News
Updated:
Monday, January 20th 2025, 7:09 PM MST
By Daniel Dale, CNN
Washington (CNN) — President Donald Trump made only a smattering of false claims in his inaugural address on Monday, mostly sticking to vague rhetoric, subjective assertions and uncheckable promises of action.
But in an unscripted second speech on Monday, to supporters who had gathered in the US Capitol Visitor Center’s Emancipation Hall, Trump returned to his typical pattern of rapid-fire lying — making false claims about elections, immigration and the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021, among other subjects. He then made additional false claims in a freewheeling third speech at Washington’s Capital One Arena and while speaking to reporters as he signed executive orders in the Oval Office.
Here is a fact check of some of his Monday claims.
Trump’s tariffs on China: In the Oval Office, Trump repeated his false claim that the US has “taken in hundreds of billions of dollars from China” through the tariffs he imposed during his first presidency. US importers make the tariff payments, not China, and study after study has found that Americans bore the overwhelming majority of the cost of Trump’s tariffs on China; it’s easy to find specific examples of companies that passed along the cost of the tariffs to US consumers.
Tariffs: In his inaugural address, Trump said, “Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens.” But this description...
Scripts Inc. of defrauding the U. S. Department of Defense out of billions of dollars in unnecessary medications for military personnel, saying the lawsuit wasn't barred by any public disclosures o...