Asked whether he believed U.S. intelligence agencies or Russian President Vladimir Putin on whether Russia meddled in the 2016 election, President Donald Trump declined to directly respond. Instead, he raised questions about the Russia investigation.
An ad from a Democratic group warned that the president’s Supreme Court nominee could eliminate preexisting condition protections under the Affordable Care Act, a move that “would take us back to a time when insurance companies could deny you coverage.” But that depends on who “you” are.
Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison tweeted that the Supreme Court “ratified Donald Trump’s ‘total and complete shutdown’ of Muslims entry into the United States.” That is a Trump quote from the presidential campaign. But his actual executive actions didn’t go that far.
Much of the political rhetoric in recent weeks has focused on illegal immigration. We thought it would be helpful to take a step back and look at some measures of illegal immigration in a larger context.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions now says that the administration “never really intended” to separate families as part of its zero tolerance policy on illegal immigration. But Sessions had previously acknowledged that that’s what would happen under this policy.
During the ongoing family-separation controversy, President Donald Trump and others have made false or misleading statements on several immigration issues.
In defending its “zero tolerance” border policy that has caused the separation of families, the Trump administration has argued that the Obama and Bush administrations did this too. That’s misleading. Experts say there were some separations under previous administrations, but no blanket policy to prosecute parents and, therefore, separate them from their children.
President Donald Trump said he thinks former FBI Director James Comey committed “very criminal acts.” But the facts don’t support the president’s opinion. Trump also claimed the inspector general’s report “totally exonerates” him, but the report didn’t evaluate the Russia investigation.
The official U.S. statistics on trade with Canada show that the United States has a trade surplus with our neighbor to the north. The U.S. surplus was $2.8 billion in 2017, according to the Census Bureau. Yet, President Donald Trump has claimed that the U.S. has “close to $100 billion a year loss with Canada” or $17 billion “minimum.”
President Donald Trump implied that his administration’s funding to fight the opioid epidemic had caused the “numbers” to come “way down.” But the most recent data we have on opioid-related deaths — which are still rising — and prescriptions for opioids — which have been declining in recent years — predate the funding the president touted.