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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Biden Makes Flawed Comparisons with Trump

Biden Makes Flawed Comparisons with Trump

During a speech in South Carolina on Feb. 27, Joe Biden touted his record as president while criticizing his successor, President Donald Trump. But during his remarks, Biden made a number of false, misleading or exaggerated claims.

Trump Oversells Recent U.S. Economic Growth

Trump Oversells Recent U.S. Economic Growth

In the second and third quarters of 2025, the U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in two years. Those growth rates were not “numbers unheard of,” or figures the U.S. “never had” before, as President Donald Trump has claimed.

Trump Misrepresents Biden’s Job Numbers, SNAP Data to Tout His Own Record

Trump Misrepresents Biden’s Job Numbers, SNAP Data to Tout His Own Record

Addressing a meeting of McDonald’s restaurant owners, President Donald Trump distorted his predecessor’s record on employment, falsely claiming that government jobs were increasing while “real jobs” were declining. The number of private-sector jobs increased every year under former President Joe Biden’s term and was up about 12% by the time he left office.

Trump, Allies Spread Unfounded Claims About Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis

Trump, Allies Spread Unfounded Claims About Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis

Former President Joe Biden’s office announced on May 18 that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer two days earlier, following the discovery of a prostate nodule. President Donald Trump and others have suggested, without evidence, that Biden’s diagnosis had been known much earlier and hidden from the public. 

Biden’s Social Security Spin

Biden’s Social Security Spin

In his first speech since leaving office, former President Joe Biden criticized the Trump administration’s staffing cuts and other changes at the Social Security Administration, but he made several misleading claims in the process.

Trump Expands on Dubious Daily Tariff Revenue Claim

Trump Expands on Dubious Daily Tariff Revenue Claim

President Donald Trump has added to his unsupported claim that the U.S. is making “$2 billion a day” from tariffs by saying that the country was losing $2 billion or $3 billion “a day” under President Joe Biden. Economists told us that Trump appears to be wrongly comparing a very high – and unlikely – estimate of potential daily revenue from his tariffs with a figure reflecting the average daily U.S. trade deficit during Biden’s last year in office.

Trump’s Baseless Autopen Claim

Trump’s Baseless Autopen Claim

Legal experts say there is nothing to President Donald Trump’s claims that several of former President Joe Biden’s pardons are “VOID” because they were signed via autopen.

Trump Misleads on Jobs

Trump Misleads on Jobs

Following the release of the latest jobs report on March 7, President Donald Trump suggested that his administration — which has been in office since Jan. 20 — is responsible for significant job growth. The growth in February was steady, but to support his claims, Trump made several misleading statements about the economy he inherited.