Trump Claims Credit for Obama’s Work for Veterans

The study covered four specialties, primary care, dermatology, cardiology and orthopedics.

It found that in 2014, the average wait time at VA medical centers was 22.5 days, compared with 18.7 days in the private sector, which was not statistically different. By 2017, the wait time at VA improved to 17.7 days, while increasing to 29.8 days for private doctors. Wait times at VA medical centers were shorter in all specialties except orthopedics.

According to the study, the number of patients seen yearly in VA increased slightly between 2014 and 2017, to about 5.1 million. VA patient satisfaction also rose, according to patient surveys cited in the study.

___

WILKIE: The VA "had suffered from bad leadership. And that's a bipartisan comment. And the second thing I had to do was make sure that as we approach our veteran population that we make sure that they are at the center, their needs are at the center of what we do. ... I think we've had it backwards at VA for many years. ... One of the things that we're doing at VA is that we have same-day mental health service. ... It is huge." — interview with Fox News

THE FACTS: Same-day mental health service started at VA before Trump took office in January 2017, let alone Wilkie.

VA's effort to provide same-day primary and mental-health care when medically necessary at every VA medical center was publicized in April 2016 under the Obama administration. At the time, Shulkin was helping lead the effort as VA's top health official. By late 2016, the department's blog announced that the goal of same-day mental health services would be achieved by year's end.

A Dec. 23, 2016, article in the Harvard Business Review cites new same-day services at all VA hospitals as evidence of notable progress at the department. Shulkin, who was then named by Trump to be his VA secretary, told Congress in late January 2017 the services already were fully in place.

Trump selected Wilkie to be his VA secretary after firing Shulkin in March 2018 because of ethics charges and internal rebellion at the department over the role of private care for veterans. Trump's initial replacement choice, White House doctor Ronny Jackson, withdrew after allegations of workplace misconduct surfaced. While Wilkie has been credited by both parties in Congress for bringing stability to the department, the VA improvements he attributes to himself this past week are misplaced.

___

ECONOMY

TRUMP, on the unemployment rate: "With women, we have the best numbers we've had in now 71 years. That's going to be, very soon, a historic number, meaning the best ever." — remarks Saturday with Japanese business leaders in Tokyo

THE FACTS: The unemployment rate for women is not the best in 71 years.

According to the Labor Department, the women's unemployment rate fell last month to 3.1%. That's just the lowest since October 1953, or 66 years ago, when it also was 3.1%. The lowest on record was 2.4% in May 1953.

___

TRUMP: "My Administration is achieving things that have never been done before, including unleashing perhaps the Greatest Economy in our Country's history." — tweet Wednesday

TRUMP: "Most successful economy, perhaps, in our country's history." — remarks to reporters Wednesday

THE FACTS: The economy is solid but it's not one of the best in our country's history, no matter how many times he asserts it. Trump is also claiming full credit for an economic expansion that began under Obama in mid-2009.

The economy expanded at an annual rate of 3.2% in the first quarter of this year. That growth was the highest in just four years for the first quarter.

In the late 1990s, growth topped 4 percent for four straight years, a level it has not yet reached on an annual basis under Trump. Growth hit 7.2 percent in 1984.

While the economy has shown strength, it grew by 2.9% in 2018 — the same pace it reached in 2015 — and simply has not hit historically high growth rates.

___

TRUMP claims "the best unemployment numbers in history." — Pennsylvania rally on May 20

THE FACTS: The 3.6% unemployment rate in the latest report is not the best in history. It's the lowest since 1969, when it was 3.5%. The United States also had lower rates than now in the early 1950s. And during three years of World War II, the annual rate was under 2%.

___

TRUMP INVESTIGATIONS

TRUMP: "I don't do cover-ups." — Rose Garden remarks Wednesday to reporters

THE FACTS: Federal prosecutors may not agree with that assertion, which he made in response to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's accusation that the president was engaged in a cover-up. Trump spoke after breaking off an infrastructure meeting when Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., came to the White House for it.

Prosecutors' court filings in December said Trump directed his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, to make payments to buy the silence of porn actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal during the 2016 presidential campaign. Both women said they had extramarital affairs with Trump, which Trump denies.

The Justice Department says the hush money payments were unreported campaign contributions meant to influence the outcome of the election. That assertion makes the payments subject to campaign finance laws, which restrict how much people can donate to a campaign, and bar corporations from making direct contributions.

Trump has said the payments were "a simple private transaction," not a campaign contribution.

Separately, the Mueller report found that Trump dictated his son Trump Jr.'s misleading statement about a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower to cloak its purpose.

Cohen, who pleaded guilty last year to campaign finance crimes in connection with those payments, had previously implicated Trump. The department's filings backed up Cohen's claims.

The Mueller report said Trump learned in summer of 2017 that the news media planned to report on the meeting at Trump Tower between senior campaign officials and Russians offering derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee.

Trump directed aides not to disclose the emails setting up the meeting. Before the emails became public, the president edited a press statement for Donald Trump Jr. by deleting a line that acknowledged that the meeting was "with an individual who (Trump Jr.) was told might have information helpful to the campaign" and instead said only that the meeting was about adoptions.

That episode was among 10 identified by the Mueller investigation of possible obstruction of justice by Trump. Mueller said in his report that he could not conclusively determine that Trump had committed a crime or that he had not.

___

TRUMP: "The greatest Hoax in American History." — tweet Wednesday

THE FACTS: A two-year investigation that produced guilty pleas, convictions and criminal charges against Russian intelligence officers and others with ties to the Kremlin, as well as Trump associates, is not a hoax.

Mueller charged 34 people, including the president's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and three Russian companies. Twenty-five Russians were indicted on charges related to election interference, accused either of hacking Democratic email accounts during the campaign or of orchestrating a social media campaign that spread disinformation on the internet.

Five Trump aides pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with Mueller, and a sixth, longtime confidant Roger Stone, is awaiting trial on charges he lied to Congress and engaged in witness tampering.

Mueller's report concluded that Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was "sweeping and systematic." Mueller did not find a criminal conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign. But the special counsel did not render judgment on whether Trump obstructed justice, saying his investigators found evidence on both sides.

___

TRUMP ON BIDEN

TRUMP, on Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden: "He's not from Pennsylvania. I guess he was born here but he left you, folks. ... He left you for another state and he didn't take care of you because he didn't take care of your jobs. He let other countries come in and rip off America." — Pennsylvania rally on May 20

THE FACTS: It's true that Pennsylvania-born Biden left the state without taking care of jobs for the people he left behind. He was a boy, 10 or 11, when his family moved to Delaware in 1953.

___

TRADE

TRUMP on his trade dispute with China: "I'll be honest, we are getting hundreds of millions of dollars brought into our country. We've never gotten 10 cents. We are getting hundreds of billions of dollars coming into our country."  — remarks to reporters Thursday

THE FACTS: This is not true. The tariffs he's raised on imports from China are primarily, if not entirely, a tax on U.S. consumers and businesses.

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit