VERIFYING claims from Trump’s Republican National Convention speech

Five days after surviving an assassination attempt, Donald Trump formally accepted the GOP presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention on Thursday, July 18. 

Trump’s speech marked the end of the four-day RNC in Milwaukee that drew thousands of conservative activists and elected officials. Others speakers on Thursday included former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, wrestling icon Hulk Hogan and Trump’s attorney Alina Habba. 

During his speech, Trump talked about issues such as the economy and immigration policy.

VERIFY fact-checked these claims from his speech. 

THE CLAIM

Trump said that during his presidency, the U.S. had the “best economy” in its history, adding that the U.S. had “no inflation” and incomes were “soaring.”

THE SOURCES

THE ANSWER

Trump’s comments about the economy are exaggerated. 

The unemployment rate did fall to record levels during Trump’s presidency and inflation was low, though not 0%. However, the annual percentage change in gross domestic product (GDP), another key marker for the economy, didn’t set any records under Trump. His claim about soaring incomes is also missing key context.

In September 2019, the unemployment rate fell to 3.5%. Unemployment had not been that low since 1953, the BLS data show. 

But the record low during Biden’s term so far is slightly lower at 3.4%, BLS data show.

As for GDP, the annual increases during Trump’s presidency were similar to those seen during former President Barack Obama’s administration and were lower than those seen during other presidential administrations, data from the World Bank show. 

Real wages, or those adjusted for inflation, did see their highest increase over one presidential term since the 1970s under Trump. But the large increase in real wages was due in part to low-wage workers being laid-off disproportionately during the COVID-19 pandemic, experts say. You can read more about that here. 

THE CLAIM

Trump claimed that under Biden, “groceries are up 57%, gasoline is up 60% and 70%, mortgage rates have quadrupled."

THE SOURCES

THE ANSWER

Former President Trump exaggerated the rate at which prices rose under President Biden. It’s true that prices have risen during Biden’s term, but not as dramatically as Trump claimed. 

Here are the statistics since Biden took office: 

THE CLAIM

Trump claimed Biden has proposed drastic tax hikes. “This is the only administration that said, ‘We’re going to raise your taxes by four times what you’re paying now.’”

THE SOURCES

THE ANSWER

This claim is false.

The White House released its latest budget proposal in March, which is just a starting point for the lengthy negotiations to come. Estimates vary on exactly how much more revenue this budget would generate.

But we found multiple independent analyses by budget-focused think tanks that put the estimate at about $4.4 trillion over ten years. That’s about a 7% increase – nowhere near quadrupling.

Most of that increase is coming from increases in corporate taxes and taxes on the highest individual earners.

House Republicans argue that the actual tax increase could be more like $7 trillion.

But even that would only amount to an 11% increase.

THE CLAIM

Trump implied that undocumented immigrants are eligible to receive Social Security and Medicare benefits. He said, “Democrats are going to destroy Social Security and Medicare because all of these people, by the millions, they're coming in. They're going to be on Social Security and Medicare and other things, and you're not able to afford it."

THE SOURCES

THE ANSWER   

Contrary to Trump’s claim, undocumented immigrants are not eligible to receive Social Security and Medicare benefits. 

Under federal law, unauthorized immigrants, who are sometimes called undocumented immigrants, “are not eligible for most federal benefits,” with some exceptions for things like emergency Medicaid, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

THE CLAIM

“They just hired, as you know, 88,000 (IRS) agents to go after [service industry workers] even more.” 

THE SOURCES

THE ANSWER

Lawmakers have previously claimed that $80 billion allocated to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) through the Inflation Reduction Act will allow the agency to hire 87,000 new agents tasked with auditing middle-class Americans. This has been a popular talking point repeated by many conservative lawmakers over the last year. 

The text of the Inflation Reduction Act doesn’t specify a number of new hires for the IRS. The 87,000 number comes from a May 2021 report from the Treasury Department that estimated more funding allocated by President Joe Biden’s administration would allow the IRS to hire nearly 87,000 full-time employees by 2031. 

But, if that number is accurate, not all of those employees will be agents tasked with audits. 

The IRS said in its strategic operating plan released in April that the agency plans to hire nearly 20,000 new employees by the end of fiscal year 2024. This includes over 7,239 hires in enforcement, as well as nearly 6,500 in taxpayer services and over 3,800 in operations support. 

An estimated 52,000 IRS employees across departments are expected to leave or retire in the near future, the federal agency previously said.