About six months into the second term of President Donald Trump, Republicans and Democrats are making conflicting and often misleading assessments of the Trump administration’s impact on inflation and prices. Both sides cherry-pick examples of consumer products to support their claims, while sometimes wrongly taking credit for lower prices or falsely casting blame for rising costs.
Stories by Saranac Hale Spencer
Border Czar Makes Misleading Claim About Immigrants With Criminal Records
Border Czar Tom Homan has been repeating the misleading claim that there are “over 600,000 illegal aliens with criminal records walking the streets of this nation.” That number includes legal immigrants, not just those who entered the country illegally; about a third of them have only been charged, not convicted; and it’s unclear how many of them have been, or currently are, incarcerated.
Unraveling the Big Beautiful Bill Spin
Changes to Discrimination Language in VA Hospital Bylaws
Q: Has President Donald Trump issued a rule that VA doctors can refuse treatment to Democrats?
A: No. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs changed the wording in its bylaws to comply with recent executive orders. In making the changes, words including “national origin, politics, marital status” were removed from language prohibiting discrimination. But existing federal law already prohibits discrimination on those grounds, the VA says.
Q&A on Federalizing the National Guard in Los Angeles
Explaining Trump’s Claim of a ‘68%’ Tax Increase
The Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center estimates that, on average, Americans’ taxes would rise about 7.5% if the 2017 tax cuts are allowed to fully expire at the end of the year. But President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that if the Republican budget bill, called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, doesn’t pass, Americans “will get a 68% tax increase.”
Trump Video Doesn’t Show ‘Burial Sites’ in South Africa
In a salient moment with the leader of South Africa, President Donald Trump played a video that he said showed “burial sites” for a thousand white farmers — the victims of what he has called a genocide — along a roadside in South Africa. It actually showed a 2020 demonstration bringing attention to the issue of violence against farmers of all races in South Africa.
Trump’s Growing Exaggeration of U.S. Investments
President Trump has repeatedly touted the value of announced financial investments in the U.S. and taken credit for attracting them. He started out citing $3 trillion in investments and, four months later, was claiming totals of more than $10 trillion. It’s unclear where, exactly, he’s getting these totals. But they appear to be an exaggeration of pledges to invest made by various companies and countries.
Bondi Far Overstates the Impact of Fentanyl Seizures on American Lives
In the April 30 meeting of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, which followed his 100th day in office, Attorney General Pam Bondi praised the president’s progress so far and highlighted efforts to curb the flow of the synthetic opioid fentanyl. But Bondi overstated the impact of drug seizures, claiming that they had saved the lives of more than half of all Americans.