Fact-checking Donald Trump’s latest speech
DONALD Trump boasted during an extraordinary speech in Pensacola on Friday, but a closer look at his statements reveals dubious claims.
IN his Alabama-ish rally, President Donald Trump falsely stated that black homeownership has hit a record high under his stewardship and made the dubious claim that he set Canada’s Prime Minister straight on the state of trade between the two countries.
Trump spoke Friday night in Pensacola, Florida, across the line from Alabama. The positioning was meant to help Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore win Tuesday’s election without actually having Trump set foot in a race defined by accusations of sexual misconduct against the Republican. Trump looked back on his months in office and overstated his achievements during more than an hour of boasting.
Trump, surveying the crowd, said: “Look at these guys, ‘blacks for Trump.’ I love you. I love you. By the way, now that you bring it up, black homeownership just hit the highest level it has ever been in the history of our country. Congratulations.”
The fact is that that claim is not true or even close.
The US Census finds that the black homeownership rate peaked during 2004, when 49.7 per cent of black households owned homes (the rate for all races that year reached 69.2 per cent, also a modern record).
The black homeownership rate stayed in similar territory until the recession, when it dropped to the mid-40s.
This year: 42.7 per cent in the first quarter, 42.3 per cent in the second and 42 per cent in the third. That’s an uptick from last year but far from a record. Quarterly rates this year for the total US population: 63.6 per cent, 63.7 per cent and 63.9 per cent.
Trump also claimed that he’s passed more legislation than “any other President in the history of our country” during his first 10 months.
“Working with Republicans in Congress we’ve already signed 88 pieces of legislation. We get no credit. They always say, well, President Trump really needs this tax bill because he hasn’t passed any legislation. Well, so far in 10 months we’ve passed more during this period of time than any other president in the history of our country.”
AP’s fact check reveals Trump’s first-year legislative record pales next to that of a variety of presidents including Franklin Roosevelt who, with his New Deal, signed 14 historic laws in his first 100 days.
The tax package Trump may soon sign would mark his first major legislative achievement after months of false starts and frustrations on health care and more. His promised infrastructure initiative got sidelined but appears in the offing.
Trump signed a law strengthening accountability at the Veterans Affairs Department, used executive orders to roll back Obama-era regulations and policies and, perhaps most significantly, won confirmation of a conservative Supreme Court justice, Neil Gorsuch.
But legislatively, his record is thin, despite having Republican majorities in Congress.
On the topic of foreign relations, Trump spoke about a conversation with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about trade: “(Trudeau) said, ‘I’m telling you that Canada has a deficit with the United States.’ I told my people, in front of a lot of people, I said, go out and check — and he was right.
“Except he forgot two categories — lumber, timber and energy. Other than that, he was right. When you add them altogether we actually have a $17 billion deficit with Canada, right? So, he forgot a couple of categories that he didn’t want to mention.”
But he was off the mark again. Trump’s accounting is puzzling and at odds with US trade statistics.
Trudeau is right that the US has a trade surplus with Canada, according to those numbers.
“Exports were $320.1 billion; imports were $307.6 billion,” says the US trade representative’s office.
“The US goods and services trade surplus with Canada was $12.5 billion in 2016.”
The US ran a $12.1 billion deficit with Canada in trade on goods. That was offset by a $24.6 billion surplus in trade of services.
Trump may have been ignoring services — half of the equation on trade — but if so his numbers still don’t match his government’s.
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