With the Pentagon potentially seeking a $200 billion supplemental package to fund the ongoing war with Iran, President Donald Trump defended that figure in part by saying U.S. ammunition “was taken down by giving so much to Ukraine.” He then exaggerated the amount of aid to Ukraine and falsely said that former President Joe Biden “didn’t rebuild anything” in the defense stockpile.
Our annual recap of the worst falsehoods of the year.
Europe has allocated more money in direct, bilateral aid to Ukraine than the U.S. has during the war with Russia. But in President Donald Trump’s remarks surrounding recent meetings with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine, he falsely claimed that the U.S. has given Ukraine more than three times as much as Europe.
We look at a half dozen of Trump’s most consequential pledges – ones that he said would happen immediately — and the progress Trump has made toward fulfilling them.
Here’s our fact-check of President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress, in video form.
In his first address to a joint session of Congress in his second term, President Donald Trump distorted the facts on fraud, immigration, aid to Ukraine, the economy, autism and more.
As President Donald Trump has sought to secure rights to Ukraine’s minerals as compensation for U.S. aid to fight the Russian invasion, he has repeatedly overstated the amount of aid provided by the U.S. compared with Europe and exaggerated the extent to which European assistance – unlike U.S. aid — is in the form of guaranteed loans.
A fake audio clip of Donald Trump Jr. saying that the U.S. should have sent weapons to Russia instead of Ukraine was shared across social media. Deepfake experts said the audio was apparently generated using artificial intelligence. A spokesperson for Trump Jr. said the audio clip is “100% fake.”