Trump's 'litany of lies' called out by CNN fact-checker after marathon ramble
A CNN fact-checker on Tuesday called out President Donald Trump's rambling speech for its 'litany of lies."
Daniel Dale described how several points that Trump made during his nearly two-hour-long press conference on the first anniversary of the inauguration of his second term were hard to keep up with — and that each topic the president attempted to hit was full of confusing comments and misinformation.
"There are just so many. I'm struggling to keep track of it," Dale said. "You know, $18 trillion in investment in the U.S., that's a fictional figure, 600% reduction in prescription drug prices. That's a fictional figure. 'I ended eight unknowable wars.' Eight is a fictional figure. 'We inherited inflation at a historic high.' No. He inherited a 3% inflation just a little bit above where it is now, although it did hit about a 40-year high in June 2022, more than two years before he returned to office."
But those weren't Trump's only claims, including his comments on affordability.
"He said many of the groceries have come way down. Yeah, there are some particular grocery products that have gotten cheaper during his presidency, but on the whole, grocery prices have increased," Dale added. "And in fact, December's inflation report show that the biggest one-month jump in grocery prices in three years occurred between November and December."
The speech was described as rambling and unfocused, full of unfounded claims, Dale explained.
"And he just veered into so many inaccurate tangents. He repeated this claim that the Los Angeles wildfires of early 2025 were supposedly caused by the state trying to use some of its water to protect a small fish species," Dale said. "Experts in California water policy have repeatedly explained those two things simply have nothing to do with each other. That's imaginary, he said. Things like, I think NPR and PBS have closed down. They haven't... You can check for yourself, not to tell you to go to another station, but they're still on the air. So just claim after claim. I think we've addressed like 15-plus over my three fact-check hits so far this afternoon. I could go on and on, but just a litany of lies, many of them debunked months or years ago by myself and others."