'Another lie': CNN fact-checker smacks down slew of claims from Trump White House
President Donald Trump's speech on Thursday, bragging about how groceries are getting cheaper and gas is down to $1.98 a gallon, was riddled with falsehoods and exaggerations, CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale told CNN's Jake Tapper on Thursday.
Trump has been stung by the criticism of how he has not delivered on his campaign trail promises to bring down the cost of living, a major issue in the 2024 election, and in particular, the crisis surrounding egg shortages ever since the bird flu outbreak required a mass culling of chickens.
"Daniel, is there truth in this?" asked Tapper.
"No truth to any of those claims, Jake," said Dale, who frequently lays bare false claims made in Trump speeches. "So on the days the president was referring to there, last Wednesday and Thursday, there was not a single state that had its average gas price any lower than $2.70. So, nowhere near $1.98. Now, people might say, well, the president didn't say average prices, he said prices. So maybe there were some gas stations in some states selling for $1.98. I asked the firm GasBuddy about this. GasBuddy tracks tens of thousands of stations across the country. They found zero stations, zero stations anywhere in the country, anywhere below $2.19. So that's wrong too."
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Dale added that he asked the White House for a source on Trump's claim, and "they not only couldn't corroborate the president's claim, but they introduced another lie in sending me a response about the previous lie. They said that 'If big-city reporters actually went out to Middle America, they would see the gas prices there are at record lows.' Well, I looked into that as well, Jake. Also not true. We're nowhere near record lows anywhere in this country."
Trump's claim that egg prices were down anywhere from 87 percent to 94 percent since he took office is similarly ridiculous, Dale continued.
"So as you know, having gone to a store and everyone else has gone to a store knows, not none of those numbers is anywhere close to correct," said Dale. "So let's start with retail prices. The prices that shoppers are actually paying in March, those rose to a record high $6.23 per dozen. That's about a 26 percent increase from the month President Trump returned to office in January."
Wholesale egg prices have dropped 52 percent since Trump took office, Dale continued, in part after a Trump administration plan to import eggs to fix the shortage, and it's possible when April numbers come out they will show prices coming back down again, but "It's nowhere near 87, 93, 94 percent. If it was a 93 percent drop, Jake ... from the month President Trump took office, eggs would be selling for less than $0.38 per dozen. We know that's not the case."
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