WASHINGTON (AP) — President Trump is exaggerating economic gains for African Americans during his administration.
He claims full credit for achieving the best economic figures for blacks across the board. That's not accurate. Black unemployment did reach a low last year, but much of the progress came during the Obama administration. Household median income also was higher for blacks before Trump took office.
Trump asserts that Friday's unemployment report was a triumph in "equality," making it a "great day" for George Floyd, whose death has spurred protests against racial inequality. But black unemployment actually increased, while declining for whites.
The statements came in a week of alternate realities put forth by Trump and his team.
Taking measure of the nation's capital after demonstrations involving injured police, gagging protesters and shattered storefronts, Trump exclaimed: "Washington, D.C., was the safest place on earth last night!"
He and aides denied that authorities in Washington used tear gas against protesters, who fled from chemical clouds that stung eyes like it and met the dictionary definition of it. Attorney General William Barr claimed that pepper spray was “not chemicals.”
And when former Defense Secretary "Mad Dog” Jim Mattis snapped at him, Trump falsely claimed to have fired him as defense secretary and to have given him that nickname.
Here is a look at some of his claims
Black unemployment
TRUMP: "What we're announcing today is a tremendous tribute to equality. We're bringing our jobs back." — remarks Friday to reporters
THE FACTS: The joblessness figures in Friday's report did not improve uniformly across racial and ethnic groups.
The unemployment rate did decline in May for white workers, to 12.4% from 14.2% in April, as well as for Latinos, to 17.6% from 18.9%.
But joblessness rose slightly for African American workers, to 16.8% from 16.7%. For Asian Americans, it increased to 15% from 14.5%.
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TRUMP, on the economy before the pandemic: "We had the best numbers for African Americans on employment and unemployment in history ... best everything." — Fox News interview Wednesday
THE FACTS: True on unemployment. Not true by a long shot on "everything" in the economy.
Black unemployment reached a record low during the Trump administration, 5.4% in August, as the longest economic expansion in history continued.
Most of the progress came when Barack Obama was president: Black unemployment dropped from a recession high of 16.8% in March 2010 to 7.8% in January 2017. Improvement continued under Trump until the pandemic. Black unemployment reached 16.8% in May, compared with 13.3% for the overall population.
Not all economic measures improved for African Americans under Trump before the pandemic. A black household earned median income of $41,361 in 2018, the latest data available. That's below a 2000 peak of $43,380, according to the Census Bureau.
More broadly, there were multiple signs before the pandemic that the racial wealth gap had been worsening.
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Economy
TRUMP: Before the pandemic, "we had the most people working in the history of our country, almost 160 million people. We were never even close to that." — remarks Friday
THE FACTS: That's because of population growth.
A more relevant measure is the proportion of Americans with jobs, and that never came close to record highs.
According to Labor Department data, 61.2% of people in the United States 16 years and older were working in January. That's below the all-time high of 64.7% in April 2000, though higher than the 59.9% when Trump was inaugurated in January 2017.
That figure stands at 52.8%
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Conspiracy theories
WHITE HOUSE: "Antifa and professional anarchists are invading our communities, staging bricks and weapons to instigate violence. These are acts of domestic terror." — tweet Wednesday, with a video showing collections of bricks and stones as if stockpiled for attacks
THE FACTS: The tweet's evidence of malfeasance was bogus.