FactCheck.org Deputy Managing Editor Robert Farley discusses President Donald Trump’s misleading boast that the opening of a new coal mine in Pennsylvania is proof that his administration is “putting the miners back to work.”
Q: Can President Donald Trump fire special counsel Robert Mueller?
A: Not directly. Only the deputy attorney general who appointed Mueller can fire him and only for cause. But Trump could fire the DAG, or order the special-counsel regulations repealed and fire Mueller himself.
President Donald Trump touted the opening of a new coal mine in Pennsylvania as evidence that his administration is “putting the miners back to work.” But construction of the mine in question began before the 2016 election. And experts say it’s not evidence of a resurgence in coal mining.
After former FBI Director James Comey testified about his private conversations with President Donald Trump regarding the agency’s Russia investigation, the president’s lawyer gave a brief statement that contained inaccurate and disputed claims.
In the wake of another terrorist attack in Britain, President Donald Trump fired off several tweets about the need for his court-blocked travel ban, contradicting statements from members of his own administration and distorting the facts in the process.
In announcing that the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris Agreement, a global accord aimed at addressing climate change, President Donald Trump made more than a few false and misleading claims.
The president’s budget counts on economic growth to reach a balance, but his tax cut plan also relies on that growth to remain revenue-neutral. Tax and budget experts say that’s double-counting the same money.
On May 17, the Justice Department announced the appointment of former FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III as special counsel to investigate any possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government’s efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election.
The president and the former FBI director have offered conflicting accounts of private conversations that they had about the FBI investigation of the Trump campaign.
The Trump administration has offered some “nothing to see here” spin in response to the president’s firing of FBI Director James Comey. But President Donald Trump and White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders have twisted some facts to fit that narrative.