Donald Trump in Bloomberg.com

On War & Peace: Countries hosting US troops should pay for them

The administration is drawing up demands that Germany, Japan and any other country hosting U.S. troops pay the full price of American soldiers deployed on their soil--plus 50 percent or more for the privilege of hosting them. His insistence on it almost derailed recent talks with South Korea over the status of 28,000 U.S. troops in the country when he overruled his negotiators with a note to National Security Advisor John Bolton saying, "We want cost plus 50." Source: Bloomberg News, "Huge Premium" on 2020 presidential hopefuls Mar 8, 2019

On Immigration: One year in: only 200 feet of prototype order wall built

Almost a year into Donald Trump's presidency, the border wall he passionately promoted throughout his election campaign amounts to eight prototypes, no more than 30 feet long each, sitting in a desert outside San Diego.

No funding has been appropriated by Congress to advance the project beyond the testing phase. "We're calling on Congress to fund the border wall, which we're getting very close to," Trump said Dec. 20 during a Cabinet meeting at the White House. "We have some wonderful prototypes that have been put up. And I may be going there, very shortly, to look at them in their final form."

The White House didn't respond to requests for comment. Trump has occasionally vented frustration with the pace of progress on the wall, but has nonetheless projected confidence that it will eventually be built. "We're going to get the wall," Trump said Dec. 8 at the White House. "If we don't get the wall, then I got a lot of very unhappy people, starting with me."

Source: Bloomberg News on Trump's promise on Border Wall Dec 26, 2017

On Free Trade: FactCheck: NAFTA reduced U.S. jobs by 1%, not 30% or 50%

Trump said, "You go to New England, Ohio, Pennsylvania, you go anywhere you want, Secretary Clinton, and you will see devastation where manufacturing is down 30, 40, sometimes 50 percent. NAFTA is the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere but certainly ever signed in this country."

Bloomberg Fact check: NAFTA had a modest effect on manufacturing jobs. An Economic Policy Institute analysis says manufacturing jobs dropped in the 1990s from 17.9 million to 17.6 million.

Trump said of Hillary, "She's been doing this for 30 years. And why hasn't she made the agreements better? The NAFTA agreement is defective," [implying that Hillary and Bill Clinton held primary responsibility for NAFTA]. Chicago Tribune fact-checkers noted that while NAFTA was signed by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, it was largely negotiated under the administration of George H.W. Bush.

Source: Bloomberg News Fact-check on First 2016 Presidential Debate Sep 27, 2016

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Page last updated: Dec 15, 2021