At the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, Donald Trump delivered some of his most blatantly dishonest remarks while serving as president.
Trump gave another CPAC speech on Saturday night as he launches a new presidential campaign.
Trump made a number of exaggerated assertions during his lengthy speech to the right-wing rally in Maryland concerning his own presidency, Joe Biden's presidency, international affairs, crime, elections, and other topics.
Here is a fact check of 23 of Trump's untrue statements. (And that is not the complete amount.)
CRIMES IN MANHATTAN
Trump alleged that "killings are taking place at a number like nobody's ever seen, right in Manhattan" while criticizing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who has been looking into Trump's organization.
Facts First of all, the claim that there are several unheard-of murders taking place in Manhattan is far from accurate. 43 murders were reported in the area known as Manhattan North by the New York Police Department in 2022; 379 murders were reported in 1990 and 306 murders were reported in 1993.
Compared to 124 recorded murders in 1990 and 86 in 1993, the Manhattan South region had 35 reported homicides in 2022.
New York City as a whole is also nowhere near record homicide levels; the city had 438 reported murders in 2022 versus 2,262 in 1990 and 1,927 in 1993.
Manhattan North had just eight reported murders this year through February 19, while Manhattan South had one. The city as a whole had 49 reported murders.
Trump bragged that he had stopped the destruction of statues and memorials as president by taking meaningful action. I passed and signed an executive order, he insisted.
Without any exceptions, anyone who does that is sentenced to 10 years in prison, however the actual term is actually three months. "But we passed it," he continued. It was a very old law that we discovered; one of my very capable attorneys and [adviser] Stephen Miller discovered it. "Sir, I don't know if you want to attempt and bring this back," they replied. I said. ‘I do.’”
Facts: Trump's claim is untrue. He refrained from mandating a 10-year prison term for anyone who cause harm to monuments.
The executive order merely stated that it is federal policy to prosecute such cases to the fullest extent allowed by existing law, including an existing law that allowed a sentence of up to 10 years in prison for willfully causing damage to federal property, and that the attorney general should "prioritize" investigations and prosecutions of monument-destruction cases. Nothing in the executive order compelled courts to issue a 10-year sentence.
Vandalism in Portland
How's Portland doing, asked Trump? Even their stores are disappeared. Two-by-fours are used everywhere because buildings burn down every week.
Facts: This is a significant exaggeration. Although Portland has suffered with downtown commercial vacancies for a variety of reasons and certain establishments are occasionally destroyed by protesters, it is clear that the city still has hundreds of operating storefronts. Trump has long overstated the amount of Portland protest vandalism-related property damage.
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