A look at Trump's false claims in California

By MELISSA GOLDIN

In a press conference at his golf club near Los Angeles, former President Donald Trump returned to several themes from Tuesday night's debate, repeating several false and misleading claims on issues such as crime, the economy and immigration.

Here are the facts:

Trump again falsely claims crime has skyrocketed under the Biden administration

CLAIM: New numbers show crime has skyrocketed under the Biden administration.

THE FACTS: Violent crime skyrocketed during the pandemic. Homicides increased nearly 30% in 2020 compared to the previous year, the largest single-year increase since the FBI began keeping records.

But FBI data released in June showed that the overall violent crime rate fell 15% in the first three months of 2024 compared to the same period last year. However, one expert cautioned that these figures are preliminary and may overstate the actual drop in crime.

On Friday, Trump cited figures he said came from the Bureau of Justice Statistics to claim crime was up, an apparent reference to the Justice Department's recently released National Crime Victimization Survey, which showed that the number of violent crime victims increased by about 40% from 2020 to 2023. However, the report notes that while the rate of violent victimization in 2023 was higher than in 2020 and 2021, it was not statistically different from the rate in 2019, when Trump was president.

This survey is designed to capture both crimes reported to the police and those that are not reported, and is conducted annually through interviews with approximately 150,000 households. It does not include murders or crimes against anyone under the age of 12.

No basis for claims that violent crime has increased as a result of the influx of migrants

CLAIM: Thousands of people are killed in the US by “illegal immigrants”

THE FACTS: This is not supported by any evidence. FBI statistics do not distinguish crimes based on the immigration status of the offender, nor is there evidence of an increase in crime committed by migrants, either along the U.S.-Mexico border or in cities with the largest influx of migrants, such as New York. In fact, national statistics show that violent crime is declining.

Inflation has not reached record levels

CLAIM: Prices have risen “to an extent never seen before.”

THE FACTS: That's not true. Inflation did indeed spike in 2021-22, but it had risen much more sharply in 1980, when inflation exceeded 14%. It peaked at 9.1% in June 2022.

Economists attribute the rise in inflation largely to pandemic-related disruptions to global supply chains, which reduced the supply of semiconductors, cars and other goods. Russia's invasion of Ukraine also pushed up gasoline and food prices. And Biden's stimulus and other spending helped boost post-pandemic spending.

Inflation has now fallen to 2.5 percent, not far from the Federal Reserve's 2 percent target. While prices are still about 19 percent higher than before the pandemic, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday that household incomes have risen by a similar amount, putting inflation-adjusted incomes at about the same level as in 2019.

Trump makes false claims to suggest that electoral systems are fraudulent

CLAIM: The electoral system is dishonest. Millions upon millions of ballots are being sent “back and forth.” Some people get two, three, four, or five.

THE FACTS: Election officials have procedures in place to ensure that only one mail-in ballot is delivered to each eligible voter. When a voter requests a mail-in ballot, election officials verify that person's eligibility to vote by examining voter registration records, attempting to match the voter's information with what is on file and, in some cases, verifying that the voter's signature matches.

When a ballot is mailed out by an election office, that ballot is associated with that specific voter. If someone else tries to use that ballot, the voter's information will not match the office's records for that ballot and it will be rejected. Election officials continually update their voter rolls to make sure they are accurate, removing people who have died, people who have moved out of state, or people who are ineligible to vote.

In some cases, ballots are canceled—when a voter makes a mistake and requests a new ballot, or decides to vote in person rather than by mail. In these cases, the original ballot is marked so that when it arrives at the election office, it will be flagged and rejected.

At one point in his remarks, Trump highlighted California, where all voters receive a ballot by mail, saying he would win if the votes were honestly counted. He has made this claim before, and it is far-fetched. Only 23% of California voters are registered Republicans, while 46% are registered Democrats. In 2016, he lost California to Hillary Clinton by 4.2 million votes, and in 2020 he lost the state to Biden by 5.1 million votes.

Trump misrepresents a revision of US labor market figures

CLAIM: A whistleblower has forced the government to revise its job growth forecast downwards by 818,000.

THE FACTS: This is false. The preliminary revision was made as part of a normal annual process and was released on a previously announced date. Each year, the Department of Labor releases a revision of the number of jobs created during the 12-month period from April to March of the previous year.

The adjustment is made because the government's initial employment figures are based on business surveys. The revision is then based on actual employment figures from unemployment insurance files compiled later. The revision is prepared by officials who care little about politically appointed officials.

The Biden administration is not secretly flying hundreds of thousands of migrants into the country

CLAIM: Harris and the Biden administration are secretly flying in hundreds of thousands of “illegal immigrants.”

THE FACTS: Migrants are not secretly flown into the U.S. by the government. Under a Biden policy in place since January 2023, up to 30,000 people a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela can enter the country if they apply online with a financial sponsor and arrive at a designated airport and pay for their own travel. Biden used his “parole authority,” which allows him under a 1952 law to admit people “only in individual cases of urgent humanitarian need or substantial public benefit.”

Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer, Chris Rugaber, Christina Almeida Cassidy and Elliot Spagat contributed to this article.

Originally published: September 13, 2024 at 18:54