In this week’s fact-checking video, CNN’s Jake Tapper and FactCheck.org review the accuracy of President Donald Trump’s tweet about the modernization of the U.S. nuclear weapons program.
Video: Trump on U.S. Nuclear Arsenal
Locations: International
Earth Won’t Go Dark for Days
Q: Did NASA confirm that there will be 15 days of darkness on Earth in November?
A: No. Variations of that false claim have been circulating since at least 2015.
CO2: Friend or Foe to Agriculture?
Rep. Lamar Smith said climate change “alarmists” ignore the “positive impacts” of more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, such as increased food production and quality. But the impact of increased CO2 levels on agriculture is more complicated than that — and, on balance, likely negative, particularly in the future.
Trump Misfires on Nuclear Weapons Boast
A day after he threatened North Korea with “fire and fury,” President Donald Trump distorted the facts when he boasted that his “first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal” and “it is now far stronger and more powerful than ever.”
Overstated Funding for Overseas Mosques
Q: Did the Obama administration spend $770 million restoring overseas mosques?
A: That claim is based on a misleading television news report about a 20-year funding project that ended well before Barack Obama became president.
Video: Trump on Border Apprehensions
In this week’s fact-checking video, CNN’s Jake Tapper and FactCheck.org explain why President Donald Trump was wrong when he said southwest border apprehensions increased under past administrations.
Trump’s Border Boast
Boasting about a decline in apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border on his watch, President Donald Trump falsely claimed that border apprehensions “didn’t go down” under “past administrations.” Actually, they declined in 10 of the last 16 fiscal years.
Obama Didn’t Attend G-20 in 2017
Q: Did former President Barack Obama follow President Donald Trump to the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany?
A: No. That claim was made on websites that don’t “make any warranties” about the reliability of their information.
Trump’s Misleading Defense of Son
President Donald Trump emphasized that an attorney who met with his eldest son in 2016 was a “Russian lawyer” and “not a [Russian] government lawyer.” That may be true, but Donald Trump Jr. had agreed to sit down with a “Russian government attorney,” according to his emails.
Trump Misleads on Russia Hacking
On the eve of his first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Donald Trump made some questionable claims about the U.S. intelligence community’s finding that Russia hacked into U.S. political organizations to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.