CNN
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At the dawn of a new Trump era lies the same old Trump.
The day before his second inauguration, President-elect Donald Trump held a campaign-style rally at a Washington arena, repeating some of his campaign’s most frequent false claims while sprinkling in new ones.
Below, we fact-check some of his claims.
Trump wins in Florida: Trump correctly said he won Florida by 13 percentage points in the 2024 election. But he added: “No one has ever done that.” That’s wrong. Republican presidential candidates Richard Nixon (1972), Ronald Reagan (1980 and 1984), and George H.W. In addition, they won at Florida State by more than 13 points. Mr. Nixon, for example, won by a margin of 44 percentage points.
2020 Election: President Trump lamented what would have happened “if there was no fraud” in the 2020 election, adding, “But there was fraud.” And later in his speech he said, “They rigged the election.” This is his usual lie. Trump legally lost to Joe Biden in a free and fair election.
Youth Vote: Trump falsely claimed he won the 2024 youth vote by 36 points. He didn’t say how he defined the “youth vote” (CNN asked the transition team for clarification), but any reasonable definition leaves nothing to be said about his claim. There is no basis for this. Although younger voters, especially young men, have shifted toward Trump compared to the 2020 election, Vice President Kamala Harris has a 54% to 43% lead among voters ages 18 to 24, according to exit poll data released by CNN. Among other voters, he won 53% to 45%. Among voters aged 25 to 29, the percentage was 51% to 45%, and among voters aged 30 to 39, the percentage was 51% to 45%. Even if Harris’ actual lead was smaller (exit poll data is often flawed), there is no indication that Trump had an edge over Harris among young voters.
Pennsylvania in 2024: President Trump praised billionaire supporter Elon Musk’s campaign in Pennsylvania before claiming that he was “ultimately able to win Pennsylvania in a landslide.” . While the phrase “by a landslide” is too vague to permit a final verdict on the facts, it’s worth noting that Trump defeated Harris in Pennsylvania by less than 2 percentage points. .
Small business optimism: President Trump claimed that since the 2024 election, “small business optimism has increased by a record 41 points, the highest in 39 years.” It’s true that small business optimism has soared since President Trump’s victory, but if President Trump was referring to the oft-cited NFIB Small Business Optimism Index The “overpriced” part is not true. (CNN asked the transition team for clarification.) In less than seven years, the index has soared to its highest level since October 2018.
President Trump’s claim about the 41-point increase appears to refer to one component of the optimism index: the percentage of small business owners who expect the economy to improve. This measure rose a net 41 percentage points from October before the election to November after the election.
President Trump’s Favorite Immigration Graph: President Trump displayed a long-debunked graph of the number of migrants at the U.S. southern border and called attention to the red arrow at the bottom. This graph claims to show that illegal immigration was at a historically low level at the time President Trump left office in 2021.
However, the arrow does not actually point to the time when President Trump leaves office. In reality, it refers to April 2020, when President Trump still had more than eight months left in his first term and global migration was slowing to a trickle due to the COVID-19 pandemic. are. After hitting a nearly three-year low (not an all-time low) in April 2020, the number of migrants at the southern border increased every month until the end of President Trump’s term.
‘Congo’ and Immigration: President Trump reiterated unsubstantiated claims that foreign countries are intentionally emptying prisons in order to bring criminals into the United States as immigrants, saying, ‘Congo is emptying prisons. He is enthusiastic,” he added. Experts from both the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring Congo told CNN that there is no evidence for these claims, that Trump’s own presidential campaign has not been able to substantiate them, and that governments have also told CNN that there is no evidence for the claims. He said there was no basis for it.
Venezuela, Prisons, Immigration: President Trump reiterated his claim that Venezuela has “emptied our prisons.” President Trump has not corroborated this claim, and experts told CNN, PolitiFact, and FactCheck.org that they were unaware of any evidence for it.
“There is no evidence that the Venezuelan government is emptying prisons or mental health facilities and sending them abroad, to the United States or any other country,” said Roberto Briseño-Leon, founder and director of the Venezuelan Observatory. said. Violence, an independent organization that tracks domestic violence, said in an email to CNN in June after President Trump made similar claims.
Trump and the military: Trump talked about military equipment, repeating the false claim that “we rebuilt the entire military” during his first term. “This claim is far from the truth. The military owns tens of thousands of pieces of equipment, much of it pre-dates the Trump administration,” said Dr. expert Todd Harrison told CNN. November 2023 after President Trump revised this claim.
Iran and terrorist organizations: During his first term, President Trump repeatedly falsely claimed that Iran had “no money for Hezbollah, no money for Hamas.” Four experts told CNN in 2024 that Iranian funding for these groups declined in the second half of his presidential term, largely because his sanctions against Iran had a major negative impact on Iran’s economy. However, funding did not completely stop, four experts told CNN in 2024. The Trump administration said in 2020 that Iran continues to finance terrorist organizations, including Hezbollah. You can read a longer fact check here.
Harrison said in an email at the time: “Furthermore, the process of acquiring new equipment for the military is slow and takes years. It is impossible to replace even half of the military’s equipment inventory in one presidential term.”
This story has been updated with additional information.