5 'Alternative Facts' From President Trump, Fact-Checked

Cost/Number of Illegal Immigration

Just this week, Mr. President tweeted out an alarming statement that masses of illegal immigrants ("25,772,342") have been flooding into our country, costing the US billions of dollars per year ("$18,959,495,168"). Not only did virtually every news outlet dismiss the statement as false, but DHS actually responded to his tweet, saying "Please note: the numbers @realDonaldTrump provides below are completely fabricated and should not be taken as true in any way." Yikes.

In reality, there is an estimate of 10.7-12.5 million undocumented immigrants currently in the US, which is a big step down from Trump's claim of 25 million. And the estimated cost of illegal immigration was about $116 billion per year in 2017 (Washington Post, Jan. 29). As Trump claimed that about $19 billion was the current cost of the year, that would ultimately add up to around $220 billion per year for the cost of illegal immigration, which is again way off base from the estimate.

Citation: Washington Post

Reasoning For California Forest Fires

In yet another tweet from the President, he claims that the horrific fires in California were easily preventable by "proper Forrest Management". He has also claimed that clearing trees and raking the forests could have prevented the fires. This is another widely refuted claim, based on the facts that:

1. Climate change is a very real and very destructive force.

2. The Trump administration themselves pulled billions of dollars from the budget of the US Forest Service.

So, President Trump's urgency that the forest services need to "get their act together", is virtually impossible and honestly ignorant.

Democratic Push For Illegal Aliens

At one of his famous rallies in October of 2018, in North Carolina, President Trump stated: "The Democrats want to invite caravan after caravan of illegal aliens into our country. And they want to sign them up for free health care, free welfare, free education, and for the right to vote." Hmmm.

The Democratic Party has actually made a strong effort for border security and illegal immigration control. The only part they're wary about is the wall/barrier/fence/whatever-you-wanna-call-it that the President wants across the entire border.

Trump has also stated that "Democrats oppose any effort to secure our border." Despite Trump's statements, the Democrats have never wanted "caravan after caravan" of any form of illegal immigration. Instead, they are publicly in favor of tougher border security for illegal immigration and are also sympathetic to the immigrants seeking asylum at US borders.

Citation: Politifact

Puerto Rican Deaths After Hurricanes

In September of 2018, Trump made some huge statements in a tweet-frenzy about the number of Puerto Rican deaths from the hurricanes. He claims that the 3,000 deaths were just a number made up by the Democratic Party "in order to make [him] look as bad as possible". So, is that true?

Nope. Trump was previously told that the numbers of deaths were anywhere from 16 to 64 total. Apparently, upon hearing the actual death toll, he was insulted at the information, blaming the Democrats for false statistics. There were many factors contributing to the previously small death toll reported, including improper resources to count the deaths, lack of medical training, and ineffective forensic measures in Puerto Rico. Understandable, as they were under the attack of the hurricanes.

However, the 3,000 death estimate did not include "old age" as the President claimed. If that were true, the death toll would have been much higher, about 16 thousand. And, the number of 3,000 came from the Milken Institute, not the Democratic Party. In fact, the dean of the institute issued a response to President Trump, saying: "To set the record straight, our study was carried out with no interference whatsoever from any political party or institution"

Poll Ratings

Well, he's right about one thing: there is definitely something wrong here. Granted, at the time of his tweet, the President did have fairly high approval ratings. However, how can he compare himself to "Honest Abe Lincoln" when there were no scientific polls taken at the time of Lincoln's presidency? The truth is, he can't.

And another point: At the time of his tweet, Trump did not have the highest poll numbers in history, as he claimed. In fact, other Republican presidents — such as Eisenhower, George W. Bush, and George H.W. Bush — had higher ratings recorded during their presidency.