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Daniel Dale
By Daniel Dale, CNN


Donald Trump sat down Friday with prominent podcast host Joe Rogan for a conversational interview that ran for nearly three hours — and the former president delivered his standard bombardment of false claims, at least 32
in all.

Many of those false claims are lies that were debunked months or even years ago. The claims spanned a variety of topics, including immigration policy, environmental and energy policy, the legitimacy of the 2020 election,
Trump’s record in office, Vice President Kamala Harris, crowd sizes, and
how schools deal with transgender children.

Here is a fact check of 32 false claims Trump made to Rogan. This is not intended as a complete list of the inaccurate statements Trump uttered in
the interview; with just over a week to go until Election Day, we were
unable to look into every dubious assertion he made.
Immigration

Migrants and murderers: Trump repeated his frequent false claim that “we
had 13,099 murderers dropped in our country over the last three years.” In reality, as the Department of Homeland Security and independent experts
have noted, that official figure is about immigrants with homicide
convictions in the US today who entered the country over decades, including during Trump’s own administration, not over the past three years or under
the Biden administration. You can read more here.
Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump attends a
rally in Coachella, California, on October 12, 2024. The rally was one of multiple visits to blue states Trump has made during the campaign.

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Square Garden rally

Trump’s border wall: The former president falsely claimed, “You know, I
built 570 miles of wall.” That’s a significant exaggeration; official government data shows 458 miles were built under Trump — including both
wall built where no barriers had existed before and wall built to replace previous barriers.

Harris’ border role: Trump repeated a regular false claim about Harris:
“She was in charge of the border.” She was not and is not; Homeland
Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is the Biden administration official
in charge of border security. In reality, President Joe Biden gave Harris a more limited immigration-related assignment in 2021, asking her to lead diplomacy with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras in an attempt to address
the conditions that prompted their citizens to try to migrate to the United States.

The number of migrants: Trump claimed that at least “21 million” people
have illegally crossed the border during the Biden administration. Through September, the country had recorded under 11 million nationwide
“encounters” with migrants during the Biden administration, including
millions who were rapidly expelled from the country; even adding in so-
called gotaways who evaded detection, estimated by House Republicans as
being roughly 2 million, there’s no way the total is “21 million.”
Elections, campaigns and crowds

The outcome of the 2020 election: Trump repeated his lie that he won the
2020 election, falsely claiming, “I won that second election so easy.” He
lost, fair and square, to Biden, who beat Trump 306-232 in the Electoral College and earned over 7 million more votes than Trump.

The legitimacy of the 2020 election: Trump made various specific false assertions about the 2020 election, claiming it was “crooked”; that his opponents cheated using the guise of the Covid-19 pandemic; and, vaguely,
that it was marred by “old-fashioned ballot-screwing.” All of this is
baseless.

Polling in 2016: Trump told a story about how, he said, a Washington
Post/ABC News poll of Wisconsin during his 2016 race against Hillary
Clinton showed him “down 17 points the day before the election,” but he
knew it was wrong because of the size of his crowds, and he ended up
winning the state: “I was down 17 points in Wisconsin and I won; it’s
crooked stuff.” This story is false; the poll showing him down 17 the week
of the election came during his 2020 race against Biden, and he lost
Wisconsin that year — though by less than one percentage point.
Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance speaks with Jake
Tapper on "State of the Union."

Related article Vance insists Trump’s ‘enemy from within’ comments weren’t directed at political rivals

The 2020 election and Wisconsin: Trump falsely claimed, “If you take a look
at Wisconsin, they virtually admitted that the election was rigged, robbed
and stolen.” This did not happen, “virtually” or otherwise; while some Wisconsin Republicans certainly support Trump’s claim that the election was rigged and stolen, the state’s elections authorities have not made such assertions — and as PolitiFact previously reported, even Republican-led election reviews did not find that Trump won the state.

An election ruling in Virginia: Trump falsely claimed that, just before he walked in for the Friday interview, there was a ruling in a legal “case
where they found thousands of illegal ballots.” This case did not involve “illegal ballots”; rather, a judge ruled that Virginia had purged voter registrations from its rolls too close to Election Day. You can read more
here.

Grocery stores and identification: Calling for strict voter identification laws, Trump spoke of how identification is required in other circumstances, saying, “When you go to a grocery store, you give ID.” This was a little
vaguer than his previous declarations that “you need” ID to buy groceries,
but it’s nonsense nonetheless; few grocery shoppers are required to provide identification unless they are paying by check or buying alcohol, tobacco
or certain medications.

A Carter commission and mail-in ballots: Trump repeated his false claim
that a commission led by former President Jimmy Carter published a report
whose “primary finding was you cannot have mail-in ballots.” Trump added,
“The one thing with Jimmy Carter: He had a very strong commission. It was,
no mail-in ballots.”

Though the commission Carter co-chaired was generally skeptical of mail-in ballots, calling absentee voting “the largest source of potential voter
fraud,” it did not say, “You cannot have mail-in ballots,” as Trump
claimed. In fact, its report highlighted an example of successful mail-only elections — noting that Oregon, a state that has been conducting elections
by mail-in voting since the late 1990s, “appears to have avoided
significant fraud in its vote-by-mail elections by introducing safeguards
to protect ballot integrity, including signature verification.”

The report also offered some recommendations for making the use of mail-in ballots more secure and called for “further research on the pros and cons”
of voting by mail (as well as early voting).

Trump’s Las Vegas crowd size: In his latest exaggeration about crowd sizes, Trump claimed there were “29,000 people” at his event the night prior. His rally Thursday night, in Las Vegas, was at an arena with a capacity under 19,000.

Trump’s McDonald’s crowd size: Trump falsely claimed that there were
“28,000 people sitting around” the McDonald’s in Bucks County,
Pennsylvania, where he held a publicity event last weekend in which he
briefly performed some of the duties of an employee (the restaurant was
closed to the public). This is fiction; while videos show there was a substantial pro-Trump crowd gathered in the vicinity of the restaurant, it
is obvious that it didn’t approach 28,000. A local journalist on the scene,
Tom Sofield, the publisher of Bucks County news outlets, wrote on social
media Tuesday: “There were several thousand excited supporters nearby, but
the figure wasn’t 25,000, as stated by the former president later.”

Harris’ schedule: Trump, criticizing Harris’ work ethic, falsely claimed
she “took off yesterday” and “took off the day before,” and also that
“she’s going to take off tomorrow or the next day.” Trump is entitled to
argue that Harris isn’t campaigning hard, but she was not “off” or
scheduled to be off any of these days. On Wednesday, she participated in a
CNN town hall in Pennsylvania; on Thursday, she held a rally in Georgia; on Friday, she held a rally in Texas; on Saturday, she held a rally in
Michigan; on Sunday, she is scheduled to make a series of campaign stops in Philadelphia.
Foreign policy

Trump and ISIS: Repeating one of his regular false claims, Trump said, “We defeated ISIS in record time. It was supposed to take years, and we did it
in a matter of weeks.” The ISIS “caliphate” was declared fully liberated
more than two years into Trump’s presidency.

Obama and Kim Jong Un: Trump, touting his relationship with Kim Jong Un, revived his old false claim that the North Korean leader refused to meet
with Barack Obama when the then-president sought a meeting: “They wouldn’t
meet Obama. He (Obama) tried to meet. They wouldn’t even talk to him about
it.”

There is no evidence that Obama ever sought a meeting with Kim. Independent experts on North Korea and former Obama officials told CNN in 2019 that the claim is fictional.
Former President Donald Trump has floated the idea of replacing federal
income taxes with tariffs.

Related article Trump floats ending the federal income tax. Here’s what
that would mean

Who pays tariffs: ?Trump repeated his frequent false claim that, through tariffs, “I took in hundreds of billions of dollars from China.” US
importers make the tariff payments, not China, and study after study has
found that Americans bore the overwhelming majority of the cost of Trump’s tariffs on China.

Previous presidents and tariffs on China: ?Trump repeated his frequent
false claim that no previous president had imposed tariffs on Chinese
imports, saying, “Nobody took in 10 cents, not one other president.” The US
was actually generating billions per year in revenue from tariffs on
Chinese imports before Trump took office; in fact, the US has had tariffs
on Chinese imports since 1789. Trump’s predecessor, Obama, imposed
additional tariffs on Chinese goods.

China and Taiwan: Trump repeated an exaggeration about China: “The day I
left, they flew 28 bombers over the middle of Taiwan — 28 bombers.”

Trump was wrong about key details of this incident. On the third and fourth days of the Biden presidency, not the day Trump left office, China sent military planes into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone over the
Taiwan Strait — not “over the middle of Taiwan,” a major difference. Also,
the incident involved 28 Chinese planes but not “28 bombers.” The New York Times reported at the time that the Taiwanese military said eight Chinese bombers were involved; the other planes were fighters, anti-submarine
aircraft and a reconnaissance plane.

And it’s worth noting that China also sent planes into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone during Trump’s presidency. In early 2021, Taiwan News reported that, according to a recent report funded by Taiwan’s government,
“In 2020, the Chinese military violated Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) more times than in any year since 1996.”
Environment and energy

Global warming and sea level rise: Trump repeated a regular false claim minimizing the threat of climate change: “I watch these poor fools talking about, ‘Our oceans will rise one-eighth of an inch over the next 500
years.’” The global average sea level is rising more per year than Trump claimed that unnamed concerned people say it will rise over 500 years; NASA reported in March that the global average sea-level rise in 2023 was 0.17 inches per year, more than double the rate in 1993.

Electric vehicle charging stations: Trump falsely claimed that the Biden administration spent $9 billion on just eight electric vehicle charging stations: “They built the charger stations, right, in the Midwest. They
built eight of them. They cost $9 billion.”

As FactCheck.org and others have noted, Trump was distorting news articles about the slow pace at which $7.5 billion in federal funds allocated for electric charging have been spent. The articles reported that, as of March, only eight charging stations had been built under the program (not all in
the Midwest). The articles did not say that these stations had themselves
cost the entire $7.5 billion, let alone $9 billion.

The number of charging stations built with this federal funding has
increased since March. The Federal Highway Administration told USA Today
that, as of October 11, 20 stations had been built with the money, with
plans underway for more than 800 additional stations.

California and electricity: Trump, reviving his false claim about the
stability of the electric system in California, said, “They want to go to
all electric cars, but they have brownouts every weekend.” California does
not have “brownouts every weekend.” A spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom
told CNN in late August that the state had not had any outages because of electricity demand since 2020, and a spokesperson for the entity that
manages the power grid for about 80% of the state said the same.
Former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a news conference in
Austin, Texas, on October 25, 2024.

Related article Trump says he’s open to eliminating income taxes and
repeats ‘enemy from within’ rhetoric on podcast with Joe Rogan

A LNG plant in Louisiana: Trump revived a false claim he repeatedly made
during his presidency, claiming that he “instantly” secured a key
environmental permit to allow for the construction of a massive liquefied natural gas facility in Louisiana after the initiative had been on hold
“for 14 years.” In fact, this facility was granted its key permits under
the Obama administration, and its construction also began under Obama.

Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve: Trump repeated his false claim that before the Biden administration suspended oil and gas leases in
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 2021, “They were getting ready to
start drilling. … It was all set to go.”

“To quote our friends at PolitiFact, what Trump said in this case qualifies
as ‘pants on fire,’” Pavel Molchanov, an energy analyst at Raymond James & Associates, said last year after Trump made the same claim. Molchanov said,
“No one was ready to start drilling there, in 2017 or at any other point in time.”

There is no drilling infrastructure in place in the refuge; major oil
companies have shown little interest in the site; and the seven leases the Biden administration eventually canceled were all held by the Alaska
Industrial Development and Export Authority, a state entity that is not an
oil company.
Trump’s record and history

Trump’s response to “lock her up” chants: Trump repeated his false claim
that he “never said” the words “lock her up” when his supporters chanted
that refrain about his 2016 Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. He added,
“I’d always go, ‘Take it easy. Just relax.’” In fact, Trump repeatedly said
the words “lock her up” in both 2016 and 2020, and he also repeatedly
called for Clinton’s imprisonment using other language.

Trump and Oprah: Trump repeated a false claim he has been making for at
least 11 years, saying he appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s popular television program during “one of her last shows” in “that final week.” In fact, Trump appeared about three and a half months before Winfrey’s show concluded, not during its star-studded final week.
AOTM-Pennsylvania-102524.jpg

Related article Why these Republicans think voting against Trump could save
the GOP

Trump’s tax cuts: Repeating another regular false claim, the former
president claimed that he signed the “biggest tax cuts in history.”
Independent analyses have found that his tax-cut law was not the biggest in history, either in percentage of gross domestic product or in inflation- adjusted dollars.

Supreme Court appointments: Trump touted the fact that he appointed three Supreme Court justices, then said, “Most people get none,” adding that
“even if a president is in there for eight years, oftentimes they never
have a chance.” This is false; no president who served for eight years did
not get a chance to appoint a single Supreme Court justice. Only four presidents didn’t get a chance to appoint one justice to the Supreme Court,
as PolitiFact previously reported, and three of them served for less than a full four-year term, while the other, Carter, served for four years.

Trump’s uncle and MIT: Trump repeated a false claim that his uncle John
Trump, whom he has repeatedly invoked as evidence of the smarts of his
family, was the “longest-serving” professor in the history of the
prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology. John Trump was one of
the longest-serving professors at MIT, but not the very longest; the school told Newsweek early this year that at least 10 other people were on the
faculty for longer.
Miscellaneous

Schools and transgender children: Trump repeated his false claim that
schools are sending children for gender-affirming surgeries without
parental consent: “Who would want to have — there’s so many — the
transgender operations: Where they’re allowed to take your child when he
goes to school and turn him into a male — to a female — without parental consent.”

There is no evidence that schools in any part of the United States have
sent children for gender-affirming surgeries without their parents’
approval, or performed unapproved such surgeries on-site; none of that is “allowed” anywhere in the country. Even in the states where gender-
affirming surgery is legal for people under age 18, parental consent is required before a minor can undergo such a procedure.

Trump’s own campaign has not been able to find a single example of this
ever having happened anywhere in the United States. You can read more here. Former President Donald Trump attends a luncheon hosted by the Economic
Club of Chicago on October 15, 2024, in Chicago.

Related article Fact check: Trump revives his lie that schools are secretly sending children for gender-affirming surgeries

Alyssa Farah Griffin: Trump told a thoroughly false story about a former official in his administration, Alyssa Farah Griffin, who is now a co-host
of the ABC talk show “The View” and a political commentator on CNN. Trump claimed Griffin worked in the administration as “like an assistant press secretary”; that, upon leaving the administration, she “writes me this
gorgeous letter,” “the most beautiful letter,” declaring “he was the
greatest president”; but then, upon joining “The View,” that she suddenly started “hitting the hell out of me” with criticism.

This is untrue in several ways.

Griffin had the top-tier role of White House communications director and assistant to the president upon her resignation in late 2020, not
“assistant press secretary” (she had previously been Pentagon press
secretary and Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary).

Griffin did issue a statement upon her resignation saying, “It’s been the
honor of a lifetime to serve in the Trump administration over the last
three and a half years,” but did not say that Trump was “the greatest president.” She said Saturday that she has never written Trump a private letter.

And she began sharply criticizing Trump shortly after the riot at the
Capitol on January 6, 2021, not when she started guest-hosting “The View”
in October 2021 or when she was named a permanent co-host in August 2022.

Abraham Lincoln’s sons: Trump told a story about how President Abraham
Lincoln was a “very depressed” person in part because he lost his son
“whose name was Tad.” Trump repeated later in the story that Lincoln lost
his son “Tad.” In fact, Tad Lincoln outlived Abraham Lincoln by six years;
the son Abraham Lincoln lost in 1862 was Willie. (This appeared to be an inadvertent mistake by Trump, but his claim was still inaccurate, and Trump
has repeatedly bashed Biden over such mix-ups.)

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