U.S. This claim remains unsupported by evidence.
- European Union Trade: Trump falsely stated that European countries do not accept U.S. cars or food products. In reality, the U.S. exported billions in goods to the EU, including vehicles, agricultural products, and other commodities.
- Obamacare: Trump inaccurately claimed credit for “saving Obamacare” despite his administration’s repeated efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.
These claims contribute to a pattern of misleading statements that Trump has made over the years, with many having been debunked by fact-checking organizations.
