CLEVELAND: In his speech Thursday night accepting the Republican nomination, Donald Trump stretched the facts on numerous occasions, got them right in other cases and cherry-picked data to make his case for the presidency. The speech was accompanied by 282 footnotes, primarily from mainstream media outlets and government sources, to support his claims.
Below is a look at some of Trump’s statements, and how they compare to the facts.
Crime
Trump: “Homicides last year increased by 17 percent in America’s 50 largest cities. That’s the largest increase in 25 years. In our nation’s capital, killings have risen by 50 percent. They are up nearly 60 percent in nearby Baltimore.”
The facts: Trump’s figures come from a Jan. 27 Washington Post article analyzing preliminary FBI crime statistics that won’t be finalized until the fall. But violent crime remains lower than it was a decade ago and the rate has been falling for roughly 25 years. “When considering five- and 10-year trends, the 2014 estimated violent crime total was 6.9 percent below the 2010 level and 16.2 percent below the 2005 level” the FBI reports.
Trump: “The number of police officers killed in the line of duty has risen by almost 50 percent compared to this point last year.”
The facts: Trump mixes up some numbers here. The footnotes to Trump’s speech cite a Newsweek article that uses data from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund about the number of firearms related deaths of law enforcement officers. Most of that jump, to 26 so far this year from 18 fatalities at this point last year, is a result of the killing of five Dallas police officers this month. Overall deaths of officers are up 8 percent in 2016 compared to 2015, according to the organization.
Immigration
Trump: “The number of new illegal immigrant families who have crossed the border so far this year already exceeds the entire total from 2015.”
The facts: Trump’s numbers are accurate, but they reflect the number of people stopped at the border. Family unit border apprehensions, a proxy for attempts to illegally enter the country, climbed to 51,147 in the first nine months of the 2016 fiscal year. That’s 28 percent higher than the number for the entire 12 months of the 2015 fiscal year, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Trump: “My opponent has called for a radical 550 percent increase in Syrian refugees on top of existing massive refugee flows coming into our country under President Obama.”
The facts: Clinton has called for the admission of 65,000 refugees from Syria, from the 10,000 President Barack Obama is seeking to admit in the current fiscal year. The screening process for those refugees takes, on average, one to two years.
Taxes
Trump: “While Hillary Clinton plans a massive tax increase, I have proposed the largest tax reduction of any candidate who has declared for the presidential race this year — Democrat or Republican.”
The facts: Trump’s tax plan, which proposed roughly $10 trillion in tax cuts over the next decade, is evolving — and it may not end up containing "the largest tax reduction of any candidate." Conservative economists Stephen Moore and Lawrence Kudlow, who are advising his campaign, said a new version that’s coming soon would reduce the revenue cuts by about two-thirds.
Islamic State
Trump: After four years of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, “ISIS has spread across the region, and the world.”
The facts: The Islamic State made its most significant gains on the ground in Syria and Iraq after Clinton left office in February 2013 and it is now losing territory. The Pentagon and State Department say the group has been pushed from 50 percent of its territory in Iraq and 20 percent in Syria.