Is that true about Portland, the site of ongoing police protests? No, Portland's Sheriff says it's not true. Excerpts from a 9/30 article in "The Hill" with headline "Sheriff from Portland quickly refutes Trump claim of endorsement":
"The sheriff of Multnomah County, Oregon, which includes Portland, quickly refuted President Trump's claim of an endorsement during Tuesday night's first general election presidential debate. 'I have never supported Donald Trump and will never support him,' Sheriff Mike Reese responded on Twitter. The sheriff added: 'Donald Trump has made my job a hell of a lot harder since he started talking about Portland, but I never thought he'd try to turn my wife against me!' "
BIDEN: [Trump's] own former spokesperson said, "Riots and chaos and violence help his cause." That's what this is all about.
TRUMP: I don't know who said that.
BIDEN: I do. [Former White House advisor] Kellyanne Conway.
TRUMP: I don't think she said that.
[So we found this article from Business Insider magazine on Aug 27, 2020, headlined, "Kellyanne Conway says 'chaos and violence' after the police shooting of Jacob Blake is good for Trump's reelection"; excerpts:
"President Trump's close adviser, Kellyanne Conway, told Fox News that 'chaos and anarchy' following police shootings are good for Trump's reelection effort. 'The more chaos and anarchy and vandalism and violence reigns, the better it is for the very clear choice on who's best on public safety and law and order,' Conway said. Conway was referring to protests following the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, in Kenosha, Wisconsin this week.
TRUMP: Of course I do. Many whites are killed also. You have to say that.
WALLACE: I understand that.
TRUMP: I mean, many, many whites are killed. This is going on for decades. This is going on for a long time, long before I got here.
WALLACE: Why is it so bad right now?
TRUMP: Biden wants to defund the police.
Q: No, sir, he does not.
TRUMP: Look. He signed a charter with Bernie Sanders.
WALLACE: He says defund the police?
TRUMP: He says defund the police. They talk about abolishing the police.
(WALLACE VOICE OVER: The White House never sent us evidence the Bernie-Biden platform calls for defunding or abolishing police--because there is none. It calls for increased funding for police departments--that meet certain standards. Biden has called for redirecting some police funding for related programs--like mental health counseling.
Our conclusion: Trump was involved in guiding Trump U in the same manner he guides any real estate development project. Trump doesn't do any construction on his buildings: he designs them and oversees implementation. Similarly, he designed a lot of Trump U and oversaw its operations.
One strong piece of evidence is the location of Trump U--at 40 Wall Street. That building is featured in its own chapter in Donald's book "The Art of the Comeback" (1997)--Donald worked for years on that building. Donald located Trump U at the jewel in the crown of the Trump empire--he meant Trump U not as just a money-making venture, but as a showpiece for his name. Trump U may have failed, but Donald Trump intended it to succeed.
FactCheck by Reuters: Wind generates 20% of total electricity in Texas, where natural gas supplies 47%, coal supplies 20% and solar supplies 1%
FactCheck by OnTheIssues: The 2021 Texas power crisis was caused by sub-zero temperatures coupled with fossil fuel power plants that had never been winterized. It's true that some wind turbines froze, but so did coal, gas, and oil generators, which account for 70% of power generation. The same problem occurred in 2011 (and is expected every ten years or so), but the state of Texas ignored the recommendations made then.
Is that true? We researched whether any hybrid vans are available in America. Technically, Trump is correct; but in the car showroom, Obama is correct.
Trump is technically correct if one differentiates "vans" from "SUVs". Hybrid SUVs ARE available in America: the Chevy Tahoe and the Toyota Highlander both seat families of 7. There are hybrid vans available outside the US: the Toyota Estima (seats 7) is a hybrid available in Japan and Hong Kong. We would interpret Obama's statement as meaning "encourage Toyota to import that van if the SUV won't suit you." We would not interpret Obama's comment as "clueless
We checked the NWS maps, and several from 8/30 indeed showed Alabama in the hurricane's predicted path. For example, from the NWS: "Aug. 30, 5 p.m., advisory #026: The track forecast cone just clips the southeast corner of Alabama." The hurricane turned north instead, so by 8/31 Alabama was no longer at risk.
By 9/1, Trump was citing outdated information, but Trump was correct in saying that Alabama had been at-risk in some models. When Trump went on TV with his Sharpie-enhanced map, he showed a prediction that was outdated by 9/1--but Trump did not falsify any NWS maps.
The MIT Atlas indicates that Trump is incorrect: "The top export destinations of North Korea are China ($2.67B), India ($71M), Pakistan ($40M), Nigeria ($20M) and Brazil ($19M). The top import origins are China ($3.49B), Thailand ($107M), Russia ($82M), India ($75M) and Singapore ($48M)." Iran is not in the top five trading partners of North Korea, whether counting exports or imports.
Maybe Trump meant that North Korea is on the top list of Iran's trading partners? The MIT Atlas indicates that Trump is also incorrect if that's what he meant "The top export destinations of Iran are China ($25B), India ($10B), Japan ($6B), South Korea ($4B) and Turkey ($1B). The top import origins are China ($24B), India ($4B), South Korea ($4B), Turkey ($4B) & Germany ($3B)."
We note that South Korea is on Iran's list of top trading partners--not North Korea!
OnTheIssues Fact Check: Is that true? The United States Senate unanimously supported declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel? Despite the controversy--and possible war with the Palestinians--that such a declaration could cause? Yes, we checked; the Senate voted 90-0-10 (unanimous with ten abstentions or absences). The resolution said, "June 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War and the reunification of the city of Jerusalem. The Senate reaffirms the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 as United States law, and calls upon the President and all United States officials to abide by its provisions." The 1995 law calls for moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, including a progress report every 6 months. President Trump is now implementing the 1995 law, 23 years later and 46 progress report due dates later.
Yes, for as far back as we have records: in his 2015 book, in his 2011 book, and in his 2000 book. Some sample excerpts:
Furthermore, a better measurement of testing would count a per capita basis, the number of tests per million population, as World-o-Meter does. On that scale, the USA is in 39th place, just behind Germany, well behind Russia & Italy.
Wolff evidently is unaware that Trump wrote a policy book in 2000, The America We Deserve, in his run for the Reform Party presidential nomination. Trump fully laid out his immigration stance: America first; make legal immigration hard; control borders against illegal immigrants.
Trump has no bewilderment; you might disagree with Trump's stances, but they have remained unchanged for 18 years now. Wolff is particularly wrong in characterizing Trump's "earliest political outings" as around 2008--Trump was fully engaged in 2000. But people like Wolff weren't listening then!
We fact-checked and found that Trump's daughter Ivanka, converted to Judaism in 2009 and is raising Donald's grandchildren under Jewish tradition. According to Vogue magazine (Feb. 25, 2015), Ivanka in 2007 met her future husband Jared Kushner, who is an Orthodox Jew and a real estate developer in New York. Ivanka converted to Judaism prior to their marriage in 2009, and they keep a kosher home and, Ivanak says, "we observe the Sabbath; from Friday to Saturday we don't make phone calls. It's an amazing thing when you're so connected-- for [our daughter] Arabella to know that she has me, undivided, one day a week We don't do anything except play with each other, hang out with one another, go on walks together. Pure family.
KAINE: But why won't he release his tax returns?
PENCE: His tax returns showed he went through a very difficult time, but he used the tax code just the way it's supposed to be used. And he did it brilliantly.
KAINE: How do you know that? You haven't seen his tax returns.
PENCE: Because he's created a business that's worth billions of dollars today. This whole riff about people saying he didn't pay taxes for years--Donald Trump has created tens of thousands of jobs. And he's paid payroll taxes, sales taxes, property taxes...
OTI FactCheck: Trump refers to the total number of tests--the US is indeed first. The US is not first in testing per capita. For countries over a million population in early 2021:
| Country | Tests (millions) | Tests per million population |
|---|---|---|
| UAE | 29M | 2.9/M |
| Denmark | 15M | 2.7/M |
| Bahrain | 3M | 1.7/M |
| Cyprus | 2M | 1.3/M |
| Israel | 12M | 1.2/M |
| UK | 83M | 1.2/M |
| Singapore | 7M | 1.2/M |
| USA | 338M | 1.0/M |
In January 2018, a national discussion was under way about the presidents fitness for office--specifically, his mental acuity and physiological health. "Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart," he continued. "I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star to President of the United States (on my first try).
Is it true that Trump became president on his first try? No! He ran in 1999-2000 (see his Jan. 2000 campaign book, The America We Deserve), for the Reform Party nomination, and ran in 2011-2012 (see his Dec. 2011 campaign book, Time to Get Tough), for the Republican Party nomination. The mainstream press forgets those two campaigns, and Trump capitalized on that complicity in 2016--which was his third try, not his first!
[OnTheIssues fact-check: Is that true? No]: Kiplinger.com analysis (9/18/20) of Biden's tax plan: He wants to raise the highest personal income rate back up to 39.6% (it was lowered to 37% by the 2017 tax reform law), cap itemized deductions for wealthier Americans, limit "like-kind exchanges" by real estate investors, and phase-out the 20% deduction for qualified business income for upper-income taxpayers. He won't raise taxes for anyone making less than $400,000, though.
Trump indeed recently said, "With Iran, when they circle our beautiful destroyers with their little boats, and they make gestures at our people that they shouldn't be allowed to make, they will be shot out of the water." Wonkette.com reports that on Sept. 4, seven Iranian Revolutionary Guard patrol boats approached the USS Firebolt in the Persian Gulf; one Iranian boat came within 100 yards of the USS Firebolt. Wonkette.com concludes that Trump's tough talk was cheered by the crowd at the Values Voter Summit, which chanted "USA! USA!" and "Shoot them!"
[OnTheIssues FactCheck: Trump is referring to the House committee investigating the insurrection of January 6. As for the 2020 election, neither Trump nor any of his partisans have produced any evidence that it was in any way "rigged": numerous courts have studied several states results and found no valid evidence that would alter the election results].
FactCheck by The Hill: More than 30,000 voters who had been registered members of the Republican Party have changed their voter registration in the weeks after pro-Trump supporters attacked the Capitol. The massive wave of defections is a virtually unprecedented exodus.
[OnTheIssues FactCheck: In fact, Biden did not use Trump's name at all in his speech "I Fear For Our Democracy", referring 16 times to the "former president."]
There are 7 countries with "high application" of capital punishment for drug offenses, according to hri.global. Do those 7 countries have the fewest drug problems? We'll compare deaths from drugs per million people, from WorldLifeExpectancy.com--there's no pattern:
FactCheck:Wikipedia reports 4 major newspapers have endorsed Trump while 50+ have endorsed Harris (we define "major" as "cited often by OnTheIssues"):
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The above quotations are from Presidential Primary Fact Checking by OnTheIssues.org.
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