'Doozy': CNN fact check catches Trump tall tale getting wilder by the day
CNN's Dana Bash and Daniel Dale had their hands full as they fact-checked some of President Donald Trump's remarks during the first Cabinet meeting of his second term Wednesday.
"There was just so much in this Cabinet meeting," Dale said. "So, let me run through some of the big ones."
Dale went on to debunk Trump's assertion that the U.S. has given Ukraine $350 billion worth of aid, claiming it was three times what Europe has given.
"The $350 billion number is not true," Dale said, "nor is the idea that the U.S. has provided way more than Europe."
Dale continued, "The president also repeated this claim he's been saying over and over, that the U.S. ranks 40th out of 40 in some education rankings. I specifically asked the White House what those rankings were. They were not able to point to any of them. It appears not to exist."
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Trump next made the claim that the U.S. took in hundreds of billions of dollars from his first-term tariffs on China.
"In fact, Americans made those tariff payments, and it's not true that Trump was the first president to impose tariffs on China."
Trump also spun a yarn over the European Union, according to Dale.
"He said the European Union doesn't take American farm products. In fact, it is the 4th biggest market for U.S. agricultural exports of $13B per year."
Dale continued, "He offered another alternative history of the European Union's formation, saying it was formed to screw, take advantage of the U.S. In fact, it was formed with U.S. support, so not even close to correct. And, so, I don't even know where to go from here!"
He concluded with, "And I'll give you one more. He said that, you know, the million people who didn't respond to this email, this 'five things that you did last week,' email from Elon Musk's team, 'may not exist.' I guess it's possible that the U.S. government is paying some people who don't exist, but I think it's important to note that we had numerous agency heads or department heads telling their employees not to respond. So, the simpler explanation is that people were instructed not to do this, rather than them being, you know, fictional, non-existent human beings."
Bash interjected, "There was one other doozy, which was the allegation that there were Social Security checks going to people who are 150 years old. Those people got older during the Cabinet meeting today. Apparently they're 200 years old. So, there is that."