Fact check: 12 completely fictional stories Trump has told in the last month

In fact, former President Donald Trump fills his public statements with fictional stories.

This isn’t traditional political propaganda, nor is it the kind of statistical distortion and exaggeration of accomplishments that political candidates of all stripes engage in. Instead, the Republican presidential nominee is telling colorful lies that have absolutely nothing to do with reality.

Trump’s controversial claim about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, whom he baselessly accused during the September presidential debate of eating people’s dogs and cats, has gotten the most attention. But Trump’s lesser-known recent public appearances, such as rallies and interviews, have also included completely fictional stories.

Here are 11 more examples from the past month alone.

Harris and the military draft

At a rally in Las Vegas last week, Trump claimed that his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, was talking about forcing Americans to serve in the military: “She’s actually talking about bringing back the draft.” She wants to bring back the draft. , enlist your child and put them in a war that never happened. “It should never have happened.”

This is absolutely absurd. Harris is not talking about reenlistment at all.

Harris’ CNN interview

Trump claimed at a Fox News event in Pennsylvania in early September that Harris “had notes” to help him during his televised interview with CNN in late August. He even did an impersonation in which he filmed Harris looking at those notes.

In fact, she had no notes.

Transgender children and schools

At an event hosted by a conservative group in late August, Trump claimed that schools were sending children to undergo gender-confirmation surgeries without their parents’ knowledge. “The transgender issue is unbelievable. Think about it. Your child goes to school and comes home a few days later after having the surgery. The school decides what happens to your child,” he said.

The Trump campaign later told CNN that it had found no examples of this happening anywhere in the United States. Parental consent is required for gender-confirmation surgeries; schools were not performing or approving these surgeries on minors behind their parents’ backs.

Even after the Trump campaign showed it couldn’t prove the story, he repeated it a few days later at a rally in Wisconsin in early September.

Harris and the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Trump recounted live on Fox News in late August how President Joe Biden had sent Harris to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2022 to try to prevent an invasion of Ukraine. Trump claimed that Harris was sent “to meet with Putin in Russia three days before the attack. She went. She made the case—made her case. He attacked three days later. He attacked three days later.” joke.” Trump also gave a version of the story during the September debate.

But that story is also completely false.

Biden never sent Harris to negotiate with Putin — in fact, the Kremlin said in July that Harris and Putin never spoke — and Harris never visited Russia just before the invasion. But in reality, Harris went to a conference in Germany to meet with U.S. allies, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Harris’ identity

Trump claimed at a conference for black journalists in late July that Harris was “just” promoting her Indian heritage, and then “all of a sudden” she “converted” and “became a black person.” Defending that claim, Trump repeated during the September debate that Harris had at one point “stated” that she “wasn’t black.”

None of that is true.

Harris — who grew up in a black community and is a graduate of a historically Black university—has embraced her Black identity since she was young. While she has also spoken fondly of her South Asian heritage, she has never said she is not Black.

Harris’ 2020 primary performance

Trump has repeatedly claimed over the past month that Harris was so unpopular when she ran for president in 2019 that she was the first candidate to drop out of the crowded Democratic primary. “She was one of 22 people who ran. She was the first one to drop out,” he said at a rally in Pennsylvania in late August.

It wasn’t even close.

In fact, 13 other Democratic candidates dropped out of the race before Harris — including the current or former governors of Washington, Montana, and Colorado; the current mayor of New York; and current or former members of the House of Representatives and Senate.

Opinions of Roe v. Wade

Facing intense criticism from Harris and others for appointing three Supreme Court justices who overturned the abortion rights ruling in Roe v. Wade in 2022, Trump has spun a narrative that the unpopular decision was the desire of “everybody” — including “every Democrat.”

“Every Democrat, every Republican, every person wanted to end Roe v. Wade and give it back to the states,” Trump said on Fox News in late August.

That’s not even accurate.

Roe enjoyed consistent support from a majority of the American public and was very popular among Democrats, with 80% or more support among Democrats in many polls.

Elections in California

At a press conference in California in September, Trump claimed that “if I ran with an honest vote counter in California, I would win California, but the votes don’t count honestly.” He gave a more colorful version of this claim in an interview in late August, saying, “If Jesus came down and the vote counter was on, I would win California, right?”

More nonsense.

The votes are counted honestly in California, just like in every other state; Trump loses California because it is a Democratic-majority state that has not run a Republican presidential candidate since 1988. He lost the state in 2020, fair and square, by more than five million votes and more than 29 percentage points.

A ‘Man of the Year’ award in Michigan

Since 2016, Trump has lied about being named Michigan’s “Man of the Year” before entering politics. Media outlets, including CNN, have repeatedly pointed out that Trump did not receive such an award and that it did not even appear to exist. But Trump claimed at an event in Michigan on Tuesday that he has now been exonerated.

“The press said, ‘Oh, that never happened,’” Trump said. “Well, it happened. They found out where it was, but it was about 15 years ago. It’s a beautiful area, but nobody remembers it; no. we always remembered it. All of a sudden, “like a miracle, they found out that it actually existed.”

It’s a lie on top of a lie. The media has found no evidence that Trump received Michigan’s Man of the Year award.

His campaign did not respond Wednesday to a request for clarification on what he was talking about.

Migrants, prisons and ‘the Congo’

For months, Trump has talked about how Congo deliberately emptied prisons to force its criminals to come to the United States as immigrants. “Many prisoners from Congo were released to Africa, cruel prisoners,” he said at an August event in Arizona. At a rally in Pennsylvania the following week, Trump said, “In Congo, in Africa: 22 people were sent to our country.” “Where are you from?” “Congo?” “Prison.”

But Trump has provided no evidence that Congo has actually emptied prisons for immigration purposes. Government officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring Republic of Congo have told CNN that the claim is fictional, and experts in both countries say they have seen no evidence of its veracity, and the Trump campaign has ignored requests for further evidence.

The jobs revision

After the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics announced in August that its annual review of employment data found that the economy added about 818,000 fewer jobs than initially reported in the 12 months ending in March, Trump recounted how the administration planned to announce that downward revision. After Election Day, November 5, but was forced to do so before the election because of a “whistleblower”—a “national leaker.”

Another fabrication. The BLS regularly releases revised preliminary data in August, and a few weeks ago revealed the exact date that this particular data would be released—August 21.

William Beach, the conservative economist appointed by Trump to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, wrote on social media: “For those who think the big revision of the BLS employment numbers was ‘leaked’ and was supposed to come out after the election, remember that the BLS announces Always Reviewing Drafts in August and announced this year’s date of August 21, several months ago. It is important to check your facts.