Email
\n <\/a><\/p>\n
Link<\/p>\n
\n President Donald Trump\u2019s speech to the United Nations General Assembly<\/a> on Tuesday was littered with numerous false claims, many of which have been debunked before.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump was inaccurate about a wide variety of subjects. They included inflation in the US, climate policies both in the US and abroad, immigration, his role in settling international conflicts, and his standing in opinion polls. Here is a fact check of some of his remarks.\n <\/p>\n Trump\u2019s accomplishments and popularity<\/p>\n \n Trump and wars: <\/strong>The president claimed, \u201cI ended seven wars, and in all cases, they were raging, with countless thousands of people being killed. This includes Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, the Congo and Rwanda \u2014 a vicious, violent war that was \u2014 Pakistan and India, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Armenia and Azerbaijan.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n But Egypt and Ethiopia were not actually at war during Trump\u2019s time in the White House. They have a long-running and unresolved dispute about a major Ethiopian dam project<\/a> on a tributary of the Nile River, but this is not a war<\/a>, so Trump couldn\u2019t have ended one there. Similarly, while Trump has previously claimed<\/a> to have prevented the eruption of a new war between Serbia and Kosovo \u2014 providing few details about what he was talking about \u2014 those countries weren\u2019t in an actual war<\/a> either during Trump\u2019s current term or during his first term, when they signed an economic normalization agreement brokered by Trump\u2019s administration in 2020.\n <\/p>\n \n In addition, Trump hasn\u2019t actually ended the conflict involving the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. The peace agreement brokered by the Trump administration and signed by the DRC and Rwanda in June did not involve<\/a> the rebel coalition, allegedly backed by Rwanda, that has seized territory in the eastern DRC, and CNN reported<\/a> from the ground this week: \u201cThe scores of militia groups that have fought for three decades in one of the most protracted and complex conflicts in the world are still engaging in deadly fighting, and US President Donald Trump\u2019s claimed peace deal for the nation feels like a distant dream.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Trump\u2019s importance and success in addressing the other four conflicts he mentioned can be debated. Notably, while Pakistan has heaped praise upon Trump<\/a> for playing a critical role in brokering its May ceasefire<\/a> with India, India has rejected<\/a> the claim that he did so and said it resolved the conflict directly with Pakistan.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump\u2019s poll numbers: <\/strong>The president claimed, \u201cI was very proud to see this morning I have the highest poll numbers I\u2019ve ever had. Part of it is because of what we\u2019ve done on the border. I guess the other part is what we\u2019ve done on the economy.\u201d It\u2019s theoretically possible Trump saw some private polling that gave him dramatically better numbers than public polling has produced, but his standing in public polling is nowhere near his highest ever \u2014 in fact, it\u2019s down substantially from the beginning of this year.\n <\/p>\n \n A New York Times polling average<\/a> put Trump\u2019s approval rating at about 43% as of Tuesday (with 54% disapproval), down from 52% approval in the first week of his second term in January (with 43% disapproval).\n <\/p>\n \n Similarly, a polling average produced by data journalist G. Elliott Morris<\/a> put Trump\u2019s approval rating at about 42% as of Tuesday (with about 54% disapproval), down from about 51% approval in the first days of his second term (with about 39% disapproval). And a polling average produced by data journalist Nate Silver<\/a> put Trump\u2019s approval rating at about 44% as of Tuesday (with about 53% disapproval), down from about 52% approval in the first days of the term (with about 40% disapproval).\n <\/p>\n \n CNN\u2019s Poll of Polls<\/a> average had Trump at 41% approval as of Tuesday (with 57% disapproval), down from 48% approval in our first average of this term in early February (with 49% disapproval). And Trump\u2019s average ratings for his handling of immigration and the economy have both fallen from positive territory to negative territory since the beginning of the term, the averages from Morris and Silver show.\n <\/p>\n Inflation and the economy<\/p>\n \n Inflation: <\/strong>Trump baselessly claimed that \u201cinflation has been defeated\u201d under his leadership. This is vaguer than his frequent false claim<\/strong><\/a> that there is now \u201cno inflation,\u201d but there\u2019s no basis even for the vaguer version. Inflation, measured by the Consumer Price Index, has been worsening since May<\/strong><\/a> after hitting a four-year low in April. It was about 2.9% in August<\/strong><\/a>, up from about 2.7% in July<\/strong><\/a>; the August figure was nearly identical to the 3% rate in January<\/strong><\/a>, the last partial month of the Biden administration Trump said left him an \u201ceconomic calamity.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Grocery prices:<\/strong> Trump also claimed that under his leadership, \u201cgrocery prices are down.\u201d False. Average grocery prices have increased during Trump\u2019s presidency, though the prices of some individual items have fallen; Consumer Price Index figures show that average grocery prices were about 1% higher in August<\/a> than they were in January, when Trump returned to the White House. And while we should be careful not to read too much into any single month of data, the increase in grocery prices from July to August was about 0.6%, which was the highest month-to-month jump since late 2022<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Electricity bills:<\/strong> Trump said electricity in Europe is much more expensive than in China or the US, which is generally correct<\/a>. But then he added, \u201cAnd our bills are coming way down.\u201d In fact, US electricity prices are spiking<\/a>, rising more than twice as fast as overall prices; Consumer Price Index figures<\/a> show they were about 6.2% higher in August than they were a year prior and about 4.9% higher in August than they were in January.\n <\/p>\n \n Foreign investment:<\/strong> Trump, talking about \u201cnew investment into the United States,\u201d claimed, \u201cIn just eight months since I took office, we have secured commitments and money already paid for $17 trillion.\u201d This figure is unproved at best. Just a day ago, Trump\u2019s own White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, used<\/a> a much lower figure, saying Trump \u201chas secured nearly $9 trillion in US investment.\u201d She did say \u201cwe expect that number to be upwards of $15 trillion very soon,\u201d but Trump didn\u2019t explain how an additional $8 trillion supposedly materialized in a day \u2014 and even Leavitt\u2019s $9 trillion figure should be treated with skepticism, since it is heavily based<\/a> on vague semi-commitments from foreign countries that may never materialize.\n <\/p>\n Environment and energy<\/p>\n \n Global warming and climate change:<\/strong> Trump called climate change \u201cthe greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world,\u201d and he also referred to \u201cthe global warming hoax.\u201d He didn\u2019t precisely explain what he was calling the con job or hoax, but global warming is a demonstrated fact<\/a>. Trump also baselessly suggested that scientists now use the phrase \u201cclimate change\u201d instead of \u201cglobal warming\u201d so that they can\u2019t be accused of getting things wrong if the world ends up cooling; in reality, climate scientists use both phrases<\/a>, often saying \u201cglobal warming\u201d when referring to the long-term trend of increasing global temperature and \u201cclimate change\u201d when referring to the numerous effects the world is experiencing because of that trend.\n <\/p>\n \n NASA says<\/a> on its website: \u201c\u2018Climate change\u2019 encompasses global warming, but refers to the broader range of changes that are happening to our planet. These include rising sea levels; shrinking mountain glaciers; accelerating ice melt in Greenland, Antarctica and the Arctic; and shifts in flower\/plant blooming times.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n For example, a 2023 report<\/a> from the UN\u2019s climate change panel, titled \u201cClimate Change 2023: Synthesis Report,\u201d said this: \u201cHuman activities, principally through emissions of greenhouse gases, have unequivocally caused global warming, with global surface temperature reaching 1.1\u00b0C above 1850-1900 in 2011-2020.\u201d In a section titled \u201cFuture Climate Change,\u201d the report also said this: \u201cContinued greenhouse gas emissions will lead to increasing global warming, with the best estimate of reaching 1.5\u00b0C in the near term in considered scenarios and modelled pathways. Every increment of global warming will intensify multiple and concurrent hazards (high confidence).\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n China and wind power: <\/strong>Trump repeated his false claim that although China is the leading manufacturer of wind turbines, \u201cthey have very few wind farms\u201d themselves. He added, \u201cSo why is it that they build them and they send them all over the world, but they barely use them? You know, they use coal, they use gas, they use almost anything, but they don\u2019t like wind. But they sure as hell like selling the windmills.\u201d In reality, China is the world leader in the generation of wind power and has massive wind farms onshore<\/a> and offshore<\/a>; it continues<\/a> to install additional wind capacity<\/a> much faster than the US.\n <\/p>\n \n Coal and renewables:<\/strong> Trump referred to coal as \u201cclean, beautiful coal,\u201d as he usually does, but coal is just not clean<\/a>; its use as a power source creates polluting emissions<\/a> that harm humans and the environment, even with technological improvements that can reduce the emissions levels. Trump also wrongly said renewable energy sources \u201cdon\u2019t work,\u201d saying that \u201cthey\u2019re not strong enough to fire up the plants that you need to make your country great\u201d and that \u201cthe wind doesn\u2019t blow.\u201d But energy generated by wind is still a useful power source when the wind isn\u2019t blowing, just as solar energy is still a useful power source when the sun isn\u2019t shining \u2014 since the energy can be stored<\/a> in industrial batteries<\/a> or using other methods, allowing it to be deployed as part of a power mix along with energy from traditional fossil fuels.\n <\/p>\n \n The Paris climate accord:<\/strong> Trump repeated some false claims about the Paris climate accord from which he has withdrawn the US<\/a> during each of his presidencies.\n <\/p>\n \n At one point, he wrongly said the US was \u201csupposed to pay like $1 trillion\u201d under the accord. It wasn\u2019t. The US has never spent or committed anywhere close to $1 trillion in connection to the accord; Biden pledged upon taking office to pay<\/a> $11.4 billion per year toward international climate financing, but Congress appropriated less than even that.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump also said, \u201cChina didn\u2019t have to pay until 2030.\u201d This was confusing, but it appeared to be a reference to his previous false claim<\/a> that the accord gave China more time than the US to hit its targets for reducing carbon emissions. In reality, the accord came <\/strong>into effect for all participating countries at the same time, November 2016<\/a>, but allowed each country to set its own voluntary targets for reducing carbon emissions. China picked 2030 as the year it planned to meet its primary targets while the US picked 2025, but this was simply a choice of each country.\n <\/p>\n \n Biden and migrants:<\/strong> Touting his efforts to secure the southern border, Trump said, \u201cJust a year ago, millions and millions of people were pouring in, 25 million all together over the four years of the incompetent Biden administration.\u201d The \u201c25 million\u201d figure is fictional; even Trump\u2019s previous \u201c21 million\u201d figure was a wild exaggeration<\/strong><\/a>. Through December 2024, the last full month under the Biden administration, the federal government had\u202frecorded<\/strong><\/a>\u202funder 11 million nationwide \u201cencounters\u201d with migrants during that administration, including millions who were rapidly expelled from the country; even adding in the so-called gotaways who evaded detection,\u202festimated<\/strong><\/a>\u202fby House Republicans as being roughly 2.2 million, there\u2019s no way the total was even close to what Trump has said.\n <\/p>\n \n Biden and migrant children:<\/strong> Trump repeated his misleading claim that \u201cthe previous administration also lost nearly 300,000 children,\u201d then quickly said it was \u201cmore than 300,000 children.\u201d He continued to say that many of these children \u201chave been raped, exploited and abused and sold,\u201d while others are dead.\n <\/p>\n![\"US](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/gettyimages-2236934324.jpg\")
<\/p>\n