Trump: "My proposal to the politically correct Automobile Companies would lower the average price of a car to consumers by more than $3000, while at the same time making the cars substantially safer. Engines would run smoother. Very little impact on the environment! Foolish executives!" — tweet Wednesday.
The facts: Trump is inflating the projected savings to consumers under his plan to freeze Obama-era fuel economy requirements at 2021 levels. He's also minimizing the potential environmental harm.
His administration, in documents proposing to freeze the standards, puts the cost of meeting the Obama-era requirements at around $2,700 per vehicle. It claims buyers would save that much by 2025, over standards in place in 2016. But that number is disputed by environmental groups and is more than double the estimates from the Obama administration.
Trump's tweet also ignores money that consumers would save at the gas pump if cars get better mileage. A study released Aug. 7 by Consumer Reports found that the owner of a 2026 vehicle will pay over $3,300 more for gasoline during the life of a vehicle if the standards are frozen at 2021 levels. The administration's proposed freeze would hold the average fuel economy for the new-vehicle fleet at 29.1 mpg in real-world driving, while the Obama-era standards would raise it to 37.5 mpg by 2026, according to Consumer Reports.
Trump claims his proposal would cause little environmental harm, but documents from his administration say that U.S. fuel consumption would increase by about 500,000 barrels per day, a 2% to 3% increase. Environmental groups predict even more fuel consumed, resulting in higher pollution.
Trump's statement that cars would be substantially safer also is in dispute. His administration claims that lower-cost vehicles would allow more people to buy new ones that are safer, cutting roadway deaths by 12,700 lives through the 2029 model year. But Consumer Reports says any safety impact from changes in gas mileage standards are small and won't vary much from zero.
And there's little basis for Trump's claim that engines would run more smoothly. Early versions of cars with more fuel-efficient transmissions, turbochargers and technology that stops engines at red lights were rough, but have been refined. "The automakers have figured out how to use this technology and make the cars smoother driving, too," said Jake Fisher, Consumer Reports director of auto testing.
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Veterans
Trump: "My administration has worked aggressively to boost veterans employment, and we're setting records. ... Veterans unemployment has reached the lowest level ever recorded." — remarks Wednesday at AMVETS convention in Louisville, Kentucky.
The facts: It's true that the unemployment rate for veterans fell to 2.3% in April, matching the low set in May 2000 under President Bill Clinton. But this figure is volatile on a monthly basis, not adjusted for seasonal changes, and has since risen. The figure stood at 3.4% in July, according to the Labor Department.
Veterans' unemployment has fallen mostly for the same reasons that joblessness has dropped generally: strong hiring and steady economic growth over the past decade dating to the Obama administration.
Trump: "The VA is now providing same-day emergency mental health care and mental health screenings to every patient that walks through the door." — AMVETS convention.
The facts: Same-day mental health service started at VA before Trump took office.
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, during the Obama administration. By late 2016, the department's blog announced that goal 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. Former VA Secretary David Shulkin told Congress in late January 2017 the services already were fully in place.
Trump: "Veterans Choice, as you've been trying to get that for 44 years, they say — 44 years. I guess it's longer than that; probably earlier than that. But for 44 years, at least, that we know of. And you got it." — AMVETS convention.
The facts: You wouldn't know from Trump's boasting that it was Obama who won passage of the Veterans Choice program, which gives veterans the option to see private doctors outside the VA medical system at government expense. Congress approved the program in 2014, and Obama signed it into law. Trump expanded it. Its ultimate scope remains uncertain, in part because of questions of money.
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Judges
Trump: "We will have, within another 90 days, 179 federal judges. And I say, 'Thank you very much, President Obama.' Because he was unable to get them filled. I don't know what happened to him, but he was unable. So, President Obama did not do his job." — remarks on Aug. 18 to reporters in Morristown, New Jersey.
Trump: "Within about two months, we'll be at 179 federal judges and two Supreme Court judges." — AMVETS convention on Wednesday.
The facts: Trump does have a stronger record than Obama so far in picking federal judges, but it isn't due to complacency from the Obama administration. Unprecedented lack of action by the Republican-controlled Senate on Obama's judicial nominees in his last two years in office, including a Supreme Court nominee, left Trump more vacancies to fill.
Of the 71 people whom Obama nominated to the district courts and courts of appeals in 2015 and 2016, only 20 were voted on and confirmed, said Russell Wheeler, an expert on judicial nominees at the Brookings Institution. Trump entered office in January 2017 with more than 100 vacancies on the federal bench, about double the number Obama had in 2009. Trump has been aided by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who has pushed through Trump's nominations of appeals court judges in particular, and refused to schedule hearings on Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland.
Wheeler said Trump has had 146 judges confirmed and seated — a pace that is solid but not extraordinary . At least four other presidents — Clinton, John Kennedy and Richard Nixon in modern times as well as George Washington — surpassed him at comparable points in their terms in the number of appointees as a percentage of "authorized judgeships," or the total judicial seats created by Congress.
Wheeler doesn't put much stock in Trump's claim of reaching 179 federal judges within two months. Twenty-five nominees have had their Senate hearings and may be ready to be voted on soon, but that doesn't mean it will happen. "It's a moving target," he said.
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