President Donald Trump delivered some “alternative history” during Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, says CNN’s fact-checking reporter Daniel Dale, who debunked the wide-ranging and erroneous claims about tariffs, immigration and former President Joe Biden on the air.
“President Trump keeps saying that the U.S. has a trillion-dollar trade deficit with China,” Dale said on CNN. “That’s about quadruple the actual figure, which was $263 billion last year. If you only count trade in goods and don’t count trade in services, it’s about $295 billion.”
“So still nowhere close,” he added.
Trump announced a sweeping 10% baseline tariff last week on all imports to the U.S., with levies on dozens of countries set even higher. He reversed course Wednesday with a 90-day pause on the higher rates for most affected trade partners — save for China, whose tariffs are now set at 145%.
The initial announcement on April 2 upended markets around the world and sparked fears of a global recession. Trump claimed Thursday that, during his first term, the tariffs he imposed “took in hundreds of billions of dollars from China,” a statement Dale easily debunked.
“As many of our colleagues keep pointing out, because we have to, all that revenue was paid by U.S. importers,” Dale said on CNN. “And we know from study after study and just from talking to people in this country, most of those costs were passed on to U.S. consumers.”
Dale went on to note that the link between childhood vaccines and autism in the U.S. has long been debunked by experts, countering Trump’s none-too-subtle claim Thursday that “there’s got to be something artificial” to blame for increased diagnoses over the decades. Dale noted experts believe the increase likely comes from more awareness and screenings, and possibly some changes in environmental factors.
“He also repeated … a bit of alternative history,” Dale said Thursday.
“He keeps saying that the European Union was formed for the purpose of taking advantage of the United States,” he continued. “I spoke this week to an expert on European integration. He said, not only is that wrong, it is completely detached from the actual history.”
The fact-checker further noted that Trump reprised his “old favorite” talking point Thursday that foreign countries were “emptying jails and mental institutions” under Biden “to somehow send criminals” as migrants to the United States.
“I have begged and pleaded with Trump’s team for any evidence, any corroboration of those claims,” Dale said. “They haven’t provided any submission of it whatsoever.”
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Watch Dale’s full analysis below: