Most of the falsehoods Donald Trump uttered in his conversation with Elon Musk on X on Monday were claims that have been repeatedly debunked before, some for years.
Inflation: Trump said, “I think we have the worst inflation we’ve had in 100 years. They say it’s 48 years, I don’t believe it.”
Facts First: Trump framed this as an opinion, but it’s baseless – wrong in two different ways. First, even when the inflation rate hit its Biden-era peak of 9.1% in June 2022, that 9.1% rate was the highest since 1981 – between 40 and 41 years prior, certainly not “100 years” and not even “48 years.” Second, inflation has declined sharply since the June 2022 peak, and the most recent available rate at the time he spoke, for July 2024, was 3.2% – a rate that, the Biden presidency aside, was exceeded as recently as 2011.
Harris and prisoners: Trump claimed “(Harris) wants to release all the prisoners that are in detention, and some of these guys are really bad. That just came out today.”
Facts First: This is false. There is no basis for the claim that Harris “wants to release all the prisoners that are in detention.” Trump appeared to be referring to news stories in conservative media that reported that Harris had said in 2019, while unsuccessfully running in the Democratic presidential primary, that she wanted to close privately-run immigration detention centers.
Migration numbers: Trump claimed that, under Biden and Harris, “you have millions of people coming in a month.”
Facts First: This is false. There has not been any month under the Biden-Harris administration where even close to “millions” of people entered the country illegally. In the peak month during this administration for what the government calls border “encounters,” December 2023, there were 370,890 encounters. Even if you factor in so-called “gotaways,” people who evaded the Border Patrol to sneak into the country, there is no basis for the claim that “millions” of people are entering in a single month.
Trump’s tax cuts: Trump repeated his claim that his signature tax cuts, in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, were “the largest tax cut” ever provided.
Facts First: Trump is wrong. Analyses have found that his tax cut law was not the largest in history, either in percentage of gross domestic product or in inflation-adjusted dollars.
Multiple lies: Trump also made false and misleading claims about global warming, the Biden administration and Trump’s legal cases, the situation before Right to Try, military equipment and Afghanistan, China’s purchases of Iranian oil, Iran and funding for “terror” groups, Europe trade, Ukraine aid, the 2020 election, deportations to Central America, migration and “the Congo,” Venezuela, and crime.
Read the full list of fact checks.
