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Fact-checking RNC Day 4: What Trump, other speakers got right and wrong

Joedy McCreary Nate Trela BrieAnna J. Frank Andre Byik Brad Sylvester Eric Litke
USA TODAY

Donald Trump's first public speech since the failed assassination attempt against him highlighted the final night of the Republican National Convention, and we were there to let you know when he and other speakers strayed from the truth.

The 78-year-old former president spoke five days after a gunman opened fire during his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, leaving one attendee dead, two others seriously injured and Trump with a wounded ear. Other speakers joining him in Milwaukee tonight included Eric Trump, Tucker Carlson and Hulk Hogan.

More from the Fact-Check Team: How we pick and research claims | Email newsletter | Facebook page

Fact-checking the Republican convention: What Vance, Trump Jr., others got right (and wrong) on Day 3

Donald Trump claim: Household costs rose $28,000 per family

“The total household costs have increased an average of $28,000 per family under this administration.”

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Trump's figure is largely in line with a study from Republicans on the Joint Economic Committee that has tracked inflation since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021. From that date through January 2024, the study found the average household has paid $27,007 more in household costs due to inflation.

That includes cumulative increases of $9,366 for transportation, $4,678 for shelter, $4,562 for energy and $3,640 more for food, according to the study.

– Joedy McCreary

Donald Trump claim: There was no inflation during his presidency

“We had no inflation.” 

This is wrong, according to consumer price index data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

The year-over-year inflation rate between February 2017 and February 2018, which would have been entirely under the Trump administration, was 2.2%. 

The highest rate during his presidency was 2.9% in both June and July 2018 – the highest in more than six years.

By contrast, Biden’s inflation rate peaked at 9.1% in June 2022, the highest rate in four decades. The highest rate during former President Barack Obama's administration was 3.9% in September 2011. 

The inflation rate did dip below 1% for three months of Trump’s presidency, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

– BrieAnna Frank

Donald Trump claim: US crime rate going up

“Our crime rate is going up while crime statistics all over the world are going down.”

This isn’t what the latest data shows.

A report from the FBI found violent crime in the U.S. dropped in 2023.

Many U.S. cities also reported declines in homicides from 2023 to 2024, Axios reported in April. The number of murders fell by nearly 20% in the first three months of 2024 in 204 cities analyzed by criminal justice consulting firm AH Datalytics.

And FBI crime data showed sharp declines in violent crime in the first three months of 2024 compared to a year earlier, the Associated Press reported in June. Murder and rape were both down 26%, robbery was down 18% and aggravated assault fell by 13%, the AP said, noting the declines were in line with improvements following a surge in crime during the COVID-19 pandemic.

– Andre Byik and Chris Mueller

Trump claim: I’ve already built most of the border wall

“I will end the illegal immigration crisis by closing the border and finishing the wall, most of which I’ve already built.”

This is inaccurate. While it is true that under the Trump administration 458 miles of barriers were added to the southern border, the vast majority of this construction occurred where some kind of barrier was already in place, according to U.S. News.

These 458 miles of barrier account for about two-thirds of the total amount of barrier along the border, according to the Cato Institute. In all, the U.S. has 354 miles of pedestrian barriers and 300 miles of vehicle barriers, for a total of 654 miles, according to Customs and Border Protection’s website.

But the U.S.-Mexico border is 1,933 miles long, so the current wall only accounts for a fraction of that expanse. USA TODAY’s interactive border wall map shows there are vast swaths of land on the border with no barrier of any sort.

-Brad Sylvester

Donald Trump claim: Inflation under Biden was worst in U.S. history

“We’ve suffered the worst inflation we’ve ever had”

Inflation under President Joe Biden has certainly been higher than under former President Donald Trump, but it is far from the highest in the lifetimes of many Americans – much less ever.

Under Biden, the average annual inflation rate is about 5.7%, according to an analysis by Investopedia based on the seasonally adjusted consumer price index.

However, that rate was higher under both Jimmy Carter (9.9% average from 1977 to 1981) and Gerald Ford (average 8% from 1974 to 1977).

On an annual level this claim is also wrong, Investopedia reports. The highest annual increase under Biden was 7% in 2021. Inflation topped double digits in 1980 and twice in the 1970s.

– Nate Trela 

Donald Trump claim: Democrats ‘cheating on elections’

“We don’t have fierce people. We have people that are a lot less than fierce except when it comes to cheating on elections, and a couple of other things. Then they’re fierce.”

Trump’s comment came as he reflected on the domestic and international problems facing the U.S., such as immigration and wars.

But his assertion that Democrats have engaged in widespread voter fraud – a claim he’s made repeatedly since his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden – is false.

There’s an overwhelming amount of evidence that shows Biden won the presidency that year. And no credible evidence of widespread voter fraud has been uncovered. Recounts, reviews and lawsuits have ultimately shown Biden’s win was legitimate.

Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, also said in December 2020 that the Justice Department had "not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election."

And in a statement released shortly after the election, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said it was "the most secure in American history," and there was "no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised."

– Andre Byik and Chris Mueller

Donald Trump claim: His administration passed nation’s largest tax cut

“We gave you the largest tax cut.”

This is false, and it’s a claim Trump has made before.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that Trump championed ranks as the eighth-largest tax cut since 1918 as a percentage of gross domestic product, according to a 2017 analysis from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

The largest tax cut during that time frame was enacted in 1981, early in Ronald Reagan’s presidency, according to the think tank’s analysis.

The 2017 act overhauled the tax code, cutting the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and increasing the standard deduction, among other provisions, several of which are set to expire in 2025.

– Joedy McCreary

Donald Trump claim: Grocery prices have risen by 57%

Grocery prices are up, but not this much.

From 2019 to 2023, the all-food Consumer Price Index rose by 25%, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The USDA said increases from 2020-21 were “largely driven by shifting consumption patterns and supply chain disruptions resulting from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. 

-Eric Litke

Eric Trump claim: Gas prices under Trump were the lowest in decades

“Trump made the United States energy independent with the lowest gas prices in decades.”

This is false. Gas prices fell precipitously late in Donald Trump's term in the White House, coinciding with stay-at-home restrictions at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. During Trump's term, the Energy Information Administration's data on the average weekly price of gasoline (based on all grades and formulations) bottomed out the week of April 27, 2020, at $1.87 per gallon.

While significantly lower than a couple months earlier, it certainly was not the lowest in decades. During the week of Feb. 15, 2016, gas averaged $1.83 per gallon under President Barack Obama.

- Nate Trela

Eric Trump claim: Obama administration ‘handed’ Iran $150 billion

On why Donald Trump ran for office: “(Donald Trump) could no longer tolerate an inept administration that handed $150 billion to Iran.”

This is false, and it’s a claim Trump has also repeatedly made about his predecessor, Barack Obama.

It references the 2015 international agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear weapons program, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

While the agreement lifted some sanctions, it did not involve the Obama White House handing $150 billion to Iran. That money belonged to Iran – not the U.S. – and had been frozen in financial institutions around the globe as part of sanctions designed to curb the nation’s push for nuclear weapons, The Washington Post reported.

Much of the money was held in Asian and Turkish banks, not American ones, and many countries that received waivers to buy Iranian fossil fuels placed their payments in accounts resembling escrow accounts that remained inaccessible to Iran.

Additionally, the $150 billion figure is an upper-range estimate of the unfrozen funds. According to Treasury Department figures cited by The Washington Post, Tehran would have about $55 billion left once it fulfills its other obligations.

– Joedy McCreary

Eric Trump claim: Donald Trump made the U.S. energy independent

“My father made the U.S. energy independent.”

This is accurate, if you define energy independence as producing more energy than you consume. The U.S. most recently reached this mark in 2019 under Trump’s presidency when it became an "annual net total energy exporter,” according to the Energy Information Administration.

This was a reversal of the prior seven decades.

"Up to the early 1950s, the United States produced most of the energy it consumed," the administration's website says. "U.S. energy consumption was higher than U.S. energy production in every year from 1958 (to) 2018."

The U.S. has remained a net energy exporter since 2019, according to the available data.

-Brad Sylvester

Tucker Carlson claim: US drug deaths in last four years outnumbered US World War II casualties

“We’ve lost more Americans from drugs in the past four years than we lost in World War II.” 

The two numbers are very close, but drug deaths are indeed higher than military deaths in WWII.

There were 418,500 American deaths during World War II, including both military members and civilians, according to the National World War II Museum. The Department of Veterans Affairs puts the number of military deaths at 405,000.

Data from the last four full years, 2020 through 2023, shows 419,849 Americans have died from drug overdoses in that period.

That includes 93,655 deaths in 2020, 107,622 in 2021, 111,029 in 2022 and 107,543 in 2023, according to news releases from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. 

– BrieAnna Frank

Tucker Carlson claim: WWII was America’s bloodiest war

“We’ve lost more Americans from drugs in the past four years than we lost in World War II. Yeah. Our bloodiest war.”

Though figures vary, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs says the American Civil War resulted in more U.S. military deaths than World War II.

Nearly 500,000 military personnel were killed in the Civil War (1861-1865), according to the VA. The total includes both Union and Confederate battle deaths and other in-theater deaths. Other estimates pin the total at over 600,000 deaths.

About 405,000 U.S. military deaths were tallied in World War II (1941-1945), according to the VA. The National World War II Museum puts the figure at 418,500 American deaths including civilians.

– Andre Byik

Alina Habba claim: The only crime Donald Trump has committed is loving America

“The only crime president Trump has committed is loving America.” -Trump attorney

A jury in New York disagrees. Former president Donald Trump and his legal team have maintained his innocence in the face of criminal indictments in multiple jurisdictions, but on May 30 he was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment to a porn actress. State prosecutors said it was an illegal scheme to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.

Trump has asked to have the conviction thrown out, pointing to the Supreme Court’s ruling that a sitting president has immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts.

Trump’s other cases likely will not be resolved before the election. Federal charges over Trump’s possession of classified materials after leaving the White House were thrown out this month, although that action has been appealed. An election interference case in Atlanta has been put on hold until a hearing on whether DA Fani Willis can remain on the case. And his federal election interference case in Washington was put on hold before the Supreme Court ruling and likely cannot be completed before the election.

- Nate Trela

RNC video claim: Income fell three consecutive years under Biden

“Under Biden, Americans’ income has gone down three straight years.”

This is misleading and oversimplifies the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy.

The claim is an apparent reference to reports such as a September 2023 House Budget Committee analysis that tracked the inflation-adjusted median household incomes and found three consecutive yearly declines.

But it fails to point out that the decline started during the final year of Donald Trump’s presidency. After reaching a high of $78,250 in 2019, the real median household income fell to $76,660 in 2020 – the first full year of the COVID-19 pandemic, a fact noted in the House committee analysis but not the video. It fell to $76,330 in 2021, the year Joe Biden took office, and dropped to $74,580 in 2022, the most recent data available.

But other datasets show increases under Biden. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show full-time workers’ median weekly earnings rising from $983 at the end of 2020 to $1,142 in the fourth quarter of 2023.

– Joedy McCreary

RNC video claim: Credit card fees soared under Biden

“Credit card fees surged 50% since Biden became president.” -narration of a video played at RNC

The Financial Times reported in March that U.S. consumers paid nearly 50% more in credit card expenses in 2023 than in 2020, the year before Joe Biden became president.

Citing data provided by U.S. banks to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, FT reported credit card interest and fees increased by $51 billion in that time, to $157 billion. The change amounts to about a 48% increase.

The Biden administration has tried to implement new rules to address what it characterizes as “junk fees,” such as late fees and overdraft fees, the Associated Press reported. A federal judge in May temporarily halted a plan by Biden’s administration to lower late fees on credit cards to $8 from the current average of $32, the AP reported.

– Andre Byik

Linda McMahon claim: Trump tariffs on China raised billions

“Donald Trump put tariffs on China that raised billions of dollars and protected American industries.”

The numbers here are accurate. Beginning in 2018, Trump levied tariffs on thousands of products being imported from China valued at approximately $380 billion in 2018 and 2019, according to the Tax Foundation. The intention of these tariffs was to protect American domestic production. The tariffs resulted in nearly $80 billion in taxes paid to the U.S. government, according to the foundation.

However, it is worth noting that much of the revenue generated from these tariffs was paid by American importers, not the Chinese, according to the foundation and the Council on Foreign Relations. Most economists agree the increased cost of business is typically passed on to the consumer. The Tax Foundation estimated the tariffs, most of which have been kept in place under the Biden administration, have had a negative impact on U.S. gross domestic product in the long run.

-Brad Sylvester

Mike Pompeo claim: No Chinese spy balloons during Trump’s presidency

“Not a single Chinese spy balloon flew across the United States of America, four years.”

This false claim came up for a second straight night. Multiple news outlets reported in 2023 that Chinese surveillance balloons flew over the U.S. at least three different times during former President Donald Trump's administration, but military officials didn’t know it at the time.

Those spy balloons went undetected because of what Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, the commander of the Pentagon’s Northern Command, described to The New York Times as an “awareness gap.” Objects originally classified as U.F.O.s were later reclassified as Chinese spy balloons.

That report came shortly after a Chinese balloon was shot down off the coast of South Carolina in February 2023, during the Biden administration. Trump, for his part, called it “fake disinformation.”

– Joedy McCreary and Kim Breen

RNC background: Rally shooting looms over Trump’s closing address

The assassination attempt that left Donald Trump with an injured ear dominated the headlines during the days leading up to the former president’s keynote speech tonight.

In the wake of the July 13 shooting in Pennsylvania that left one dead and two others seriously injured, Trump said he rewrote his closing remarks to “bring the whole country, even the whole world, together,” he told the Washington Examiner.

The FBI identified the gunman as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, and said Secret Service agents killed him at the scene. But officials have been unable to determine his motive, one of the key unanswered questions sparking a significant amount of misinformation.

USA TODAY has debunked an array of false claims stemming from the assassination attempt.

– Joedy McCreary

RNC background: Trump faces election interference charges as he tries to reclaim White House

As former President Donald Trump wages his campaign for re-election, he continues to face criminal charges for his alleged role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Trump is accused in a federal indictment of directing his supporters to march on the Capitol in an effort to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory.

The former president took to his Truth Social social media platform on July 15 – just two days after he was injured in an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania – to call for the case's dismissal, characterizing it as the “January 6th Hoax.”

More than 1,200 defendants have been charged in the attack on the Capitol. Trump’s case was overseen by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith. Trump has pleaded not guilty.

USA TODAY has debunked numerous claims about the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

– Andre Byik

RNC background: Biden’s age, gaffes a frequent theme

Joe Biden’s fitness to serve as president became a frequent Republican talking point when he and Donald Trump first faced off in 2020, and recent events have only fed that narrative in their second matchup.

The specter of his age was elevated in February by a special counsel report describing the 81-year-old Biden  as an elderly man with "diminished capacities," including memory loss. His abominable performance in June’s presidential debate against Trump exacerbated the issue to the point where some leading Democrats are asking him to drop out of the race. Biden at one point chalking up the performance to exhaustion did not ease those concerns.

Biden insists he is fit to serve another term, but his actions and comments are being examined closely for clues about his capabilities – and sometimes they are misrepresented.

USA TODAY has debunked several false claims about Biden’s mental acuity and physical stamina:

– Nate Trela

RNC background: Project 2025 stirs debate

Democratic lawmakers have in recent weeks sought to turn voters’ attention to Project 2025, also known as the Presidential Transition Project.

It’s an effort by the Heritage Foundation and other conservative organizations that resulted in a 900-page playbook for the next Republican president. A full implementation of the guidance in the document would effectively overhaul the federal government. 

A slew of Trump’s allies are involved in the project, though Trump has maintained that he is not. 

He wrote in a July 5 Truth Social post that “some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal,” though he did not specify what elements of Project 2025 he objected to.

His campaign has instead presented “Agenda47” as its policy plan in a second Trump presidency. It includes a day-one executive order ending automatic citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants who are born in the U.S. and closing the U.S. Department of Education. 

The Republican Party's 2024 policy platform echoes Trump’s vision for the country, calling for the “largest deportation program in American history” and penalizing school districts that expose children to what it deems “inappropriate racial, sexual or political content,” USA TODAY reported. 

USA TODAY has debunked claims about Project 2025:

-BrieAnna Frank

RNC background: Trump’s baseless claims of rigged 2020 election persist

With the 2024 election drawing near, former President Donald Trump continues to baselessly – but repeatedly – claim the one four years earlier was rigged against him.

He even dropped this claim in a video shown during Wednesday’s Republican National Convention.

His campaign and the Republican National Committee led by his daughter-in-law have said they will mobilize 100,000 people in battleground states to ensure “transparency and fairness” in a move that has drawn criticism from opponents saying it has the potential to lead to voter intimidation.

State-level recounts, reviews and audits of the 2022 midterm elections found no indication of systemic problems with voter fraud. 

That’s significant because the baseless allegations from Trump and his allies have penetrated the Republican Party and eroded confidence in the process. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and other top Republicans have refused to commit to accepting the outcome of the election.

USA TODAY has debunked numerous false claims about the integrity of the elections:

– Joedy McCreary

Fact check: Facts about Trump assassination attempt: What's real, what's not and how we know

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